ph problem

[skenny]

ph issues HELP

i have had a very low ph of 6 for the last couple of months. my kh level is at about 80 and my gh is at 0. the weird thing is that my tap water has a ph of 8. what should i do.

 

[meegosh]

What do you have in your tank? Substrate, decor, etc? Something must be dropping the ph.

 

[skenny]

i just have regular gravel and some ordinary decorations

 

[skenny]

im trying proper ph 7.0 but its not working very well

 

[BigJim]

What do you have in the tank?

By the way, most of us would kill to accidentally end up with 6.0pH.

 

[meegosh]

I would stay away from the ph up and down products. They are only temporary fixes. The only chemicals I use is Prime when doing my water changes. What type of fish do you have? You might not even need to do anything.

PS - Please refrain from posting the same thing multiple times. Just be patient.

 

[skenny]

i have one angel fish now but would like to restock with clown loaches, cory cats and idk you have any suggestions. what can i do about low gh and kh. and im useing the proper ph 7.0 not the ph up.

 

[taylorodw]

Skenny, the "proper" pH is a bad idea. Any sort of pH altering chemical starts to be dangerous territory.

Your water is like Amazon black water. Angels like that sort of water, it's almost exactly what they have in their natural habitat. Same with cory cats. Leave your pH and gh alone (unless you are trying to go with plants). Your kh is actually perfect.

What size tank do you have? That would help us give stock suggestions. BigJim is right, I would love to have water like yours.

 

[skenny]

my ph is actually 5.5 how about baking soda to raise the kh

 

[skenny]

i have a 20 gallon tank any suggestions

 

[taylorodw]

Raising the KH of the tank with baking soda will not impact your pH, which is what you're worried about. The KH is fine.

However since your water comes out of the tap at such highe pH you could use texas holy rock, or limestone to raise your KH, GH, and pH.