We live in an area that the water is hard, so I would think our pH should be high, but it is under 6.2 (using mid range drops). We keep up with the mantainance, but even after a water change is doesn't come up very much and quickly becomes acidic. We have used 7.0 buffer and pH up, but nothing really helps. Anyone have any suggestions? It is a 55 gallon tank with undergravel and above tank filters. There are 8 fish and two snails in the tank.
2006-10-29 07:23:35 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Pets ➔ Fish
Stay away from the chemicals, not good. Usually the ph ends up crashing causing more harm. A stable ph is better then one that fluctuates-from using chemicals, and most fish can adjust to the ph. Here's a couple of forums, pretty much says the same thing though. One does have some advice for adding something to the tank to increase/decrease the water hardness.
http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=24947
http://www.tetra-fish.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2737
2006-10-29 07:38:59 · answer #1 · answered by tikitiki 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I have pretty much the same setup as you and my Ph gets low too. I'm able to keep my on the low end around 8 (10 being optimum). You said that you have hard water where you live so I'm guessing you use tap water for water changes. I'm sure that you treat the water but I think it would be alot better for you to use distilled water and add salt. I would also get rid of the undergravel filter. The product I use to raise the alkalinity is called "Reef builder" by Seachem. It should help.
2006-10-29 09:35:47 · answer #2 · answered by ME 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
We have a 55 gallon fish tank with like 22 fish in it. We have a kit called Frehwater Master Test Kit. It tests the ph, highrange ph, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. In it it says hat the normal ph range should be between 6.0 and 7.6. We live in a town that the water is considred bad to drik and we test our tank every so ofen. So I think your ph balance would be fine.
2006-10-29 10:31:49 · answer #3 · answered by acmommy 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You need to check the gH and kH of your tap water. With tap water, the municipality can be adding strong bases such as sodium hydroxide and soda ash to raise pH to prevent solubilizing heavy metals from the supply pipes. A high pH well water may have very low KH, and could crash (your reading of 6.2) upon being oxygenated because the bases precipitate out of solution.
So, instead of trying to change the pH, you most likely need to raise your kH and the pH will follow.
2006-10-29 07:39:35 · answer #4 · answered by Jamie 1 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Maybe buy some additives that soften the water? Sorry if you've already done this!
2006-10-29 07:32:27 · answer #5 · answered by Grace H 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
any driftwood in your tank?
that lowers the ph too.
2006-10-29 09:20:49 · answer #6 · answered by professorminh 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
if you go to your loca aquarium they should be able to give you a water conditioner that will soften the water.....sounds like you are doing everything else......
2006-10-29 07:26:55 · answer #7 · answered by askaway 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋