Aro

How much pH difference can a fish (scaled and scaleless) stand? Will pH kill my fish if its to high or low for them? I wont be able to get best pH but I don't want to kill them.

-Aro

capekate

Ideally fish thrive better in the PH that is best for that species. But most fish will acclimate to other levels of PH. I believe that the fish that are sensitive and prefer a much lower PH of say, 6 would not do well in a PH level of say, 8.
The main thing is to not try to change your Ph level, as the fluctuation of Ph levels is what will harm your fish more so. For myself, I just keep fish that I know are best for my particular Ph level in my tap water.

sirdarksol

There are a few fish that require either a high or low pH.
Most fish, however, will adapt to different pH's, as long as they are properly acclimated. I am keeping black neon tetras (low pH fish) in pH that sits around 8.0, and they have done fine. It's unlikely that they'll breed for me, but, other than that, they are healthy and energetic.

Fishies-for-me

I have both neon tetras and glowlight tetras in a ph of 8 and they do fine.

Kashim

Sorry if I sound like I'm hijacking the thread, but I had a very similar question and I don't want to start another thread about this. My tap water has a high pH of around 7.8 and it's very hard. Most of my current fish are listed with a wide pH range of 6-8 (guppies, neons, cherries, cories) and I read that pH is supposed to naturally go down over time. Well, mine wasn't going down, but staying the same or actually going up slightly. It looked like some of my guppies were starting to lose color and I got worried. I bought some pH adjust down and started adding that to my tank. I had to add quite a bit just to get the pH to move at all. Over the course of about a week I got the pH from around 7.8 down to 7.2-7.4 now.

Should I just keep using that stuff and try to manage the pH or is it better to simply leave it at whatever I get from the tap? It's kind of a hassle to add the pH down during every water change, but I want to do what's best for my fish.

Pandora

Guppies really shouldn't need their pH lowered. It really shouldn't cause them any problem to live at pH 7.8.
The only fish I adjust water for is my brand new wild bettas.. they come from an insanely low pH in the wild (4-6) with lots of tannins, and tend to be very susceptible to diseases in hard, alkaline water (which mine is very much so!). It just seems the lil guys from this complex really need their water close to that found in the wild. For them, that means mixing distilled and tap water and indian almond leaves and letting it sit, and checking the pH an inordinate number of times... definitely not worth it if the fish doesn't truly need it! (though this is new to me, so hopefully I'll soon have a formula worked out and wont' have to put quite as much effort in, lol) The only other fish I do anythign with the water are my tanganikan shellies, but with them it's easy, just add some cichlid salts to their new water. Everything else I've ever kept just has to deal with the water as it comes out of the tap, and they all do just fine! (including my betta channoides, which also come from low pH, soft water, but are more tolerant and have been breeding just fine at 7.8-8)
Unless you're keeping something very specialized, you really don't need to worry about your pH as long as it is stable.

Kashim

What should I do then? Just stop using the pH down completely? I usually do 25% water changes at a time, so if I stop using it, the pH shouldn't jump very much, but move back up slowly. Is that okay? Or should I keep adding the pH down, but add less and less each time?

Fishies-for-me

I also have guppies in a different tank from the tetras...they are thriving and breeding just fine in a ph of 8... My albino cories have spawned twice in the last week in a ph of 8...the 1st spawn was eaten ..waiting to see if the 2nd spawn hatches.

Pandora

If you're just changing a bit at a time, and your tap water isn't really far off from the tank water it probably won't hurt just to go about your water changes without the pH down. If you wanted to be extra careful, you could do smaller water changes every few days just to make sure ther'es no shock to the fish. Unless anyone else has a better suggestion?

Aro

Sorry I haven't posted in a long time. Thanks for the info I think the fish I'm getting should do fine. I was at my LFS and they have stuff to get the pH to 7.0, some betta stuff and much more Heres a link with some of the stuff>>http://www.seachem.com/Products/Products.html