Need Help with getting the alkaline levels down

sunbeam · March 18th, 2007

My 90lt tank is still showing high levels of alkaline, the testing system that I have is one that I take a sample of water from tank add five drops of this blue stuff wait a second or so then compare with test card, the nutreal level is green but mine keeps on showing blue, high alkaline, I have put more chemicals in to see if that changes it but no change. any suggestions?

Gunnie · March 21st, 2007

Are you trying to adjust the ph for a specific reason? Is your tank fresh or saltwater?

susitna-flower · March 22nd, 2007

Hi Sunbeam! Have you read the section on the bottom of this page titled Fish Tank Beginners Guides ? If not you need to do this before you continue adding chemicals to your tank. The PH is only one thing you can test, and in most cases the PH isn't to high for most community tank fish. If you are NOT testing for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, you need to get the API Master test kit, and that kit has a high and low test for PH, you may be able to get a more accurate test, and relieve your worry. Usually anything between 6.8 and 7.4 is fine for most fish. You really wouldn't want to do any adjusting.

I just read a very good article on Osmotic Pressures in fresh and saltwater fish- The way fish process water, and salts in their water. It advises not using additives to bring down PH, because this adds to the total salts in the water, and can really stress fish. The better choice is to: #1 use bottled water, (an on going expense). #2 use peat as part of the filter media in your filter. Driftwood in the tank also helps. #3 invest in an RO filter system to produce water for your tank with a lower PH and no heavy metals. None of these would be necessary if you have PH under 8. Most fish can adjust to higher than they are used to PH, if you take it really slow introducing them to your tank. Good Luck, hope this helps.

Fish in the Frozen North 8)

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