High Ph From The Tap

I've been having problem with my nitrates being high 40-80 ppm. My tap water is 40-80 as well. So I tested the my 55 tank tonight and the readings were around 20-40 ppm. The PH is around 7.4ish, ammonia and nitrites are 0. I've been doing anywhere around 5-25 gal water changes every few days for about a month. I started the tank on 12/15. I read on this forum that if the PH is in the upper range you should test the high range PH - so I did, 8.4ish+ - yikes... So I tested my tap water - the same. I have 6 Danios in there and I feed them every 2 days with flake food. I have fake plants, the fish and the plants are fine. I read that driftwood, peat and chemicals can reduce the numbers. What would you do?

 

I'd do a quick retest. Of the pH to make sure. (Or has it always been that high?)

Driftwood and catappa leaf (Indian almond leaf) produce gradual reductions in pH...but not really enough to bring it down to 7 like you are hoping.

Its much healthier and easier for the fish for you to keep the pH constant then to mess with it to much and have it always changing. I wouldnt recommend adding chemicals to the tank to try to lower it.

You can always try mixing tap water with bottled water. Its more expensive...but will help with the Nirates issue too.

 

As Lunnietic mentioned, keep the PH stable is the best for your fish, even if it is on the higher side they will adjust. On driftwood, yes it does lower the PH, but it takes a little time to do so. If your getting high readings from you tap for the PH it would not hurt heading to your local pet shop and seeing if they have a small piece of driftwood, then soak it for a couple of days in a bucket before adding it to your tank. It will gradually bring your PH down. Try not to use chemicals to adjust PH levels, they can make things worse.

 

Chemicals such as PH Down will give your fish stress/shock or illness.
Driftwood soaked and removed of tannins will help reduce your PH.
Try using RO water from your local LFS for now (while you wait for your driftwood to soak in a bucket for a few weeks)
you will realise the diff in water quality when you have RO/RO-DI water...

 

I'd do a quick retest. Of the pH to make sure. (Or has it always been that high?)

Driftwood and catappa leaf (Indian almond leaf) produce gradual reductions in pH...but not really enough to bring it down to 7 like you are hoping.

Its much healthier and easier for the fish for you to keep the pH constant then to mess with it to much and have it always changing. I wouldnt recommend adding chemicals to the tank to try to lower it.

You can always try mixing tap water with bottled water. Its more expensive...but will help with the Nirates issue too.

I never tested for high PH from my tap water before last night, I'll test it again and see how it goes. If it's high again I'll bring a sample to the LFS and let them test it.

Thanks for all the input.

 

I've been having problem with my nitrates being high 40-80 ppm. My tap water is 40-80 as well. So I tested the my 55 tank tonight and the readings were around 20-40 ppm. The PH is around 7.4ish, ammonia and nitrites are 0. I've been doing anywhere around 5-25 gal water changes every few days for about a month. I started the tank on 12/15. I read on this forum that if the PH is in the upper range you should test the high range PH - so I did, 8.4ish+ - yikes... So I tested my tap water - the same. I have 6 Danios in there and I feed them every 2 days with flake food. I have fake plants, the fish and the plants are fine. I read that driftwood, peat and chemicals can reduce the numbers. What would you do?

I’ve actually been growing through this myself. Tonight I did a ton of work to try figure out a good ratio to lower the ph for water changes/top offs. I went and bought some distilled water that tested at 0.0 PH and 0.0 everything else, my tap water PH is 8.4+ too. I found the best ratio is 1:1 for distilled and tap water (this put the water change PH at 7.8-8.0) with my normal tank PH running 7.2. I also have hairgrass growing and quite a bit of driftwood which I believe helps.