Paranoid about pH

[Baldrick30]

Howdy,

I find myself feeling totally paranoid about adjusting the pH level - partly because all the reading says do it really carefully and partly because the first time I did it, it seems my kit was a bit dud and I up'd the pH uneccessarily.

Anyway, just wonering if anyone's got any good tips on upping and downing pH safely. One thing I'm particularly interested in is do you adjust the pH when you've done a water change, or do you wait a day or so for everything to settle after the change and then adjust it?

Thanks!!
Cam

[duke33]

I recommend leaving it alone for awhile. Fish will adjust to a ph level better than constant swings. What is it reading, that will help.

[Lupin]

What test kit are you using?

[Reddog80p]

The best pH is a stable one. Lowering/raising pH with additives could cause more problems. Unless you are breeding I wouldn't worry about it unless the pH is abnormally off.

[andi872]

i just use a ph buffer so as to not have any fluxuations

[duke33]

Baldrick30...What is your ph reading??

[krytan]

lowering the ph hard water is a waste of time as the ph will gradually raise again. It is better to leave the ph as it is, most captive bread fish will ajust to your ph.

[Baldrick30]

Howdy,

The pH has varied between around 6.0 to 7.0 over the past 3 months. It seems to go up a touch after a water change.

But I think I probably didn't ask my question very well - probaby what I'm really after is a bit of info on how much is acceptible in terms of pH going up and down (without adding anything to it that is).

As I say, I got a bit paranoid about it - but this is mainly because it's varied a tad and everything I read tells me it should be stable. But I assume a little variation is normal. So it'd be great to know what anyone thinks is acceptible.

thanks!
Cam

[Rbishop]

I don't think the swing you have seen is excessive, especially if it was done without additives.

Do you track your tap water pH to see how it changes...?

What kind of substrate do you have?

[Baldrick30]

Thanks for that.

No I haven't been tracking tap water - it's funny, it never even occurred to me until having a browse through a few threads. Once I read it I though "yeah, that makes complete sense!"

I'll do some testing now to get a bit of a feel for it.

Substrata - I can't remember the name off hand but it's the small to medium sized gravel (3 - 4mm kinda size)