Consensus on PH?

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Thanks BrianNY and Tankgirl for the info and suggestions.

My tap water PH is a little lower than the tank at around 7.6. My KH in the tank and tap water is 120ppm (sorry I don’t know how to convert that to the standard scale that everyone seems to use. Is it the same as the GH scale?).

My tank hasn’t even finished cycling yet, so perhaps the PH will drop over time as you’ve suggested. Meanwhile, anyone want to buy a hardly used PH drip test kit and a bottle of Quick-dip test strips?! :)
 
I think that means your KH is around 6+. I believe for each degree of hardness it's something like 17.6ppm. If that's the case, I'd try and lower it. The use of peat should work. :)
 
Would it be wise to use a RO system, for the water that I will be using in my aquarium? :?:

Where I live, we all have our own wells, I did have my water tested but I can not remember the results. The PH was around 7.5 and the KH and TDS were both very high. I was told that a RO system would lower the PH of my water and basically remove the KH and TDS. I already have a RO system for drinking water, so I was just going to use this water.
 
There is nothing wrong with keeping fish in a pH of 7.5, which is about what my tap water is, and many would like it. It depends upon what kind of fish you want to keep. If your KH is high it will help keep your pH stable, which is good, but if you already use RO water to drink then it is easy enough to use it for your aquarium. There are many people who do this, for various reasons. Here is an article about it:
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/showquestion.php?faq=2&fldAuto=25
 
{Lurker coming out of hiding with comment} This subject (pH) is causing a huge load of stress in my life!! I would love for someone to come out and say 'don't worry about it'! I have a 44 gallon goldfish tank with 3 fish, set up for about 2 months and a 20 gallon tank about 9 months old(contains 1 lonely cory cat - rest died), and a 2.5 g betta tank. This winter my tanks' pH has gone wild, up, up, up -all of them. I can't measure it because the dropper kits only go to about 8.6 or so. Incidently, I have a pH meter on order. I have a high kh, also. It took 20 drops to change color and I think that means over 200ppm (?)
It's not my gravel, decorations, etc..... Here's the kicker, the tap water comes out at 7.8-8.0, after leaving it set in a cup for a couple of days, the pH goes over 8.6 as well. Peat does not work, repeat-does not work, I tried it. It just turned the tank brown. pH down does not work, within 24 hours the pH is back off the charts. I can't afford CO2 or RO water so hopefully someone will tell me "don't worry about it"!!!
I would really like to add some more fish to the 20g but I don't want to kill them.
History: My pH was a stable 8.0 until November or December, I have city water with a house filter and water softener.
Any ideas??
Melissa
 
Just an FYI, crushed oyster shell works as well as crushed coral for buffering up your PH, and oyster beds are a lot more sustainable a resource than coral reefs.
 
Very, very cool thread, I can't believe I missed it for so long.

My theory on ph: Wild-caught fish should be kept in ph at least somewhere near the habitat they came from.

Tank bred/raised fish, the longer they have been in the hobby (the more generations bred in captivity) the more tolerant they are of ph differing from their original habitat. I belive that it's sort of a speeded-up evolution, those species that Humans could breed succesfully and commercially will become more tolerant of differing ph, because the ones that don't, die in the fry tank. After many generations, we end up with fish much more tolerant of differing ph conditions than their wild ancestors. Same goes for temperature, to a degree (pun intended) :roll: and perhaps other water conditions also, such as tolerance to nitrogenous waste products in tanks.

This is just a theory, mind you, I have no science to back me up, only years of fishkeeping experience.

I've also done a good deal of reading on keeping native North American fish, which, as you may know, are most often wild-caught or have just a few generations bred in captivity. The authors of these various articles/books pretty much always stress very specific water parameters to keep the fish alive, and super-specific for breeding. I'd love to see 20+ years down the road if they still need the same parameters.

I hope I haven't strayed too far off topic here, but this theory is one of my favorites, and I've never really had the chance to express it fully here on the board.
 
OT, but don't get me started on Virginia's policies concerning the Chesapeake bay, TankGirl. The Oyster population in the Chesapeake has utterly crashed in the last half century, its not that easy to sustain oyster beds in the cheasapeake, too damn many people live in the watershed. (Not all VAs fault, I have more problems with their fishing/crabbing/pollution regulations.)
 
Point taken, CC. My mother just retired from the Bureau of Shellfish Sanitation, so some of my earlier memories are regarding Kepone in the Chesapeake! She was responsible for closing estuaries from fishing/crabbing due to farmland runoff issues (don't even bring up septic systems 8O ) and we are just now seeing increased crab population in the Chesapeake. My mother will not eat an oyster from around here, though, hmmm....

We have property on the East River, though, and oyster and clam shells are plentiful, as far as a supply of buffering material for my personal tanks.

Okay, back to your regularly scheduled thread. :oops:
 
Just my two cents worth on this thread, I just now found it, even though it seems to have been dormant for a while. I tend to agree with Brian's original statement that most fish dont 'need' their pH extremely fine tuned, although, every fish does have their own range that they prefer it in. Whether or not they need it is irrelivant to me, personally, I just like to have it around the level where they perfer it, just for the simple fact that they do overall, seem to be more vibrant, active, and all in all, just happier, but, as I said, in most cases, at least in freshwater, no, they dont need their pH nailed down to a science
 
I agree that test kit readings are primarily to indicate ball park figures and large changes. I have taken water to the local PETCO to be tested. I use the vials and drops. Water that tested perfect for ammonia and nitrates with my kit tested high, but they use 5 in 1 test strips. My tanks have been up and running for months with no problems. If their readings had been accurate, my fish would have been dropping like flys. Ont thing I did find, was that adding even a DIY co2 system can cause drastic PH shifts.I just built a system for my mollie tank. The PH dropped from 7.1 to 6.3 overnight! :eek:
 
Wow this thread is incredible....loads of info and still no consenus..I myself have been worried about my pH (7.8) (reference another thread)and now Im more confused than ever...try to fix it or leave it be...try to fix it or leave it be??? I am going to do more research on the hardness of my water and figure out from there.
 
i no longer worry about pH and my fish do better now than when i was fooling with chemicals. i think pH tends to stabilize all by itself in a healthy tank.
 
The Ph is more important when dealing with species of fish that require a PH that is farther away for nuetral than the norm. If a fish requires a Ph of 6.5 it would not be wise to keep them in a Ph of say 7.8. This goes both ways.

For the most part alot of fish can be kept in a wide range of Ph and trying to alter the Ph when you do not really need to could result in fish losses.

If your tap is 6.8-7.8 ph I would work with the Ph you have and keep fish that are most comfortable with the ph of your tap water.

For those who must keep fish at the extremes of Ph requirements I would research and understand exactly what is required before going out and purchasing those types of fish.

OH! and the cheap guppy statement doesnt hold true :) some guppies can cost over $25 a pop. All depends on what kind you want.

Anyhow no matter what fish you keep research and understand each fishes requirements and their ph tolerance range. Thats the least you can do for the them.
 
I think that the PH should be done by consensus. If there is soem discrepancy in the Ph values, then simply do a third and fourth tets if you feel strongly about it. The dropper gives something that is correct with an acceptable error involved. So, with each drop there's a percentage off error times 3 for a test,a nd your results are wrong. Plus, the chemicals may be diff. Either way, just do a consensus. But, my advice is to that its acceptable for cichlids, unless your talking discus, to go with a cheap test kits reading. Also, does anyone know of a calcium enriched food? I have a Zebra Crayfish, and he has'nt molted for the past 6 months...Any ideas?
 
Hikari Krab Kuisine should do the trick, and reef iodide (not iodine) added to the tank will assist him as well. Increasing KH is a good idea if that is lacking.

Post a new thread if these measures are not helpful- :wink:
 
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