ph

[TASHANCRAIG]

my ph is sitting at around 8 is this normal????? i have neons tiger barbs n plecos!!!!

 

[neilanh]

That's a little high, but it's better for it to be stable at 8 than moving it around trying to control it with phdown or something. If you're fish are happy and you're not specifically trying to breed them, I'd leave it be.

 

[Mardel]

I brought home a beautiful male gourami last year, put in the tank with 2 angelfish, and it died the next day. I thought it was the wrong ph even though my angelfish were doing fine. The ph was around 8; since then I've kept the ph at 7-7.2 and the angelfish lay eggs and have grown big. I would like to try a gourami again, but certainly don't want to watch it die!! Could it have been the ph?

 

[TASHANCRAIG]

yes i bought some ph down put dont wanna use it if poss as better not to add to many chemicals i did another test after water change and think the colour was more a 7.5 colour which is bit better any tips on gettin the ph down natural ??? could it be because of slight ammonia that the ph is high ???? plus have my temp at 30c at moment sorting the white spots i saw on my pleco which are now going away all fish seem fine to at the min swimming around eating ok and chasin each other

 

[Mardel]

I bought 10 gallons of spring bottled water and 4 gallons of distilled. The distilled is very acidic which brings down the ph in the spring water. Combining all that with the water in my 12 gal tank I ended up with the 20 gal tank havin about a 7.2 ph. That way I don't have to worry about the chlorine in tap water.

 

[jsoong]

yes i bought some ph down put dont wanna use it if poss as better not to add to many chemicals i did another test after water change and think the colour was more a 7.5 colour which is bit better any tips on gettin the ph down natural ??? could it be because of slight ammonia that the ph is high ???? plus have my temp at 30c at moment sorting the white spots i saw on my pleco which are now going away all fish seem fine to at the min swimming around eating ok and chasin each other

pH down is not the way to go .... The lowering of the pH is going to be temporary, so you will end up with the pH bouncing up & down, which is worse than the original pH if it was stable.

To doctor the water, you need to understand buffers & how to manipulate them. This is not really needed unless you are trying to breed fish. As long as the pH is stable, I would leave it be.

The first thing I would do is to check the pH of your tap water. If the pH is the same, and the tank pH remains stable, I would leave it be.