Adjusting PH

[fishwhit]

I finally bought a test kit after having a tank for about 6 weeks. Ammonia, Nitrites, and Nitrate are all zero. Dumb luck I guess. However, my PH is through the roof. The test kit read it at least 8.8. The color is a very dark purple.

What is the best way to lower the PH? I currently have 4 fish in the tank. 1 guppy, 1 molly, 1 platy and 1 tetra.

 

[Kasakato]

Why are there no nitrates?
How big is your tank?

 

[fishwhit]

It's a 5 gallon tank. To be honest, I don't know why there are no nitrates. All I know is the color of the test compared to the strip was definitely yellow, which means zero.

I know it's overstocked, but that's something I can't do anything about right now.

 

[Kasakato]

Well your right about overstocking. Adding some wood to the tank, or some peat to the filter should help bring down the pH.

 

[Kasakato]

O and before you do anything we need your KH and GH levels.

 

[fishwhit]

What are KH and GH? I'm still so new at this I don't know all the abbreviations.

 

[Kasakato]

Read this: http://www.chelonia.org/Articles/waterchemistry.htm

 

[fishwhit]

OK, I've read the link and now I know what KH and GH mean. How do you test them? The kit I bought doesn't test for those water parameters.

 

[Beeker]

Did you say that you are using strips to test the params? The strips aren't very good. You should probably look into getting a liquid test kit.

 

[fishwhit]

I purchased the liquid test kit by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals. It was the most highly recommended kit on this site. It tests for pH, ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates.