choochiegirl

how important is it really to monitor pH? my tank is cycling, i have not even bothered to buy a ph kit to test. Do I really need to?

Gunnie

In my opinion, it's not important Are you cycling with fish?

sgould

I think I have checked mine once. It is unimportant USUALLY to your fish as they will adjust to your pH and live happily, unless you are keeping a very sensitive species. Where you could consider it important is in its effect on the toxicity of any ammonia in your tank during the cycle. Ammonia in water with a pH less than 7 is generally less toxic than when the pH is higher. However, my approach has been just to consider any ammonia dangerous and deal with it on that basis. Err on the side of caution, so to speak.

choochiegirl

nope no fish yet. Just some cloudy water that is taking it's time lol.

Luniyn

A pH test kit is only important in a few instances. First, if you are going to cycle with fish in your tank, then it is extremely important to know what the pH of your water is. The more below 7 it is, the less important it is to worry about ammonia poisioning your fish. If your pH is above 7 then that means that even at a low total ammonia level for your tank, enough of it will be toxic to your fish and the chances of them not making it without help is more prevalent. Now that being said, it is important to know what your pH is because if you have a 7.5-8.0+ pH then any change in your tank that causes a small spike in your tank of ammonia could be deadly to your fish. Now if you are using chemicals like Prime or Amquel+ then these concerns aren't quite as important (they will detoxify any ammonia that is toxic so you don't have to worry about it), but without them you have to be very careful.

Another time pH is very important is when bringing home more fish from the pet store. I always test the water they are in (from the bag) and test my tank to see how different they are from each other. This difference determines how long their acclimation process is. I had a store that tested at 7.8pH and my tank is at 7.2pH. It may not have killed them but they would have felt the effect of that kind of change if done quickly. I had another store that was pretty much the same as my tank, in that case I was able to add them after just the temperature adjustment phase. Now of course I go the extra step and test the ammonia and nitrite levels in the bag (should be zero) as well, but that's just because I'm over cautious like that.

Also depending on what you have, or plan to have in your tank (not talking fish here but substrate, decorations, etc.) you should test your pH to know if it changes from one day to another. For example, if you add driftwood to your tank, one day your tank could be 7.0 pH, but a few weeks later you could find it to be 6.5 pH or lower. Now that pet store water being at 7.5 pH didn't seem to be all that different from your tank before is now a full point of pH higher if not more. Adding your fish without a long acclimation process will have them darting around upon being added because the change is actually burning them. So it's important to know how various things are effecting your water as well.

Now all that being said, on it's own it isn't nearly as important as a lot of the fish sites would have you believe. A fish that is said to "like" a range of 6.0-7.5 pH can live just fine in a tank that is at 8.0 pH if you adjust them to it slowly. So it's more of a way to understand what is going on in your tank then anything. Then if something goes wrong, you have a better supply of information to work from in solving the problem.

armadillo

I'd heard about the driftwood making the water more acidic. How long would the driftwood continue to make your water more acidic? Would this just continue to make the water more and more acid? Also, how long is that process of acidification by the driftwood? Are we talking dropping 5 notches on the pH scale in a few hours, or more like over days or weeks?

Luniyn

It's not a quick process by any means. So you wouldn't add the driftwood and then come back the next day to a significantly lower pH or anything like that. But over time it will make the tank lower. However, you have to remember that every water change you do, you are adding a higher pH level water to the tank which will mix and level out the overall pH drop. Plus there are things like carbonate hardness (the KH of your water) which is it's buffer capability, or your waters ability to resist a change in pH that will effect the change the driftwood will have to the water. So there are a lot of factors going on here, which may or may not ever actually change your tanks pH. But without ever testing to know what you were before the driftwood and what you are after... you would never know if it was having an effect or not.