More questions than I realized ;)

[BustedFrontBumper]

My pH is coming out of my tap at around 7.8. Should I be treating my water's pH before I put it into my tank? Would pH be effected by a water filter? Is pH connected to the hardness of my water, and so would a water softener help lower my pH?

Yeah, so my water is also fairly hard. I know because of the way everything looks in our dish drying rack. Good thing I like leapord print oh wait - that was someone else. Regardless, shortly (hopefully) I'm going to be putting in a whole-house water filter and softener. To complicate things I read recently that hard water is good for some plants like Java Ferns and Anubius Nana. They do not take to being buried in substrate and so acquire most of their nutrients from the water and so actually Like the bounty of trace elements in my hard water. ...Hmmm. So maybe I want a spigot in my basement before the water moves through the water softener? Now we're back to the pH question again.

And does the filter have an effect on any of this? I think I asked that already.

Four of my 6 Black Skirt Tetras are pale. They don't exhibite much coloring unless I catch them during the night. Then they seem to have much more black in their bottommost fin, but they quickly lose it. Could this be related to the lighting? pH? Are they scared? Hungry?

Does anyone know of a good plant species guide? Preferably online. I am looking but cannot find a site that has a wide variety, nice pictures, and sound information: pH, lighting, height, etc.

uh... I think that's all for now hah. Thank You!

 

[librarygirl]

A PH of 7.8 is pretty good. Most fish can adapt to your PH as long as it's stable, so I'd leave it alone; trying to mess with it often causes more problems in the long-run. You should treat the water before putting it into the tank by using a dechlorinator---not sure what you mean by treating the PH.

Is this a new tank? How long has it been set up? What other fish do you have? Have you checked parameters (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate)? If it's a new tank and the tank isn't cycled yet the fish could be exhibiting symptoms of ammonia or nitrite toxicity.

 

[Old Scales]

Good sites for online profiles & info:
Extraplant.com (Great plants, reasonable price, fast shipping)
Tropica.com (Based in Denmark but good for looking up plants)
Arizona Aquatic Gardens (Good info lookup site, but terrible people to deal with. Dunned me for $145 and I have no recourse. Never got my stuff and they won't reply to me) OS.

 

[matty2085]

Excellent sites there...thanks a lot for those. Especially tropica.com

 

[Old Scales]

You are very welcome. Lordy, I love the internet! OS.

 

[BustedFrontBumper]

A PH of 7.8 is pretty good...not sure what you mean by treating the PH.

I treat my water with ______ and allow my water to sit overnight with a heater in it to bring it up to temp before doing my water change the next day. What I meant was using something like API's pH Down on my new water before adding it to the tank, that way I can gradually bring my water back down to around 7 over a course of many water changes.

Is this a new tank? How long has it been set up? What other fish do you have? Have you checked parameters (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate)?

The tank was my father's for the last 12 years or more before I finally took it on this past August(2012) and moved it to my house. I have very high nitrate levels and I was told that's because of having not thoroughly washed the old gravel when I moved the tank. I have been siphoning and removing a lot. I went from monthly water changes of 10 gallons to weekly water changes of 4-5 gallons. I also added some sand before I really understood substrates and was trying to make it more hospitable to my 4 java ferns (which now I've learned don't like to be buried) but it's just made it harder to siphone out detritus. My ammonia, ammonium, and nitrites are all fine.

I have an aged 5" Silver Dollar, a 6" ghost knife, a 2.5" clown loach, 6 black fin tetras, 8 serpae tetras, and a little spotted pleco whose name i forgot but I looked for one specifically that would not grow more than 4 or 5 inches and that's what it is. it's only an inch or two long now.

And thank you, Old Scales. I had just found tropica. Awesome site. I will check the others out soon

fish seem to be doing better. I added my friend's 4yr old, 14" Anubias Barteri and they seem to love the extra cover. When I sat back and watched them from afar they all colored up and the tetras all grouped according to species and had a great time! haha

 

[Rivercats]

If or when you get a whole house water softner you don't want to use that water in your fish tanks. Reason being is when water is softened through such a system it exchanges the calcium and magnesium ions for sodium ions. Plants don't like sodium but use and both calcium and magnesium.

A ph of 7.8 is fine and yes your water hardness (gh and kh) are what determines you ph. You always want a Kh and Gh of 4 minimum for a planted tank. IMO Kh and Gh are more important in a planted tank than Ph is.

 

[BustedFrontBumper]

If or when you get a whole house water softner you don't want to use that water in your fish tanks.
A ph of 7.8 is fine and yes your water hardness (gh and kh) are what determines you ph.

That's awesome. Thanks for the insight and reassurance!