moldyform Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 GdayIve currently got a pH of around 8.1 in my tank and am struggling to get it lower.What is the ideal pH for these fish?Whats the best way to keep the pH stable?Could the little bit of shell grit I have in the substrate causing the rising pH?Should i be measuing the TDS? Or just the pH?Help would be greatCheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
semurphy Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 Fish will do better in a pH of 6.8-7. Best way of getting water stable is test the water, add pH down, then give it 10-20 minutes to circulate and dissolve. then test it again. therefore instead of testing the pH and changing it over a few days do it over a few hours. this should bring it to within the right levels. regular testing and alterations to the pH after the initial doses will keep it stable. after that should be pretty easy.The shell grit in the substrate would definitely be causing the increase. try and take it out, as well as any other forms of limestone. These will increase the pH and cause it to become more alkaline. pH is mainly the only thing i test for, I am unsure about the TDS though. good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moldyform Posted March 19, 2012 Author Share Posted March 19, 2012 Awesome Thanks for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skippy Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 therefore instead of testing the pH and changing it over a few days do it over a few hours. this should bring it to within the right levels.I've gotta disagree with the suggestion of dropping the pH rapidly, pH is a logarithmic scale so a pH of 8 is 10 x more alkaline than a pH of 7, that's quite a change for the fish to make in a couple of hours.Have you measured the pH of your tap water? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moldyform Posted March 19, 2012 Author Share Posted March 19, 2012 Yes, tap water is around 8 at the moment. But it seems to fluctuate from 7.5 up to 8.2.So a slow decrease of pH is the go?I might start by removing the shells and see how it goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Link2Hell Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 check your carbonate and general hardness as you can havea high pH but low carbonate levelfor the tetras neutral/acid is best so between 6.5 - 7.2 pHthe Guppies prefer higher pH so they will be fine in what youhave out the tapthere a numerous products that will reduce pH but you still needto know what carbonate value you have Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moldyform Posted March 20, 2012 Author Share Posted March 20, 2012 So a mid pH around 7.5 should satisfy both the tetra and guppies?Ill check the KH & GH sarvo. What should they be reading? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
semurphy Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 I work in a aquarium shop where we lower the pH of our tanks to neutral using this method all the time. Have never had any problems. Because the pH is at 8 it will take a lot of pH down to bring it down slowly as suggested, as usually pH rises again during the night. try it, see how it goes, if it doesn't take my advice and see how that goes.Of course it's always better for fish to transition conditions gradually, however when it comes to pH it's not so effective in practice, you may have some success with doing 0.5 at a time but any less than that you'll probably end up bashing your head against a wall when you're back to where you started the next day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
semurphy Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 as for the 7.5 pH to satisfy both, whilst guppies do better at slightly higher pH they can still thrive at the lower pH where as tetra (especially neons) are generally less forgiving and tend to choose death over adaptation when it comes to pH, so my advice would be sticking to a lower pH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moldyform Posted March 20, 2012 Author Share Posted March 20, 2012 Hi I did a 70% water change yesty. Prior to that I had a KH reading of 71ppm and a GH reading of 107.I also removed the majority of the shell grit (along with half teh substaite!)So ill see how it goes now.Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Link2Hell Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 good move to take out the shellgrit as this only adds to the calcium buffingremove any other things like shells or coral if you have any alsohardness levels aren't too excessive and with gradual reduction as Semurphy hasnoted should bring it down to Tetra happy as close to 7.0-7.2 as you can get itadding some wood will also help but may leach some tannins and give the watera brownish tinge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moldyform Posted March 21, 2012 Author Share Posted March 21, 2012 Got a fair amount of drift wood in there already.Some of the fish look a little bit sickly. Ill post some pics tomorrow. Thanks for the pointers guys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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