Do Fertilizers raise the PH??

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MantisX

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Nov 19, 2003
Messages
141
Location
Roxboro, N.C.
I am having a ph problem and it is getting really stressing on my fish. My ph is around 7.2-7.4 when it should be about 6.6-6.8. Would the fertilizers I add raise the ph level somehow? I tested the water from my faucet and the ph is perfect so it only changes when put into the tank. I use the flourish line of fertilizers. Perhaps I need to make another batch of c02 to get the ph down? Also, what are ways to lower the ph that I could do slowly to avoid stressing the fish anymore? Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

MantisX
 
Wait a minute. Why do you want to decrease the pH? Fishes acclimate quite well at another pH. And 7.2-7.4 is not far off from 6.6-6.8. So I doubt that this is stressing your fishes (unless they are well known to absolutely not tolerate anything else than 6.6-6.8).

Ammonia is increasing pH generally. What are your ammonia/nitrite/nitrate readings?
 
astroguy,
Mantis's point is that the tap pH is 6.6-6.8...but the aquarium tests 7.2-7.4.

My suggestion, Mantis, is to get a bucket of tap water, cover it loosely, put in an airstone (to outgas CO2) and see what the pH is after 24 hours.

Flourish ferts should not be raising pH at all. I suspect that, due to winter months, your tap water is holding more CO2 than usual, thus giving a 'lower than true' pH level immediately out of the tap. by outgassing the CO2, you'll get a better pH reading, which I'd guess will be more in agreement with tank pH.

that said, 7.2 isn't bad for a tank at all. Unless you have specific fish that need a more acidic water, there's no need to freak out over a 7.2-.4 pH.
 
Gregg-
Thanks, because I truly missed the point here. Mantis just says that the water is "fine", and I assume it was "7.0". Anyway, I support your view that 7.2 is quite ok for fishes, generally.
 
Testing the water after it has rested is the only way to get a true tap water reading. Also do you know what that kH is of your water? Tank and tap?
 
My KH and GH both tested in at about 71.6ppm. I recently stopped pumping co2 due to me running out of yeast. Could this have been a problem for the fish with it suddenly stopping?

The fish in question are gold rams. They recently just got done laying eggs. Sadly, one of the males died today. Just a day ago, the only thing I saw wrong was he had lost alot of his color. Other than that, he swam and ate normally. Then the next day he is towards the top, occasionally sticking his nose out of the water and going back down. I've read these fish are sometimes fickle to water conditions which is why I brought up the ph. The ph is the only thing I can see that changed dramatically. Everything else is the same.

On the plus side, the seller will have more ready to ship in a few weeks, but I dont want to order them until I find out what happened in that water to kill a fish in such a weird way.

P.S. you guys rock :D

MantisX
 
My well water out of the tap is somewhere in the 5 ph range which is below my test kit's ability to evaluate. After sitting for 30 hours the other day my un adjusted well water PH was almost 6.6. This solved a long mystery for me as to why my Ph was rising to 7.5 even though I had been adding from 14 to 24 ppm of CO2. My target PH was 6.8 to 7 for water changes by adding a little bicarbonate.

Now I am anticipating finding out an accurate PH on my changes when my new digital ph tester arrives that I ordered from http://www.aquabotanic.com/abstore/index.html . Of course I'll still have to let the water sit for a day or so. .HTH :).
 
My well water out of the tap is somewhere in the 5 ph range which is below my test kit's ability to evaluate. After sitting for 30 hours the other day my un adjusted well water PH was almost 6.6. This solved a long mystery for me as to why my Ph was rising to 7.5 even though I had been adding from 14 to 24 ppm of CO2. My target PH was 6.8 to 7 for water changes by adding a little bicarbonate.

Now I am anticipating finding out an accurate PH on my changes when my new digital ph tester arrives that I ordered from http://www.aquabotanic.com/abstore/index.html . Of course I'll still have to let the water sit for a day or so. .HTH :).
 
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