High pH in new tank

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ZorroNet

ZorroNet

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High all! (har har)

I set up a new planted tank and I am trying to cycle it. 10.5 gal with water wisteria, dwarf sag, and glossostigma e. planted in it. I tested my tap water, and it was 7.4 right out of the tap, so shouldn't be shocked that it is high in this tank after only 3 days, right?

Anyway, I was wondering if there are any ways I can naturally lower it to neutral without buffering chemicals. I want to promote balance rather than constantly battle it. Any ideas? Should I even worry about it? No fish yet, but I have some guppies that are ready when I am.


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Fat Homer

Fat Homer

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Normally, unless you have fish that are known to be very sensitive to PH, the fish will adjust to the PH of your tank over time, and as long as you acclimate any new fish correctly, there shouldn't be a problem...

However, if you still want to naturally lower the PH of your tank, you can add things such as driftwood to the tank, which will over time slowly lower your PH...
 
calivivarium1

calivivarium1

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Driftwood to the tank or filtering with peat moss would work.. but I personally wouldn't mess with it unless you plan on keeping/breeding something that is very sensitive. I have only bred platies, peacock gudgeons, and Corydoras pygmaeus, but none of them required anything special to be done to my tap water (which comes out about where yours is at).
 
ZorroNet

ZorroNet

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Thank you for the reassurance fellas! I didn't expect the tap water to be so high in pH straight up, but I guess that makes sense given that it has chemicals that are bases added to it to make it more alkaline and less corrosive to pipes.
 
Jemi39

Jemi39

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My pH is 7.9 out of the tap and now, with driftwood in my tank, it's lowered to about 7.4 and my fish are good with it. They're all happy and eating well :p
 
ktrom13

ktrom13

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My water out the tap is 7.4 after sitting for a full 24hours. But with a nice piece of driftwood i collect from my yard made the water in the tank a steady 7.0 for about a year so far.

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Wren

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My pH is 8.3! It really seems to bother very few fish. Driftwood hasn't been very effective at changing the pH and I see no reason to mess with it. Clean water seems MUCH more important than pH by far. For many years I avoided species that come from soft acidic water. A couple years ago I tried 6 Cardinal tetras. Over a year and a half, I only lost one of them! So a couple months ago I got another dozen. Fish that actually prefer hard alkaline water (African cichlids and such) breed like crazy.

I would LOVE to have a pH of 7.4. I think you can probably keep most any fish in that and probably breed quite a few too.

wren
 
ZorroNet

ZorroNet

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Wren said:
My pH is 8.3!
Click to expand...
Whoa! It's really interesting that it promotes breeding like it does. I know cichlids like it hard, but cardinals are surprising! I think you are right about cleanliness of water mattering more than pH. Thank you for the input :)
 
Glabe

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ZorroNet said:
Whoa! It's really interesting that it promotes breeding like it does. I know cichlids like it hard, but cardinals are surprising! I think you are right about cleanliness of water mattering more than pH. Thank you for the input :)
Click to expand...
This deserves so many winky faces throughout ;)


ZorroNet said:
Thank you for the input :)
Click to expand...
Especially this
 
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