Mystic54

So my pH in my tank is low (6.0) but my fish are fine so I never found a reason to make it higher. Well, it never occured to me to check the fish tank water I get from the tap, I keep my fish tank at my boyfriend's house and his water has always been real high in PH, so I checked it today.


This is the PH in his tap water (7.6 or higher)


This is the PH from a bucket of water that has been sitting for 24 hours and had stress coat added to it (7.2-7.4)


And this is the PH from the fish tank (6.0)


Well at this point I feel a little stupid, I've been adding really high PH to the fish tank without even knowing it. Does this harm my fish, I imagine it would. Although my fish are fine, but why is my PH so low in the fish tank? I don't understand...a few months ago while our fish tank was cycling the PH was a good 6.8-7.0
I am so confused as what to happen...

Nate McFin

What type of decorations do you have? Some types of materials such as driftwood can lower Ph.
Do you have plants? Plants also can lower the Ph of soft water by using up the buffer.
Overfeeding could cause a lower Ph in that more ammonia would be produced if there was a lot of excess food in the substrate. It seems you would also see an ammonia reading however if this were the case.
My Ph does the same thing (plants cause my lower Ph) I combat this somewhat by adding a small amount of crushed coral in a media bag into the back of the filter. I also do two water changes a week so it doesnt drop as much at one time.

Mystic54

Lets see, for plants I have 1 amazon sword plant and 2 smaller plants. I'm not sure what the smaller ones are called but I got them at Petsmart in a tube like container. They have yellow/green vertical stripes on them.
As fas as decorations like centerpieces the only thing I have is just a regular piece I got from Petsmart that looks like rock with coral on it.
Ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates all look good with a reading of 0.
I'm sure we don't overfeed since we only feed them once a day in as much as they can consume in a few mintues.

I also just did a high range PH test on the tap water.
My PH is about 8.8

aquarist48

Hello Mystic. Hope you're doing well. pH levels drop over a period of time. There is really no such thing as a stable pH. The best we can do is try to maintain a certain pH level via water changes, driftwood, crushed coral. I'm including a link about pH that you may find helpful.
Take care!
Ken
Properly Maintaining the pH in a Freshwater Aquarium - Rate My Fish Tank

Mystic54

Very informative link, thank you Ken.
I think probably my main concern is the water I'm adding from the bucket (7.2 to 7.4) to the very different PH in my aquarium (6.0)
Should I try to lower the PH in the bucket before I introduce it to my aquarium water or should I just leave it alone?

aquarist48

Mystic it's been my experience that you can increase the pH levels fairly quickly without major concern to the fish. It's when you lower the pH too quickly that causes fatalities. I suggest just adding the water from your tap (with chlorine removed) without any adjustments to your pH in the new water. You may want to increase the frequency of your water changes to maintain a ph level closer to what comes out of the tap. Or you could even add crushed coral. I feel that the fish you have listed in your aquarium information will do just fine Best of luck! Keep it fun!
Ken

Mystic54

Thanks Ken! Do you think adding some of the aquarium water to the bucket of water that I have sitting out for water changes would make a PH difference, as in lowering the PH a bit?

aquarist48

Morning If your pH is lower in your tank than your tap water then yes, if you added some from your tank it should help to lower the pH in your bucket.
Have a good day today!
Ken