grrrr...PH problems....

B

BloodThirsty28

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Jun 26, 2006
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So anyway. I have my 120 going. It's been going for a while now and I used about 50 gallons of water from my old tank to start this one. So I didn't really figure ph would be an issue since my old tank was always stable around 7.0.

Well I checked it yesterday and it's above 8.2 and of course nobody in town have anything to bring it down. I did go to *gulp* Wal Mart and picked up Wardleys Bullseye 7.0 which claims to bring the ph to a 7.0 Should I use this stuff or not? One small bottle says it treats 25 gal but that seems like a lot of chemicals to dump in my tank. The fish seem to be doing fine but I just want it back to normal.


Also, and I hope I don't get flammed to hard for this but ph is really the only thing I've ever tested for in the past. I am going to change that I swear but I just went to get a test kit and of course the only thing anybody has is a generic all in one test strip that you dip in the water. I think it was called "Quick Dip" or something to that affect. Are these strips acruate or what? If not I do have a trusted fish store I can go to but it's gonna be until next week before I can drive there(45 min away). Thanks for listening to my smallist rant and problems.
 
I dont know about the PH, but the test strips are junk. You can order Aquarium Pharmeceuticals Freshwater Master Test Kit at Petsmart.com for 13.49(I think). I printed out the online price and took it into my local petsmart. They matched the price and boy am I glad bc it was 27.99 in store :eek:
 
Cool. Thanks.


Now anybody on the ph issue?
 
A naturally high pH that stays consistant is much better for most common fish than one that is forced down chemically and is never stable. Unless you see your fish sufferring from the high pH or you know they are fish that require a certain pH range, just leave it alone. It may come back down just as naturally as it went up. My pH sat at 6.6 for a while when I first started my tank, fluctuated upwards to the 8.0 range, and then settled back down at 7.4 without me doing anything.

I'll second the reccommendation to stay away from test strips. They can be wildly innacuarate (despite what the specialty manager at my local Petsmart thinks). A good example, back before I invested in a test kit of my own, the dip tests they use at Petsmart for the courtesy water tests said my pH was in the 5.5 range (not that the tests even go that low, the guy "estimated"). I then went to a locally owned FS and their nice drip tests told me the pH was 7.0. That made a lot more since because I was in the middle of a fishy cycle and I had just done a 75% water change with tapwater I knew to be neutral. Definitely go with the AP test kit, and get the good price by printing out the online page from Petsmart.com and taking it to the store. I have never heard of one that doesn't price match, so you'll get it for a great price.
 
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Awesome. Thanks for the good news. And all my fish are very hardy and in good shape. :)
 
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