krazykid933

I took my water to the pet store to get it tested and he said he has never seen anything like it. My pH was 8. I bought some buffer and a pH test kit (though I didn't get a range one). I added 20mL of buffer as directed and my kit measured around 7.6 (as high as it measures). I have a ten gallon aquarium with two zebra danios, three ghost shrimp, one male guppy, and a pleco.

Barbrella

IF the fishstore guy has never seen anything like a pH of 8, I guess he's not too experienced.

That pH won't harm any of the fish/shrimp you have, although the pleco ideally would like it a bit lower.

Selling you a buffer was unnecessary, and not really a good idea since you're likely to have fluctuations, which is worse than a high pH.

krazykid933

I think a lot of this testing stuff is a little cooky... I know many people who run very successful tanks without ever testing.

Chief_waterchanger

We do not test our tanks, but we are on well water, which has been coming from the same natural source for the entire 30ish years the well has been there, so we know how to manage our tanks and we keep understocked tanks with weekly 50% or better waterchanges. Dino has been keeping fish for about 30 years and I've been keeping them for 2 years, so we have the experience needed (mainly from his 30 years) to handle the tanks in that manner. It is not advised to be done by newcomers to the hobby, but if you aren't going to test the tanks then you need to drastically understock the tanks, use lots of live plants, and do weekly waterchanges (again, we do 50% or better, but never more than 75% for regular changes.)

I agree with Barbrella, that fishstore guy is a newb if he hasn't seen 8.0 pH water in his past. I also agree with Barbrella that the flucuations are worse than the higher pH.

Also, what kind of pleco do you have in that 10g? I ask that because there are VERY few plecos, if any, that would do well in a 10g tank as they get older, especially with other fish in there to increaase the bioload that much more.

krazykid933

I have a common pleco, which I know isn't supposed to go in there, but I will find a home for him soon. Until then he has to stay.

I also have well water.

COBettaCouple

I don't worry too much about pH, other than keeping it stable. That pet store employee just wanted to make a sale, I think.