My tank's PH, I need advice???

[kidgrave666]

So I have a 37 gallon tank. I have tested my house tap water and my tanks water and they both have a ph of 7.6 and I also tested both water for High Range ph and it came out to be 7.4

Well so far I have 6 black neon tetras, 2 neon tetras, 2 cardinal tetras, 1x Ghost Shrimp.

My ph has been stable, is my ph too high??? should I leave it alone? or should I try to lower my ph??? would you guys recommend me to use drift/bog wood? thanks

 

[Son1cbo0m]

6.5-7 is ideal afaik, but i have discus so i need to keep it aroudn that, if your worried abotu a high PH, throw in a almond leaf for a week, makes the water slightly dark, but lowers the PH

 

[jcolon]

So I have a 37 gallon tank. I have tested my house tap water and my tanks water and they both have a ph of 7.6 and I also tested both water for High Range ph and it came out to be 7.4

Well so far I have 6 black neon tetras, 2 neon tetras, 2 cardinal tetras, 1x Ghost Shrimp.

My ph has been stable, is my ph too high??? should I leave it alone? or should I try to lower my ph??? would you guys recommend me to use drift/bog wood? thanks

Your pH is in the same range as mine ... your fine. Fish will adapt to a tank's native stable pH which generally is equal to your PWC source (tap water). It's when people go around messing with pH to raise or lower with chemicals that problems start. pH swings can be deadly to fish if extreme enough. However ... adding DW to a tank is a natural easy way to lower pH slightly and add a nice decor to your tank .. no danger there IMO.

DW will turn your water a brownish tea color (tannins)... harmless to fish.
Should clear up in time with PWC's and filtration.

 

[kidgrave666]

6.5-7 is ideal afaik, but i have discus so i need to keep it aroudn that, if your worried abotu a high PH, throw in a almond leaf for a week, makes the water slightly dark, but lowers the PH

My tap water is at 7.6 ph and I do at least 10-15% PWC a week, so lets say I throw in a almond leaf would it even have an impact with those type of water changes? Or should I just leave the whole PH thing alone in my tank?

 

[kidgrave666]

Your pH is in the same range as mine ... your fine. Fish will adapt to a tank's native stable pH which generally is equal to your PWC source (tap water). It's when people go around messing with pH to raise or lower with chemicals that problems start. pH swings can be deadly to fish if extreme enough. However ... adding DW to a tank is a natural easy way to lower pH slightly and add a nice decor to your tank .. no danger there IMO.

DW will turn your water a brownish tea color (tannins)... harmless to fish.
Should clear up in time with PWC's and filtration.

Thank you very much for your advice. I wouldn't want to use chemicals so I prefer to use the whole Drift Wood method since it's a natural way to lower the PH and plus it looks very nice on the fish tank

I can't quite remember that good but I have read somewhere online that when it comes to drift wood that you have to put it in boiling water before adding it to the tank, so do you have any advice that you can give me when it comes to Drift Wood? If I were to add DW to my rank id have to take out a few plants to make room, so if my PH is fine like you said it is than I am not so sure about DW but If it makes my fish happier than I am willing to make room for it in my tank

 

[jcolon]

Well when it comes to DW, some members put it in the dishwasher and run it on high temp ... minus the dishes and detergents of course. Boiling it is to leach out some of the tannins before hand and to clean it out. If it's store bought aquarium DW, I'd say a good scrubbing before hand to remove dust and dirt is fine. Boiling also helps to soften the wood, and open up pores so it gets waterlogged and sink.

Some LFS DW like Mopani are labeled will sink so look for those.

 

[librarygirl]

I'm not sure why you think your PH Is too high, seems fine to me. As jcolon said messing with the PH can be more harmful to the fish than anything else. They've probably adapted well to your PH already, if you mess with it you could risk your fish.

Here's some quick info on preparing DW. You can do a site search for DW on here too, I know many members use it.

 

[kidgrave666]

Well when it comes to DW, some members put it in the dishwasher and run it on high temp ... minus the dishes and detergents of course. Boiling it is to leach out some of the tannins before hand and to clean it out. If it's store bought aquarium DW, I'd say a good scrubbing before hand to remove dust and dirt is fine. Boiling also helps to soften the wood, and open up pores so it gets waterlogged and sink.

Some LFS DW like Mopani are labeled will sink so look for those.

Thanks a lot for the advice. I have a dish washer but I am a bit skeptical about it because of the whole detergent thing so a little boiling sounds safer. Do you have DW on your tank?

 

[jcolon]

Here's some quick info on preparing DW. You can do a site search for DW on here too, I know many members use it.

That's a good simple / quick source for prepping DW ... I've bookmarked it for future reference.

 

[FishieMomma]

Thanks, LibraRygirl, for the link to prepping driftwood. I am finding all your posts very informative. This forum is great.

 

[kidgrave666]

I'm not sure why you think your PH Is too high, seems fine to me. As jcolon said messing with the PH can be more harmful to the fish than anything else. They've probably adapted well to your PH already, if you mess with it you could risk your fish.

Here's some quick info on preparing DW. You can do a site search for DW on here too, I know many members use it.

Well I am still new to the fish keeping hobby so I guess reading online about the tetras PH and seeing the PH in my fish tank made me wanna look into things and to gather as much information as I can. But adding some DW won't affect my tank right? and thank you very much for the link, I will look into it

 

[bruinsbro1997]

Well I am still new to the fish keeping hobby so I guess reading online about the tetras PH and seeing the PH in my fish tank made me wanna look into things and to gather as much information as I can. But adding some DW won't affect my tank right? and thank you very much for the link, I will look into it

Nope, it's quite the nice decoration. IMO you don't really need to change your pH, but if you feel the need for it to be necessary why not try it? pH is quite the overrated topic in this hobby so when you see that sentence online that says "your pH must be at 6.5 or the fish will die" ignore it, that only applies to rare and sensitive fish.

 

[kidgrave666]

Thanks a lot for your advice man. Yeah I have cardinal tetras and I see a lot of people saying that they are sensitive fish when it comes to Ph and I mean if that was true than they wouldn't be surviving on my 7.6 Ph lol. Thanks for your advice I will try to find some nice BW just to make my tank look nicer but I guess I will leave the whole ph thing alone, but I guess that your right on the whole ph thing being over rated lol.

 

[jcolon]

Thanks a lot for the advice. I have a dish washer but I am a bit skeptical about it because of the whole detergent thing so a little boiling sounds safer. Do you have DW on your tank?

Yep .. I bought a Mopani DW and I didn't boil it or anything, just dropped it in the tank. Of course it was in the tank for about 1-1/2 weeks before fish went in so the carbon in the filter took care of most of the tannins. Yep .. water had a nice tea color look.

I'm probably going to do some rearranging and getting another DW ... but one that has a more root like look.