MeBeNooB

[Masquinongy69]

Hey all ! New here ... kinda thrust into unfamiliar waters My wife decided that the kids should go see the fish at Walmart when she went shopping ... fast forward, the 4 year old wanted fish for her birthday ... I did what any noob would do and ask for advice on FB. Buddy sees this and gives me his old 55 gal with stand and bags full of accessories. So as I am documenting the cleaning of this older very dirty tank, along comes my daughters party ... A family friend shows up with .... you got it .... fish ! 2 black skirt Tetra and 2 orange platy. I dont have the tank finished yet ... run to Walmart and grab a 10 gal tank and some starter bacteria. Used the HOB filter my buddy had on the 55 temporarily. Finally got the 55 set up and filled. Prime in water. Pouch of bacteria. Move the fish once the temp is stable (moved the filter too with the bacteria media). 1 Tetra is stuck to the filter (passed). Next day stop and get 4 more Tetra (read they do best in 5's). Those 4 pass away overnight Had water tested - ammonia, nitrite, nitrate all fine - PH is high (over 8). Dont know why - tap water is coming out 7.4. Learn today that PH rises as temp rises and CO2 outgasses. Think I will need some wood in the tank to lower the Ph (ppl say dont use vinigar to do this). My Sunsun 304B came today (565 gph) - I got matrix, bio balls, and ceramic rings along with a roll of cut-your-own filter media and a bag of Polyfil.
Anyone have advise on getting the PH down ? I tested the calcium hardness with my pool kit - 250-300 ppm out of the tap and in the tank.

 

[Delapool]

Hi - welcome!

Generally tanks lower in ph over time from good bacterial activity, but ph at 8 or 7.4 is fine. I assume your fish shop is keeping their fish using same tap water as you are?

Did you get info on a fish-in cycle of your tank to establish nitrifying bacteria? I’d grab your own test kit (solution, vial - not cardboard strips as can under-read).

 

[Masquinongy69]

Thanks ! I am used to fighting high PH in my pool - which is relatively easy - pour in a gallon of acid to get the PH way low and drop the alkalinity, and then out-gas the CO2 (I literally rigged up a blow gun to my air compressor and sunk it in the pool with a brick to make a bubbler to do the out-gassing), which raises the PH back up but keeps the alkalinity down. Once the alkalinity is in parameter - the Ph is more resistant to spikes. Something tells me dumping acid in my aquarium is not going to end well for my li'l finned friends. Though I have been thinking of using small doses of vinegar - though the online thoughts on that are too mixed for me to chance it.

Would he bubbler I'm running have a similar effect of raising the PH ?

 

[Delapool]

It should help stabilise it faster with the bubbler else I’d think not a huge change.

Test kit for fish-in cycle eg api freshwater master test kit worth considering. My tap water used to be about 8.1 straight out of tap, overnight it off-gassed to give say 7.7 and tank runs at 7.4 normally. I inject CO2 for plants so ph can drop to 6.6 there. Mainly chasing ph never works as each water change resets it anyway unless doing a specific tank or breeding imo. Better to get fish to suit tap ph and most fish are pretty adaptable / bred now in tap water anyways it seems.