what is ph in my fish tank and the hardness of water and how do you make it higher or lower?

Answer 1

pH is the measure of hydrogen ions in the water and is measured on a scale that runs from 1 to 14. 7.0 is considered neutral. Anything below 7 is acidic and anything above is alkaline. Pure water is 7.0, but that doesn't exist in nature and can only exist in a lab under very, very controlled conditions. For fish keeping you are mainly interested in the 5.5 - 8.5 range of the scale. Anything below that or above that is rare in fishkeeping and could be a cause for investigation and potential correction.

Hardness is measured two ways for aquariums. One the the GH or general hardness and is a measure of all dissolved materials in the water that are not removed by boiling the water. KH or calcium hardness (AKA alkalinity) is a measure of just the calcium hardness of the water. Hardness is measures normally in 3 ways, ppm (parts per million) mg/liter and dH or degrees of hardness on the German scale. 1dH is equal to 17.9 mg/liter.

Calcium hardness and pH have a very connected and active role in the aquarium and general speaking you can't change one without effecting the other. Google calcium carbonate hardness and you should get plenty of websites that can explain that relationship in detail as to be through would require pages of typing, but in breif the KH or calcium carbonate hardness prevents the pH of the water from changing rapidly, so some is a good thing.

What does it all really mean to the typical freshwater aquarium keeper? Not much realistically. While all books and websites list the pH and hardness a particular fish likes or needs, the fact is most fish you see in local stores are very accepting of a wide range in pH and hardness and in most cases are used to the pH and hardness in the store which is probably the same or nearly the same as yours at home.

To sum it up, unless your pH is really, really high or low and unless your hardness is really really high (350 ppm+) or really, really low (under 50 ppm) there is no need to try to adjust it for the typical aquarium of community fish. They will be happy in most anything within the ranges described above.

If your water is outside of these ranges or you have particularly sensitive fish that owould require you to adjust your water feel free to email me with the specifics and I'll help you put together a plan for that specific tank.

MM

Answer 2

Simply put the pH is a measure of whether your water is more acid (a pH under 7.0) or more alkaline (over 7.0)

In more complicated terms the pH scale is a reverse logarithmic representation of relative hydrogen proton (H+) concentration. For example a pH of 8.2 will have an [H+] concentration of 10 to the −8.2 power.

More importantly to you, what you want is to keep a stable pH controlled by your KH which is the Carbonate hardness.
Chasing pH can cause a lot of problems, a stable pH is what is important as most fish can adapt to a stable pH.

The GH refers to the dissolved concentration primarily of calcium, magnesium and other mineral ions. This is where the important electrolytes are found such as Calcium not in KH as has been suggested.
This parameter should be kept at 100 ppm or higher for most fish as this is where very important minerals necessary for good osmotic function are found. Calcium in particular is often misunderstood in its importance to proper fish health.
Please read this very in depth article about Calcium and other minerals:
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/AquariumKH.html

Answer 3

You need to get a ph test kit. Hardness is Gh and Kh test kit. The readings should kind of go together like a high ph is usually associated with high Gh and Kh, and vice-versa. If its out of whack like one tests high the other tests low then there is something not right with the water. Gh and Kh measure buffering agents in the water. Buffering agents keep the ph stable. All the living things in the aquarium use up the buffering salts for survival, that means your fish, bacteria and algae all use it up. When this happens it causes your Ph to drop due to the release of extra hydrogen atoms resulting in acidic water. If you're ph is falling a lot then you may have soft tap water and may need to add some buffering salts. If your ph is high from the tap it should maintain ph easier BUT whatever the city has put into the tap water to make it alkaline could cause harm to your fish when it builds up steadily over time in the aquarium. That is how the water from the tap is here and I didn't have much success keeping fish in it. I use reverse osmosis water, which is just plain old H2O. Pure water has a ph of 6.8 and no buffers what so ever. If you just put that in the water the fish will soon suffer a ph crash called acidocis. I use Kent Marine RO Right along with Kent Marine's Neutral Controler to hold Ph. I replace all the buffering salts every water change, I change 50% of the water every week or every two weeks. I keep large fancy goldfish that eat a lot and make tons of wastes.
I would not mess with the Ph too much unless you are making a proper environment for a specific type of fish and there are no fish in your tank. If you already have fish then don't adjust Ph too much. Your regular water changes should be enough to hold the ph relatively stable. If the ph is falling you need to do more water changes at a higher volume more often. If the ph is mysteriously going up then I would say something is leeching out of the rocks or ornaments, because water does not rise in ph naturally. Both situations are not good and can be deadly. Suspect ornaments are holy rock, drift wood, colored gravel, painted ceramic ornamnets, basically rocks that are volcanic in nature or crumble when you scrape them with a finger nail like sand stones. Hard round river rocks like pea gravel and glass are completely inert, so I'd opt for those as substrate. Those pretty orange and white holy rock are extremely dangerous to the system and will eventually leech so much toxin into the tank the fish cannot survive. The scary thing is all pet stores sell them as aquarium safe ornaments. Trust me in 6 months to a year you will have mysterous ph fluctuations and dead and dieing fish. Most people assume that the rocks are safe because they didn't kill the fish over night but trust me they will it just takes a while. Some people will never realize just what did the damage.
Fish cannot handle too drastic a change in ph, although going from any ph to neautral (7.0) is ok. Also going from a lower Ph to a higher one is a little safer than the other way around as long as the jump is not more than say .4 from where it was... like 7.2 to 7.6 will likely not harm the fish too much. But If it goes from 7.2 to 9.0 the fish will suffer alkalosis. And if the fish is moved from 7.6 to 6.6 they will suffer acidocis. Changing the ph too drastcally will stress your fish tremendously and likely kill them.. My tank the ph ranges from (right after a water change) 7.0 until right before I need to change the water 6.6, and that takes around two to three weeks for it to fall, the fish don't stress too much over that. Changing it all in a few minutes can and will stress out your fish. I say keep up with regular water changes and don't attempt to change the ph with anything else such as baking soda or vinegar, you could cause a huge problem that was not there before. Good luck, do a little water research for yourself. The city will send you a water report free of charge and you too can see exactly what's in the tap.

Answer 4

pH- the alkinity or acidity of the water. 6.8-7.5 is where it should be. your local petstore can test it for you and tell you what fish goes well in the pH you have naturally at your house.
hardness- how much calcium, magnesium, and iron is in the water... hard water is fine for fish, and mostly well water is hard...may cause some algae problems but you dont need to condition this water
if you have tap water you have to get a water conditioner that removes chlorine and chloramines and heavy metals...
there are chemicals to change the pH but i dont recomend it, any change that is more tha .2 parts per million stresses out the fish... and the only way you should change your hardness is with tap....

Answer 5

The ph in your water is the acidity in your tank. The hardness of your water depends on where you live and whether or not you have a water filtration system. Nitrates are also important. These are caused when too many fish inhabit a tank.

The good news for you and your fish is that most pet stores that sell fish will test your water for free. They will suggest chemicals you can add to your water to bring the levels within check. You use the chemicals, and continue the water checks till they are within a good range for your fish to be healthy.