jillyraine

My PH has gone all out of whack. It has been stable at 7 - 7.2 for forever and suddendly gone to 8. It is a 57 litre tank (15 gall thereabouts) I have 10 neons and 5 guppies in it. Have added nothing different - fish are quite happy. Do I need to PANIC. How do I get the PH level back to normal.

Ntruder1400

From what I have read in other posts here, pH is best left alone if the fish don't appear bothered by it. It seems like pH is a bear to try to regulate. I have noticed that with my tank, the pH runs much higher if I have my bubblewand on, and runs lower when I turn it off for a day or two. Also, any recent water changes? What is the pH out of your tap? Do you know what it has been in the past?

Just a few thoughts from a newbie.

Oblivion

Your tank is also overstocked so be aware of that.

susitna-flower

What is the PH out of the tap?

Do you have any shells, coral, or rocks in the tank as decorations?

I placed a chunk of coral in my shrimp tank to give it more calcium for the shrimp 'skeletaon', and after more than a month the ph has raised from 7.4 to 7.8....

The thing I would recommend is if there is a great difference in what is in the tank and what comes out of the tap, do several small water changes every week during maintenance instead on one large one. With an overstocked tank you should be doing AT LEAST 50% water change every week. These CAN be done one right after another, it just slows down the shock on your fish.

What are the other readings for:
Ammonia?
Nitrite?
Nitrate?

We may have other suggestions.

seedy

Evaporation can influece ph and the smaller the tank the more it can change.

HatchetHaven

COBettaCouple

Hmm.. well, the tank being overstocked wouldn't alter the pH suddenly like that and with no new chemicals being added, it's not a chemical addition.

If no new decor has been added, then it may be a change in the local water processing so the suggestion to test your tap water pH is what I'd also recommend.

jillyraine

Thanks for reply - fish are all O.K. and happu so I will just leave alone
regards jill

jillyraine

New to this forum bit - thought I was only replying to first reply, general reply -
Nitrites Nitrates Amonia are all O.K. Always do weekly water changes, have a lot of live plants - Maybe my tank is larger than specified as fish supplier says tank is not overstocked. However thay are all O.K. they have been in the tank about 3 months so will just continue with weekly water changes .
thanks for all your helpful replies
Sorry reply is a bit late - been away .
cheers to all fishlovers
Jill

COBettaCouple

Fish shops and suppliers aren't always honest about how many fish go in a tank - they do want to sell more after all. And if your fish die, they want to sell more.

Your tank is 12.54 US gallons and the guideline for small aquarium fish is 1 US gallon per adult inch of fish. You have 15 fish that grow to 1.5" each, giving you 22.5" of adult fish which equals 102.3 litres, almost double the capacity of your tank.

Is your ammonia and nitrites both 0? And your nitrates 10 or less? With a tank that's overstocked by that much, I would recommend 25-40% water changes twice a week with a water test before each change to monitor for spikes. As the fish grow to full size, the chances of that increase greatly as the fish release more waste. The plants will help nitrates levels some.