8.4 ph

[joels3400]

Hello all,

I have a 20 gallon tank that has been set up for about a year. In that time period, I've had about 20 fish total (not at one time) but they never seem to last more than 3 or 4 months. Most of them have been platys.

My PH out of the tap is 8.6 so I've been mixing 50% distilled and it has settled to 8.3-8.4 by doing that. I'm not sure if my fish have been dying from the high PH or some other factor. I did fight a little bit of an internal parasite battle which I don't know was ever solved. Some of the fish seem to be hungry but when they bite the food, they don't seem to get much. Only seems to affect some of the fish though.

Currently, I have 4 platys (3 new in the last week) and an Otto (which amazingly has been in there for more than 6 months). I do have some API General Cure. Should I try using that? Should I try and lower my PH? Any information would be helpful. Thanks.

 

[keegster803]

Water parameters?
Is your tank cycled?


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[joels3400]

Water parameters have always been great as I check regularly with the API liquid tests. It's just my PH that is concerning.

The tank was fully cycled and have never had a big ammonia problem after I added fish after the 6 weeks of fishless cycling.

 

[keegster803]

The Ph shouldn't be an issue, as the fish can adjust to the Ph


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[BBradbury]

Your Tank

Hello joe...

A few things: A 20 gallon tank is pretty small for a large fish like a Platy. A 30 G or larger would be better. The water chemistry is more stable in a larger tank. I keep a lot of Red Wag and Sunset Platys, but the smallest tank is 40 gallons.

Attempting to change the water chemistry isn't recommended. Platys are generally very hardy fish and would tolerate most, if not all public water supplies. Just use a water treatment like Seachem's "Safe" and don't do anything else to the tap water. Change half weekly and the fish will be fine.

Chemicals other than the standard water treatment should never going into the tank. You don't know how the fish, plants and good bacteria will be affected.

Plant the tank well with Hornwort and Anacharis, these are natural water filters and help maintain a level water chemistry between water changes.

B

 

[ExoticAquarist]

I would get some shell dwelling African cichlids. They are interactive, and pretty. They will also thrive on that pH range. The plates I would move out of the tank
. They are too big for it.


~ExoticAquarist, signing out

 

[Matt68005]

Guppies love hard alkaline water............hehe mine is like 8.4 out of the tap and 8-8.2 in my tanks, I have had fancy goldies, mollies, Cardinal tetras, black widow tetras, guppies, betas and koi. They all did fine in my water. Most of the water in the great plains is very hard and alkaline, because we farmers get our water from the limestone ogalala aquifer that covers (very conviently I might add) most of the plains and is great for farming. Its refilled by those torrential thunderstorms we get 1x a week or so during the summer. You can add certain kinds of substrate or rocks like volcanic rock or peat moss so that it naturally stays a little softer, I wouldn't worry about distilled water like others have said, they will have to get use to it.