ph level

[Cozmo]

What is the ph level suppose to be? and how can I change it lower and raise?

[NikkO]

It can depend on what fish you are keeping. Usually it is in the 7 range for many fishes. You can use chemicals to raise or lower ph, such as Proper Ph, Ph up or down, correct Ph,etc. These should be easy to find at your LFS.

[Cozmo]

I have a red and tiger oscar in a 90 gal. tank?

[NikkO]

They should be fine as long as your Ph is aound 7.2.

[ChicoRaton]

You can use chemicals to raise or lower ph, such as Proper Ph, Ph up or down, correct Ph,etc.

unless your ph is higher than 8 or lower than 6.5, I would strongly suggest you do not use these chemicals. pH remaining constant is much more important than a specific pH, unless you're trying to breed fish. With those chemicals, every time you do a water change, your ph will fluctuate. And you should be doing plenty of water changes with the oscars. they're messy fish. besides, it will just be another expense, and they can add unwanted chemicals, like phosphates.

[LongTime]

The oscars will do fine without any change in pH unless it gets out of range like ChicoRaton posted, and you will do a lot of water changes. Many people don't do anything about their pH unless they are keeping very sensitive fish.

When I first started keeping fish, they were not as tolerant of pH outside of their native ranges and I believe that is because a lot of them were still caught from the wild instead of be tank bread. Neons used to just about demand soft acidic water or you could count on losing at least 1 a day. That does not seem to be the case today. Still, I guess because I am "Old School," I adjust my pH to neutral.

That's just me.

[JSchmidt]

I agree with the suggestions to avoid adjusting pH. With many types of water, this is a losing propostion. Often, you end up adding chemicals that can have unanticipated and undesired side effects.

Unless pH is widely out of the range noted above, you're best off leaving it alone.

Jim

[RTR]

Besides which, although the native water of a given fish is specified by pH, adding chemicals to reduce the pH is counter-productive. The critical parameter for breeding the blackwater fish is almost always TDS (total dissolved solids) rather than pH. By adding chemical to reuce pH, you will frequently increase the TDS - the opposite of the desired effect.

Dilution or mixing with RO, DI, or RODI is appropriate for reducing TDS and pH, adding chemicals is not.

If you want harder water, as for Rift Lake fish, adding the appropriate salts is justified.

[Tim Bo]

Here, here RTR!