help with pH

windeindoiel

windeindoiel

I
Mar 24, 2005
153
0
0
40
Canada
Everything was going great, until I got some new fish (clown loaches) and had an ich outbreak. So I added some salt, raised the temperature, and bought medication. After that cleared up I tested my levels. My nitrates were through the roof so I did regular water changes and got the levels back down. But now my pH is about 8. And I need to bring it down to 7. I went to the pet store and got some pH reducer stuff but so far it hasn't been working. It'll go down but then the next day it starts going up again. It usually stabalizes at around 7.9 or 8. Does anyone have any suggestions about how to lower the pH? Thanks.
 
Hello, welcome to AC :)
Harlock poses a good question - why do you want to lower the pH? Many fish are fine at a pH above/below their 'ideal range'. Using chemicals to lower the pH isn't always necessary, and unless your water is very soft the pH will bounce back (which is what you're experiencing). Fluctuations in pH stress fish much more than living at a slightly high pH.
If you're breeding fish that are native to areas where the pH and KH are very low I belive it's important to match these conditions or there can be problems with egg development or hatching, but otherwise I'd say the fish will probably be just fine at a pH of 8.
 
Currently in the tank is a bichir, a silver dollar, a leopard pleco, a rhino pleco, a zigzag spiny eel (provided it's still alive, I haven't seen it in awhile and I fear it jumped behind the tank into the mess of fish care stuff back there) and a bunch of ghost shrimp. Eventually I plan to put a black ghostknife in there, and they lack scales and I've read that because of that they're pretty sensitive to water parameters. So do you think it'd still be ok at being around 8 even with a scaleless fish? Also I've heard that driftwood can bring pH down, has this worked for anyone? Thanks for your help, I've developed a recent obsession (if that is indeed a strong enough word) for fish but I'm still pretty new at this and I'm still learning.
 
how big is the tank? my pH is about 7.6 or 7.8 and my eels are doing fine, the bichir prefers high pH, the others preffered pH i dont know.
 
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