Hi. I have a 125 display tank with 2angels, 5 gouramis, 1 swordtail, a pleco and 8 glofish. It has been established about 2 months. I do 25% water changes every week. I use an API master test kit and all my levels have always been in the normal range except my ph. It is off the scale so I know it is much higher than 7.5. I have used Ph Down several times and it doesn't affect it. We are in the country in a well with a softener and last week I tested the water straight from the tap and it tests at about 7.5. So how do I get it down if it's testing right out of the tap on the higher end of normal? Thanks in advance.
Water PH
- Thread starter Autumnsky101
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What is your KH and GH? If those are high, it will be difficult to bring PH down. Do you have any driftwood in tank, this would help. Is PH beyond 8.0?
I use well water too. The pH is 8.3 to 8.5. I don't make any attempt to change it. If you use it as is, you can do water changes with no worries. Odds are good that your water is well buffered and will resist your attempts to change it. If you manage to add enough pH down to reduce your pH, it will jump right back up again with the first water change.
Leave your pH as is, and work on keeping your water quality good. Regular water changes, avoid overfeeding, etc. Odds are very good that your fish with thrive.
I would only mess with pH if you are using live plants (I've never had luck there, so maybe pH is a factor, maybe it is my black thumb...), or if you are trying to breed fish with very specific water requirements. To have a pretty tank and healthy fish, clean water with stable chemistry (even if the pH is really high!) is much more important.
Leave your pH as is, and work on keeping your water quality good. Regular water changes, avoid overfeeding, etc. Odds are very good that your fish with thrive.
I would only mess with pH if you are using live plants (I've never had luck there, so maybe pH is a factor, maybe it is my black thumb...), or if you are trying to breed fish with very specific water requirements. To have a pretty tank and healthy fish, clean water with stable chemistry (even if the pH is really high!) is much more important.
Thanks all. I thought I needed to get it below 7 but perhaps not with th fish I have. I will try check the ph before softener and see what it is. I do weekly changes and no problems in the tank other than what I thought was high ph. Thanks.
Um sorry. I don't know what KH and GH is. The kit I have tests for ammonia (0), nitrite (0), nitrate (40ppm). Then high ph and normal ph are two separate tests. The "normal" ph test goes up to 7.6 and the high test shows a range of 7.4 to 8.8 when using the high ph test I was at 8.2.
Most aquarium trade fish are raised in alkaline (7+ph) water. What is more important for fish is seasonal consistency of dissolved minerals and having low levels of dissolved organics.
Because there are a large variety of organics that we don't have a test for, the test for nitrate stands in for the total level which would be much greater. For this reason I would say a nitrate reading of 40 ppm is to high. Your fish would be healthier with lower levels, and I would recommend aiming for 20 ppm max nitrate reading before a water change lowers it. This means you either need to change more volume than you currently are doing, or do it more often.
You could change 50% regularly if that is what it takes, and if you have a water quality emergency taking the water down to just covering your largest fish's fins is an option.
Because there are a large variety of organics that we don't have a test for, the test for nitrate stands in for the total level which would be much greater. For this reason I would say a nitrate reading of 40 ppm is to high. Your fish would be healthier with lower levels, and I would recommend aiming for 20 ppm max nitrate reading before a water change lowers it. This means you either need to change more volume than you currently are doing, or do it more often.
You could change 50% regularly if that is what it takes, and if you have a water quality emergency taking the water down to just covering your largest fish's fins is an option.
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I actually just got a new vacuum for the tank and used it yesterday and did a 30% watch change. Today the nitrate is down to 30ppm. I wasn't doing a good job of getting matter off the bottom of the tank and this new vacuum did a much better job. I'll continue to monitor. Thank you
