zerotona

I understand that the best thing for fish is a pH that is stable but how do you stabilize it when the water from the tap is extremely acidic (probably less than 6.0)? While my tank was cycling I just added PH-up to the water I was putting in the tank because at the time I wanted to deal with one problem (ammonia and nitrite) at a time. Now that everything else is under control I am interested in adjusting the PH properly but have no idea because I have read using PH-up is not really recommended?

Anyone have any suggestions?? Thanks

Luniyn

Sometimes you are forced to adjust the pH due to the extremes of some tap water. We had a poster that moved into a college dorm and found his tap water to have a pH of 9.0. Yes stable is best but within reason. The first thing is what type of fish are you trying to raise? Some fish actually like a 6.0 pH and would take to your tank naturally. You mention that it is "probably" less then 6.0, do you have any way to test it? You can contact your local water company and they should be able to send you a breakdown of the quality of your tap water which would include pH and also levels of other chemicals that are in it. If not then you might be able to find a pH kit that tests lower then 6.0 at you local pharmacy (I've seen kits that test as low as 4.5 but they were test strips and not liquid tests, so their accuracy might not be very good). Bottom line is a stable pH is better then one that has a chance to plummet if a dose of treatment is forgotten. If your pH is that low from the tap, then it's possible that so is the local pet stores pH and the fish might be used to it already (ask the pet store what the pH of their tanks are and if they use Tap water or make their own RO water). If you find that your pH is just too low and you want to look into raising your pH, then you want to get a neutral regulator like this one from Seachem. Remember to follow the directions to the letter as messing with pH is difficult for even the seasoned hobbyist. Good Luck!

Rex Grigg

Best way to raise pH is in the kitchen cabinet. Baking soda will raise pH and KH. And a little bit goes a LONG ways.

One teaspoon will increase the kH of 50 liters of water (13 gallons) by 4 degrees (68 PPM).

And by raising the KH 4 degrees you would be raising the pH.

One thing to make sure of is you are NOT testing your water directly from the tap. You either need to aerate the water for 12 hours or let it sit for a minimum of 24 hours before testing pH. Many times water from the tap can have high levels of dissolved CO2 which can lower the pH.

And for high pH water you need to know the complete water chemistry. What the KH and GH is. In some areas they use sodium hydroxide to raise the pH to high levels to prevent the corrosion of cast iron pipes.

Isabella

If you decide to lower your pH using commercial products, whatever you do, make you that you're decreasing your pH very gradually, as a sudden drop in pH can be disastrous for fish health. Once you decide to lower it, you'll have to be lowering it all the time since your tap water has a constantly high pH. I imagine it will be very hard to keep your pH stable and not fluctuating when constantly using products that modify your pH. Anyway, what size is your tank, what fish do you have in it, and how many fish? How is their health? As has been said above, most fish raised in captivity will adjust to a much wider range of pH than fish that are wild-caught.

zerotona

What I meant by the water from the tap is 'probably' less than 6, is that on one PH test it is around 5.4 but my API test kit PH test doesn't go lower than 6.0 so it is hard to tell using the API test what the actual PH is.

Would my livebearers really be happy in a PH that low, provided I accustomed them to it slowly? Hmm the PH-Up I can get IS baking soda / sodium bicarbonate but I have also read not to use PH-Up? Perhaps those sources were referring to a different PH-Up method.

Is that neutral regulator the same as the Proper PH products? I am in Australia and can't order from that website and I've only seen the Proper PH products around here.

Luniyn

In doing anything to mess with your pH, if it's baking soda from the kitchen or a over the counter product, as Rex said "...a little bit goes a LONG ways". Adding too much can make your pH spike which will basically burn your fish as if you were pouring acid into their tank. They will literally start darting around and acting very strangely, and unless removed they won't live long if that happens. So using anything can be deadly if you aren't very careful. That's why it's normally recommended not to do anything and let the fish adjust. Also talk to your local fish store (where you bought your fish) and see if they can tell you what the pH of their tanks are. If they are using the same tap water as you are, it's possible their pH is equally low. If that's the case then the fish are used to it already and even though it's low, it probably isn't even necessary to mess with it.

sirdarksol

Yes, the Proper pH products work the same way.
One warning, if you have live plants, you won't be able to use this product. It sounds like it binds phosphates in the water, making them unusable by the plants.
Also, if you use Proper pH and the water goes hazy, don't worry too much. The stuff binds heavy metals in the water, sort of crystalizing them, and if your water was hard enough, it will go hazy. (API's website http://www.aquariumpharm.com/en_us/p...productid=1924 has a full description of the product, as well as the MSDS)

zerotona

Ok, so if I use Proper PH does the water clear or does it stay hazy?
The LFS where I got my fish from uses a different water supply than us.. in fact there are no actual fish stores in my suburb so we have to go into town which is a different council and therefore a different water supply :/

I think I'll try some Proper PH or try to find the Seachem product and see how it goes. Thanks

sirdarksol

If you have clear, but very hard, water, Proper pH may cause it to go hazy for awhile, but your filter will pull most of the stuff out of the water, and what doesn't get pulled out will probably just settle to the gravel after a bit.