high ph

[bruceamoose]

I am not completely new to fish keeping. I have had many tanks before but for some reason since the last time I had fish (5 years ago) my local water (county water) has gone from ph of 6.5 to 8.5.
I have a 20 gallon tank that I can not get the ph below 7.8-8.0. I am running a under gravel filter with two power heads and a Aqua Clear 20 Power Filter with all the normal filter media plus a bag of Sera Super Peat and a 6" piece of Mopani Driftwood, normal rock as a substrate. This tank has run with this combination for over a month and the ph is still 7.8. I am at a loss of what to do. As stated above, the last time I had fish I had no problem with my ph staying at about 6.8-7.2 so this high ph is new to me.
Yes I know I could go with fish that like a high ph. But what I would like to have is 1 angel fish and a few corys and a few neons.

My question is what can I do to help lower my ph that will not be a constant battle or should I just give up and go with some fish that like ph, and if that is the case what type would go well in a 20

Thanks in advance

 

[HandyAndy]

My tap water has a high ph, too. Trying to fight it is a waste of time and money. It's less stressful for the fish to deal the higher, stable ph than deal with big swings at pwc time. Both my community tanks are happy at 7.8 ph. I do let my pwc water sit in jugs for a week before I use it so it can "gas out" but it doesn't seem to help much. It just makes me feel better! Lol!

 

[librarygirl]

A PH of 7.8 is fine. Most fish will adapt to your PH as long as it's stable. Messing with it can end up causing more problems.

 

[Convict2161]

All the above are true but I will add from experience...

Yes "most" fish will adapt and 7.8 pH is most definitely ok.

Just keep an eye on things and test because tap water pH can change without notice. It happen to me.

I was fine not buffering my water with my African cichlids in it and then with no warning to myself or notice my tap water appears to have dropped drastically. Something with the local water company for whatever reason. Went from 7.2-7.6 to 6.0!!

Just test, that's my advice but the above post are correct and most fish nowadays are tank bred and kept in a lower pH anyway. I not not your specific question as you stated higher pH is your issue. Wish I had your issue.

Best of luck. Here's a video of what the drastic drop I'm pH did. Good thing I got thirsty and went for an ice cold glass of milk and noticed this horrible sight.

http://youtu.be/cAGb4Fr9K20

 

[Coz]

My lfs has all their water at a ph of 8. My water is 8.2 out of the tap and they told me not to worry

 

[bruceamoose]

So what I got from everone's post is that I am stuck with a ph of 7.5 + and really should not mess with it.

I have tried to acclimate the fish and with in 24 hours they were dead, lfs said it was because of the high ph. What is the best way to acclimate the fish. I slowly added water to the bag that was floating for over a hour.

 

[Hholly]

I'm betting you had bad stock or something else went wrong. I keep angelfish at 8.3pH with no problems. Hope you figure it out. Do you know your other parameters? Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate?

 

[bruceamoose]

All my other test are fine. What I would like to know is: why has drift wood and peat moss not brought my ph down?

 

[ktomminello]

Eek, lol, but 8.0 for a freshwater norm is kind of an oddity to me.... My saltwater norm is 8.3, water out of my tap is 7.9... I have a suggestion, as far as your driftwood goes- "cure" it by soaking it in distilled water, and I thought peat moss caused your ph to raise....

 

[Hholly]

Eek, lol, but 8.0 for a freshwater norm is kind of an oddity to me.... My saltwater norm is 8.3, water out of my tap is 7.9... I have a suggestion, as far as your driftwood goes- "cure" it by soaking it in distilled water, and I thought peat moss caused your ph to raise....

Peat is supposed to lower pH from everything I've read.

 

[Coz]

I just read some great articles on seachem website about ammonia and ph. Basically it said that as you raise ph the concentration of free ammonia goes up and ionized ammonia goes down. Free ammonia is toxic. Ionized is not. So, if your lfs has water at 7 and you mix in your water at 8. The result will likely be 8 because your hard water has a lot more buffers. When that happens the free ammonia can go way up. Seachems example says from ph7 to ph8.3 it will jump 20x even though total ammo doesnt change. So if you acclimate your lfs fish by floating and adding your water to theirs you could be poisoning your fish. My suggestion would be to add some Prime to your bag as your floating your fish. This will convert free ammonia back to ionized.

 

[phin]

If you still want to try and lower your pH, you can try Seachem. Neutral Regulator

Depending on the KH of your water you may need to use it for up to a week, but once you get the pH at 7.0, you should only need to use it sparingly and during water changes.

 

[Hholly]

As long as pH is stable, it's fine and fish will adapt.