My ph in my fish tank is too high...what should i do?

Question

I got my fish tank about 2 weeks ago and for some reason, no matter what i do, my ph won't go down. My tap water that i used to fill the tank with has naturally high ph, and I've tried adding tablets to bring it down. When that didn't work, i bought solution to regulate everything in the water, but it didn't do too much. Nothing seems to be working. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

How high is your Ph?

Because fish adjust to almost any Ph just fine. Changing it causes much more harm than good. Stable Ph is the best conditions, not a Ph that is constantly changing.

Answer 2

The question is what your PH actually is right now. You should be around a 7.

The first thing you need to do is go to your local pet shop and get a good PH testing kit. What you need to do is measure the PH of your tap water Vs the PH of the water in the aquarium.

The question you need to find out, is the PH of your tap water causing your PH to be high, or is it some exteranal factor inside the tank.

If its just the tap water causing the issue, this is something that can be easily fixed, if its something inside the aquarium then you need to determine the cause before you try to fix it.

The tablets do work, don't expect to see it go from an 8 to a 7 overnight. Its going to take a few weeks to get everything correct.

Second of all, the fish will adapt to the PH in the tank already, although the PH might not be ideal for them, don't change it overnight. When I had my aquarum my PH was a 6, due to the fact I had alot of un-eaten foot sitting on the bottom. I put a whole bottle of Ph UP to correct it and fixed the issue but I did it too fast and the fish started dying to the sudden change.

Generally speaking, Salts and dead coral decorations will raise your PH level. Un-eaten food, dead fish, and a dirty aquarium will lower the PH.

If the problem is coming from your tap water, and depending on what your putting in your tank, you might just not want to worry about the PH at all especially if you have something innexpensive like Gold Fish.

If the tap water is the issue, the problem is that everytime you do a water change, or clean your tank your going to have to add that PH ballance stuff before you can put the water in your aquarium

Answer 3

your ph is fine don't worry about it. A lot of people go on and on about getting the ph perfect. This is actually more harmful to the fish than having it a little off and leaving it alone. if your ph was like 8 or 9 or something then yes treat it but 7.6 trying to get the ph to 7.0 would be too much doctoring for the fish and they would be stressed out. Freshwater fish can take a lot more than most people give them credit.

Answer 4

Remove any fish from the water while your PH is extremely high and while you are altering the PH with chemicals. Go see your local Aquarist who should be willing to help, take a sample of your water and your gravel. Gravel can alter your PH Levels and so can rocks, if you have any in your tank.
Also have a look and see if you have crushed shells in your gravel, the shells push the PH Levels up....
If your local aquarist won't help, then find another one!
Good Luck :-)

Answer 5

Dont bother to continue putting ph down in your tank if it keeps going up. The reason it continues to climb is because you have hard water. Even if you use ph down, if your water is hard, it will continue to go up. Are you well water? Or spring water? Or do you have dolomoite, crushed coral, or shells in your tank? These will all make the water hard. You need to either get a new water source, or get a water softner. You can buy water softner pillows at the pet store. Some are rechargeable with salt, so you can use it more then once. It will last about a month, or until you do another large water change. Ask your local pet store person (if they know about hard water) how to use your pillow softner.. if they cant help you...ask here and Ill try to help you out.

Answer 6

QUIT MESSING WITH THE pH! The fish need a stable pH level and constantly changing the pH will eventually just kill them. Who in Hell told you that it needed to be lower any way? Unless you are trying to spawn Amazon fishes, the water (dechlorinated of course) from your tap will be just fine. The same compounds that make the pH high make it almost impossible to lower the pH and absolutely impossible to keep it that way.Just keep the water clean,and let your fish adjust to the conditions in the tank.-----PeeTee

Answer 7

The problem is your water is likely hard. This makes it hard to change the pH. You could cut the tap water with distilled water. The real questions are what is your pH? What sort of fish do you have. Some fish are best kept in hard basic water.

Answer 8

change %50 of the water (make sure to use some sort of chorion remover) goldfish will make your ph much higher than any other fish if you have goldfish....you may need a better filter...or to clean the filter....also if you have a used fish tank....any tank ever used for reptiles or small mammals shouldn't be used because glass absorbs the urine...also if you use glass cleaner on the inside of the fish tank the glass will absorb it....if glass absorbtion is the case there is nothing you can do and you need to get a new tank. ALSO a new fish tank can take up to a month to regulate because the good bacteria that helps clean you tank has not started to grow inside your filter yet....your tank may naturally regulate itself with in a few weeks...thats why its a good idea to buy "starter fish" because with in the first month...sensitive fish may die.....

Answer 9

Sometimes naturally hard water is just too difficult to change and trying just makes the water much worse. Try dilluting with distilled water. Or if your tank isnt to big you could get those gallon jugs of drinking water from grocery stores. That is a nice way because you know its filtered and doesnt have chlorine or any other nasty things from the pipes.

Answer 10

try using a beneficial bacteria like stress zyme or cycle. even with these its going to take about a month to get your ph to stop going crazy. don't sweat it too much -- goldfish are generally hardy enough and if you are doing weekly 33-50% water changes they should make it through.

you can also buy a clump of java moss and throw it in -- well tie it to a rock or piece of wood and throw it in.