I can't seem to keep my pH up. Is there anything I can do to get it to a neutral range and keep it there? :huh:
pH help
- Thread starter lisaann4jc
- Start date
What is it at now? Why do you want it higher? Tank parameters? Occupants? Age of tank? Maintenance routine?
The short and sweet--yes, you can add things to increase pH. Some commercial products are bunk, some work great. The bigger issue--and the reason for the other questions--is that for most community fish, a stable pH is much more important than a specific pH. Efforts to modify your water require lots of attention--it will seldom be as simple as a one time additive fix, but rather frequent monitoring and tweaking. Without care, you can cause yo-yoing values, which are much more stressful for the occupants than a pH that is lower than 'ideal'.
The short and sweet--yes, you can add things to increase pH. Some commercial products are bunk, some work great. The bigger issue--and the reason for the other questions--is that for most community fish, a stable pH is much more important than a specific pH. Efforts to modify your water require lots of attention--it will seldom be as simple as a one time additive fix, but rather frequent monitoring and tweaking. Without care, you can cause yo-yoing values, which are much more stressful for the occupants than a pH that is lower than 'ideal'.
nitrate - o
nitrate - .5
hardness - 100
alk (KH) - 60
pH - 6.6
20g with:
1 powder blue gourami
3 serpae tetras
1 zebra danio
1 iridescent shark
1 platy
1 upside down catfish
2 african dwarf frogs
3 kuhli loaches
1 apple snail
wisteria plants
2 banana plants
nitrate - .5
hardness - 100
alk (KH) - 60
pH - 6.6
20g with:
1 powder blue gourami
3 serpae tetras
1 zebra danio
1 iridescent shark
1 platy
1 upside down catfish
2 african dwarf frogs
3 kuhli loaches
1 apple snail
wisteria plants
2 banana plants
Is that the pH of the source water after it's aerated for a day? I'm guessing KH in ppm, which means you have really low KH water. The tank is pretty well overstocked--the ID shark will have to go. the pH, if it's stable at 6.6, is okay, but I'd suspect that the biological processes are burning through the buffer pretty quick. More frequent water changes will probably be enough to stabilize the pH in the short term.
lisaann4jc: I would give anything to have your low pH water....here's an idea: E-mail me a bunch of your 6.6 and I'll return the same amount of 8.2 and perhaps we'll both end up with something like 7.0 :joke: