High ph doesn't matter? From everything I've heard,read, and encountered it DEFINITELY does matter. Depending on fish type of coarse.
I didn’t say it didn’t matter. I’m saying that it is 100% not harmful and has nothing to do with your fish deaths. Out of all the possible parameters I’m curious why you honed in on pH?
What about harmful nitrogenous compounds like ammonia? What about diseases, oxygen, or poor acclimation. Why pH? Is it because it’s easy to measure? Is is because pH is the first hit on google? Did you specifically search for pH and go from there? I’m genuinely curious.
Very few people understand pH yet its the first thing people seem mention.
Do you know why you are concerned about it? Do you know what pH your fish prefer? How do you know they cannot tolerate or thrive at high pH?
Did you know that there is a 100% probability that there are people who have the same species of fish as you do surviving well at a high pH? If we know that this is true then pH will never be the problem.
We do know that ammonia kills fish and that nitrite and nitrate poisoning is real though the latter two uncommon in fish tanks. We also know that long term exposure to poor oxygen leads to all kinds of problems and that rapid fluctuations in salt concentration force fish to expend high amounts of energy energy and we certainly know that new tanks can be volatile in terms chemical stability and that mature tanks offer a much safer environment for out inhabitants.
We also know that most water treatment chemicals contain excessive amounts of sodium and chloride which can be harmful to fish.
These are the things that we need to get right because these are the things that are repeatably proven to kill your ecosystem.
Unfortunately, its easy and common practice for websites to extract information from one another to bulk up their sites with information but most of it is just not relevant and are based on myth and in the words of a popular aquatic plant enthusiast ‘a good myth is hard to kill’
Fail safe methods are to obtain an airstone. Though they are not mandatory they are fool proof with many benefits. Remove and replace water regularly. Add plants, have patience and keep things as stable as possible and all the good things about the hobby will follow.
