High Ph Level?

Question

All of my other tests came out perfect but my ph seems to be testing very Very high.. what are the best ways to bring it down and help maintain stable level? I have two goldfish (juvinelle) in a 10 gallon tank

I did not test straight out of the tap and it tested 8.0+ i tested out of my tank that has had a filter going in it for almost a month and a half..

I change 10-15% of the water every week

Answer 1

You are best not to try and mess with the pH of a tank. It is very, very hard to stabilize the pH in a tank, and an unstable pH WILL KILL your fish.

You don't say how high your pH is, but goldfish can tolerate very hard water with very high pH.

Answer 2

Did you test the tap water right out of the tap? That can skew the result; let the water sit overnight and test, you may find it to be lower.

If your tested your tank water, then there's not much you can do. pH is very difficult to bring down; products like "ph-down" will work for a couple days, but because the water has a high buffering capacity the pH will just climb back up again, which is very hard on your fish.

Is it possible that you have high ammonia or nitrite readings? You say your water conditions are perfect, so that probably isn't the case, but high ammonia and alter pH.

How high is the pH? Most fish can tolerate a fairly wide range of pH, and goldfish definitely can. If it's around 8.5-9, it's fine; if it's higher than that, you may want to look into getting bottled water or investing in a reverse osmosis unit for your tap water.

Other solutions include filtering the water through peat moss. Get a second filter (hang off the back) but do not put any filter sponge or carbon in it; instead, boil some peat moss (so it sinks) and put that in the filter box. You can get filter bags that you're supposed to be carbon in - just put peat moss in it, instead.
You can also put in an uncured piece of driftwood - the tannins that leach out will lower the pH.

However, those two methods aren't necessarily stable. If you must, try it, but do it all slowly and monitor your pH very closely. pH swings are hard on fish.

Answer 3

Some tap water comes out fairly high, and some fish like higher pH. The main concern for you is waste levels, Goldfish get big and poop a lot, they need a lot more room than 10gal. As long as you do enough water changes to keep the waste down you shouldn't worry about the pH. Using chemical means of controlling your pH is not a good idea. Goldfish don't mind pH up to about 7.8-8.

Answer 4

If you have any shells or calcium-containing rocks in your tank, remove them. They dissolve, making the water harder and can cause the ph to be higher. Otherwise, don't sweat it, the goldfish need a stable ph more than they need a certain ph reading. Leave it alone.

Answer 5

thae best ways to keep your water paramerters down is t keep you r water prestine as possible how often do you change the water?