Evelyn1919

is it bad to have a pH of 6? i've read before that fish can really acclimate to any pH and all the fish in my tank seem happy but last night when i checked for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and pH the pH result was 6 or maybe even less cuz the yellowish water was very pale.

if it is bad for my tank to have suck a low pH then what can i do to bring it up a bit? i was using pH meds but then i was reading that they are not good to use. so is there any natural way i can bring it up?

thanks for all your help!

oh and there is no more ammonia in my tank. for 1 day there was about .25ppm (and i did a 50% water change immediately) but when i checked last night it was all gone. i'll check tonight again though, just to make sure.

pepetj

What's the GH and KH? 6.0 is really low ph. Do you actually have fish in there?
Pepe
Santo Domingo

Evelyn1919

i have no idea what the GH and KH is in my tank. and yes, i have all my fish in there and they look fine. they eat, they act normal.

is this pH REALLY bad?

tzqng8

Most people that are knowledgeable about the hobby say that it is rarely something to worry about.


A good read for you, perhaps.

jdhef

It is supposedly pretty easy to raise ph naturally. You could add some crushed coral or dolomite.

kra-z-fishmumm

What test for the pH are you using? Like high range pH or regular pH? and did you shake the bottle good? I know for that one it doesn't say you have to, but it is a good thing to shake it to get it all mixed up good

andy65

As long as the Ph is not moving around,your fish will be fine. Nobody here like to mess with it,if you do something wrong with the Ph, you can kill your fish.

The thing with Ph is its MUCH better to have a stable Ph more than to try to move the Ph around to what a book or someone says it should have. Freshwater fish do just fine in most Ph.

Shawnie

I agree with andy totally...as long as the ph stays the same, its not an issue..fish acclimate to all kinds of ph levels...never add meds to play around with it as that is more harmful than good....ive never tested my tanks except for ammonia, nitrites, & nitrates...all my fishies are happy kids

Evelyn1919

well all my fish seem fine so i'll just leave it alone. and yes i've been shaking the bottle good.

thanks for all the help!

kra-z-fishmumm

Well said.

pepetj

Eve: Every day I learn something. Yours is the first tank with ph of 6.0 I ever heard of (keep in mind my limited experience with water parameters began the day I joined fishlore, about three months ago). I wouldn't tamper with ph if the fishes are striving, like yours.

Hope I didn't sound arrogant to you in my first reply (not my intention at all), just in case you felt it that way (when I re-read it, the phrase "Do you actually..." sounded kind of inadequate to me), I apologize to you.

Good thing about ph 6.0 is that whatever ammonia you have is non-toxic to fish. I have no idea of setbacks for your values, hopefuly one of our chemistry guys/gals would show up.

Pepe
Santo Domingo

Shawnie

HUH? I thought ALL ammonia was lethal? what does low ph have to do with ammonia not being non toxic?

pepetj

To Shawnie, without any intentions of hijacking this thread.

Effects of pH on Ammonia Toxicity

The presence of un-ionized ammonia, the toxic form (NH3-), increases as pH rises and decreases as pH falls which causes ammonia to become more ionized (NH4+), called ammonium.

In other words for fishkeeping purposes, NH3- is highly toxic, lethal, NH4+, less toxic, not lethal. Other variables, like temperature play a role here too.

Pepe
Santo Domingo

Attached Images

ammonia and pH.gif (13.6 KB, 1 views)

Evelyn1919

Pepe-don't worry about it. you just made me cry for like 5mins but then i got over it. LOl just kidding.


i'm not really good with chemistry so i'm all confused but thanks for the info!