PH level question also its urgent !

[patrickriley2010]

Okay so I'm jn the process of changing my substrate from large gravel to sand.

I have my fish in tank water in a 5 galling bucket with an air bubbler .


I tested the ph out of my tap this is what I got



The high ph isn't even a color in the chart it was like a fuschia ? And it was I retested it 3 times.


Next was the tank water from the bucket results made more sense here so I guess the ph is between these 2 ? Like 7.7? Idk how the ph test works still






And here is all of them next to eachother it goes

Tap low, high. Tank low high






And here is a close up of the high ph from tap ? Is it just that it wasn't able to calculate it or it was high? Not sure what is going on?

I tried my best to show that it is pink you can kind of tell in this picture




Please help I need to Finnish this all and get my fish back in their tank they are all stressed out in the bucket

3 long fin zebra danios
1 danio
1 dwarf gourami
1 comet platy


I'm worried about the change in ph from new tank water to old I have about 35% old tank water to mix in.

 

[tarpon]

It looks to me like it's in between the 8.4 and 8.8 straight out of the tap.
The Ph and high range Ph are testing the same thing if I'm not mistaken, they just detect different ranges of Ph, if it maxes out the low one, then you use the high range test to see what it actually is.
And if you let the water age in a bucket with a bubbler, the Ph will stabilize, which is why it's lower in the bucket test. Which is good, because instead of fluctuating in your tank it's already dropped
People will actually age their water in buckets with bubblers to stabilize the Ph and let chlorine evaporate out

 

[patrickriley2010]

It looks to me like it's in between the 8.4 and 8.8 straight out of the tap.
The Ph and high range Ph are testing the same thing if I'm not mistaken, they just detect different ranges of Ph, if it maxes out the low one, then you use the high range test to see what it actually is.
And if you let the water age in a bucket with a bubbler, the Ph will stabilize, which is why it's lower in the bucket test. Which is good, because instead of fluctuating in your tank it's already dropped

The tank is 20 I just emptied 50% Into to 5 gallon buckets.

Tested the water form the bucket will my fish be fine if I do 50%tap and 50% old tank water when I refill it?


Also the ph if it is what you think would kill my fish

 

[Mebbid]

The tank is 20 I just emptied 50% Into to 5 gallon buckets.

Tested the water form the bucket will my fish be fine if I do 50%tap and 50% old tank water when I refill it?


Also the ph if it is what you think would kill my fish

You might want to go through an acclimation process to add the fish into the water. It is difficult to say what your pH will be after it gets mixed. If possible at all I would fill the tank with dechlorinated water and run a bubbler and the filter for a few hours and then test the pH to see if it is a closer match.

 

[tarpon]

Your ph level is fine in my opinion, most fish will adjust to the ph level they live in,
And I do 50% water changes with unaged water in my 30 gallon all the time, I don't think you have to worry about it since you don't have very sensitive fish, and they will appreciate the clean water, just make sure to use dechlorinator.

This is just my opinion, you can age the other 50% as said above

 

[patrickriley2010]

You might want to go through an acclimation process to add the fish into the water. It is difficult to say what your pH will be after it gets mixed. If possible at all I would fill the tank with dechlorinated water and run a bubbler and the filter for a few hours and then test the pH to see if it is a closer match.

Going to be a long night then :/ already 12:24 and I'm adding a little water back to the tank to comb through the last of my gravel to check for danio fry

 

[aqua_chem]

Measuring pH out of tap is usually not a good measure of anything. There are often volatile chemicals in the tap that will offgas once they get into a tank (especially with good agitation). My parent's tap is quite basic, off the chart by API's standards, but comes down to a normal 7.4 once it's been allowed to aerate in a tank.

 

[patrickriley2010]

Measuring pH out of tap is usually not a good measure of anything. There are often volatile chemicals in the tap that will offgas once they get into a tank (especially with good agitation). My parent's tap is quite basic, off the chart by API's standards, but comes down to a normal 7.4 once it's been allowed to aerate in a tank.

It's still testing pinkish but now its more of a water melon pink




Mixed 40-60 old water to new water. And this is what it's showing :/

When testing do you hold the glass against the color sheet or hover it because been I hover the color matches

 

[patrickriley2010]

Big air stone little airstone and filters making bubbles and a sack or old substrate to try and keep as much BB as possible

 

[patrickriley2010]

Got my ph level to be within .4 and put the fish in

. When testing I found that the colors match up better when you hold them slight above the white when they are the white they look way darker and match nothing