Which is 6-8.5 for just about any fish you can mention. The limiting factors are ammonia and filter bacteria function, not the fish themselves.
A quick pH question
- Thread starter SharkaThon
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Which is 6-8.5 for just about any fish you can mention. The limiting factors are ammonia and filter bacteria function, not the fish themselves.
Agreed.
For example 90% of websites out there will say that blue rams need a pH below 7. Kept 'em at 8.0-8.2 will zero side effects.
For example 90% of websites out there will say that blue rams need a pH below 7. Kept 'em at 8.0-8.2 will zero side effects.
your PH is fine, and your fish will be fine in that PH. trying to change your PH is more detrimental to your fishes health.
You are correct that most fish can survive a wide range of pH, 6-8 (maybe 8.5) for most of the common ones, and controlling the Ammonia level is MUCH more important than pH.
But Clown Loaches, Discus and Ram Ciclids will not be very happy with a pH over 8. Likewise African Lake Cichlids will not be very happy at pH 6.
It becomes even more important if you expect the fish to breed, and then you may need to take some notice of the pH.
But the original question was about White Clouds and pH of 7.8, and thats perfectly OK, they will be happy, probably even breed.
The 9gal tank isn't an issue, it's big enough for White Clouds, and has nothing to do with the pH.
Ian
pH is far less important than the TDS of the water. What Rams and Discus and so on require is low TDS water. That will nearly always be acid, which is why people think it's the pH which matters, but if you did have high pH low TDS water, they would do fine. Ditto the African Cichlids; it's just that hard water tends to be high in carbonates and therefore is alkaline, but it's the high TDS which matters.
pH may have a bearing on reproductive success inasmuch as it may influence egg development. But the fish themselves seem largely unaware of the pH of the water.
pH may have a bearing on reproductive success inasmuch as it may influence egg development. But the fish themselves seem largely unaware of the pH of the water.
And my previous attempts with apistos and rams would differ with yours. After I started cutting my tap with half distilled I stopped having issues, but I still have a pH of nearly 8 after doing so because our water is so hard.
Exactly. The local tap water has a hardness of ~320 ppm, or 18 dGH. Cutting this in half only caused a minor drop in pH... from 8.2 to 8.0-7.9, but would arguably create a significant drop in osmotic pressure, which is why going by pH alone is very misleading.
Heh. I once lived in an area with a GH of >600ppm.
As the pH approaches somewhere around 8.5, it will not (in a stable manner) rise further purely pecause of the KH; other alkalis have to be present. Conversely, as KH is lowered you won't get a big drop in pH until you pass the bicarbonate pH equilibrium.
There is a pH obsession, probably because it's easy to measure. I even get people giving me the pH when I ask for the hardness. This is a shame, because pH is of marginal importance, whereas the water hardness can be critical. Because there's a strong correlation between high pH and high hardness, the conception that pH is the important factor carries on (e.g. keep mollies in pH 6 and they probably will die, because the pH 6 water is almost certainly very soft) but where the relationship doesn't hold is where the problem starts.
As the pH approaches somewhere around 8.5, it will not (in a stable manner) rise further purely pecause of the KH; other alkalis have to be present. Conversely, as KH is lowered you won't get a big drop in pH until you pass the bicarbonate pH equilibrium.
There is a pH obsession, probably because it's easy to measure. I even get people giving me the pH when I ask for the hardness. This is a shame, because pH is of marginal importance, whereas the water hardness can be critical. Because there's a strong correlation between high pH and high hardness, the conception that pH is the important factor carries on (e.g. keep mollies in pH 6 and they probably will die, because the pH 6 water is almost certainly very soft) but where the relationship doesn't hold is where the problem starts.
