high ph

[zarmalar]

Do my 10 gal has high ph. 8.4. My nitrates and nitrites at 0, amm. At .5
My tank has been running for 3 ish weeks with 3 zebra danios.
I know the water out of our tap is hard. But the water tested 180 for alkalinity.
Lady at lfs suggested I get spring water from Walmart to do a water change to hopefully help lower ph.
I did test the tap waters ph and it was high too.
So does it sound right that its just the tap water causing issues?

 

[KJurgelewicz]

pH will fluctuate during the cycle process, which it sounds like you are still in since you have no nitrates and your ammonia is up.

What pH does your tap water have? You said high, but does it have a pH of 8.4 or is it lower then that?

 

[rreekers]

sometimes drift wood can help lower the PH a bit, its pretty cheep and a nice natural deco, i would say since it is only a 10g tank, go to walmart of grocery store and buy some jugs of distilled or reverse osmosis water... keep the jugs and find a refill station (at grocery store) generally cost about 0.35 per gallon if you refill previous jugs.

- do not add PH down chemicals, they generally cause more issues. they can cause massive swings that will kill your fish.
do you have any live plants?
also you could consider adding Prime to your tank, a bottle cost around $10 at the LFS, it will last you forever, 5ml (1capful) is enough for 50g .. that may help you get your tank more stable
. just some ideas.

 

[Johny]

My tap water (and tank) are consistently between 7.8 and 8.4. I have read that some fish are sensitive to pH but unless you can tell that it seriously stresses you fish I wouldn't worry too much. You can do a lot more damage Texting to adjust and maintain pH than just leaving it be.

 

[Johny]

My tap water (and tank) are consistently between 7.8 and 8.4. I have read that some fish are sensitive to pH but unless you can tell that it seriously stresses your fish I wouldn't worry too much. You can do a lot more damage trying to adjust and maintain a "perfect" pH than just leaving it be.

 

[Johny]

Sorry for double post. Phone network is struggling today. Second post should have all my corrections.

 

[librarygirl]

I'd take a glass of tap water and let it sit out for 24 hours and then test PH again and see where it is. Sometimes it can come out of the tap at one reading and then either drop or rise to another reading once it gasses out and that's usually what the tank's PH is. I wouldn't worry though as long as the PH stays stable you should be fine for most fish; messing with it can cause more harm than good.

Your larger concern is your ammonia. .5 is approaching toxic levels so you should probably do a larger water change to get it down under .25. Good luck!

 

[zarmalar]

Yea the tap ph was 8.4 too. I didn't want to add chemicals to lower cause I figured I could do something else before going spending money on chemicals. She told me about the ph down but did not recommend it.I already bought 5 gal of the spring water she suggested. I tested the ph of that and it read 7.4. Is that going to be ok?
Yes my tank is still cycleing

 

[rreekers]

I would just continue to use distilled or RO water, do a 2-3 water changes... your tank is fine and should only get better from here good luck! keep us posted
and keep us updated in your water parameters!

 

[rreekers]

worry less about Ph and more about your ammonia, nitrITes, Nitrate.

 

[librarygirl]

Yea the tap ph was 8.4 too. I didn't want to add chemicals to lower cause I figured I could do something else before going spending money on chemicals. She told me about the ph down but did not recommend it.I already bought 5 gal of the spring water she suggested. I tested the ph of that and it read 7.4. Is that going to be ok?
Yes my tank is still cycleing

Spring water is ok as long as it's spring and not distilled (Dasani, etc) and it has some minerals in it (most do I think). You just want to stick with one water source though as changes can be hard on the fish. Also if you do use it add it slowly over a few water changes. I think your tap is fine though. I wouldn't recommend distilled or RO water as it's stripped of minerals and you'd need to add those back in with something like RO Rite or Replenish.

 

[zarmalar]

Yes its these big jug 2.5 gal from Walmart and it says spring water on the label.