Ph Question

[Japola44]

I just got a new testing kit tonight the AP master kit for fresh water. So of course i open it and test it out. I haven't tested in awhile my bad... but back to my point. My Ph was at 8.0
The rest of my test read out normal and fine...
Is it ok to keep it at 8.0? I heard it should be lower but i don't know how i could lower it :? . Help is appreciated. TIA

This is in my 20 gal fyi

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Stable is always better than adding chemicals. Either leave it be or add driftwood.

If you want to lower it a little naturally, try a piece of driftwood. But remember, either boil it or soak it a couple weeks first, as it will leech out tannins, which won't hurt the fish. It'll just discolor your water a bit. I use driftwood to keep my ph down some, or it would be in the upper 7's.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

The driftwood may help a little bit, but it won't bring it down much. If you haven't had any problems with your fish recently, then I wouldn't worry about the pH. A stable pH is better than a perfect pH. Just make sure you slowly acclimate new additions if they are not coming from a lfs that is in the same water district.

 

[QTOFFER]

I'll add a third voice in favor of stable over perfect. Perfect pH is usually important only if you are tryig to breed fish.

If your pH is 8, I'd wager that your hardness is high too. What this means is that your water probably contains dissolved mineral salts that act as a buffer against big pH changes. You could test this with a GH/KH kit if you are interested.

 

[malkore]

Yep, stable is best. But what you can do is take some plain tap water, let it sit out overnight, then test it with your new kit. Assuming you're using tap water in the tank (and not adding anything or cutting with RO water) the tank and tap should have the same pH.

If there's a big discrepancy, you'll wanna figure out why.

with 8.0, some species won't like your water. the more delicate softwater tetra may be stressed, and I wouldn't try to keep something like German blue rams. But by and large, most species will be fine in that setup.

 

[Japola44]

ok thanks! I tested my 55 gal that i set up last night and the pH was 7.6. My guess would be that something from when i kept my gecko in the aquarium might have buffered my pH a little.
My dad also said that there were naturally a lot of minerals in the tap, because in colorado it come from the mountians and i can go into more detail, but pretty much colorado has a lot of minerals in the water. We also have flouride...i wonder if that has any affect on the pH