Aquarium enthusiast............... MM - Re: Ph levels?

Question

I have a 10 gallon tank (im new at this, now realize bigger would have been better) I had one then 2 danios to assist with cycling the tank, checked water everyday, thought it was cycled.. had the cloudy water, that cleard up, did water changes after awhile etc, then one by bloody one my fish died I tested the water everything seemed normal so i slowly, re-stocked my tank, same thing happend...the Ph was a little high but i decided to take the water to the pet store for eval. The test revealed that I had NO Ph, the lady said she'd never seen the test strip turn that color. (my tests strips were obviously misleading) So I just drained my entire tank and washed all the plants and ornaments. QUESTION #1 why was my Ph so low? I used a water treatment, let it sit at least 24hrs before adding it. Was my water too soft??? #2 when I re-stock will i have to re-cycle again?? should I rinse my gravel off? does it contain the good bacteria? please help me, I miss the pretty fish. i did add salt.

i used tap water, with a water de-chrlorinator

i hadnt rinsed the gravel yet, till i found out if I should, there is about an inch of water left over the gravel

Answer 1

It's practically impossible NOT to have a pH if you have water in the tank. The pH measures the number of hydrogen ions (H+) in the water (which is H2O [think of this as H+ & OH-], so it has to be either there are more H+ [acidic water], more OH- [basic water], or the amounts are relatively equal [pH = 7, or neutral]. If there was no change in the test strips, the strips were old, or the person using them didn't know how to do the test. In a pH of ), the water would be so acidic, none of the fish would be alive! (NOTE: for a pH of 0, the water would be 10,000,000 times more acidic than neutral, and 10,000 more times acidic than vinegar.)

I'd go more by what your tests were showing if you were getting results, but it would be helpful to know exactly what these were. Most fish are fine in a pH from 6.0-8.5, and the pH will decrease a little if you don't do water changes often (wastes makes the pH more acidic). If the pH of your tank water was lower than your water source (I'm assuming you're using tap water), do you have driftwood in the tank? This can leach tannins into the tank, which lower the pH and tint the water brown.

Since you drained the tank, if your gravel was out of the water for any amount of time, the bacteria would have been killed, so you will need to cycle the tank again. If you still have enough water that the gravel is covered, you don't want to rinse it - the chlorine will kill any of the bacteria left. It would be best to add enough dechlorinated water to fill the tank so the filter will operate, and keep this running so the bacteria will stay alive. You'll need to add a pinch of fish flakes so there's something in the tank to act as a source of ammonia.

If you can add info about what your pH was, and any symptoms the fish were showing before they died, maybe we can give you more help with what happened to your fish. Also, feel free to email me, MM, or anyone on the forum directly through our profiles.

Answer 2

With water this alkaline I can guarantee you that nothing quick will work. Additives will just bounce the ph around and cause more harm then good. Driftwood and peat moss, which do tend to lower the ph, will do nothing when the PH is already this high. The only option has already been mentioned, which was to mix it with distilled or reverse osmosis treated water in a balance that gives you what you want. See, alkaline (high ph) water contains salts and minerals that make it alkaline. Any additives, wood, etc. will contribute to try to fight it, but won't get rid what's causing it in the first place is still there- so the water will fight back, and you'll never win. If your tap water really is this high then the above mentioned mixing of water is your only effective alternative. If you take ph 6 water and mix it with your 9, hopefully you can reach a happy medium. Keep in mind that while your fish might be recommended at ph 7, any common aquarium fish can easily handle up to 8 or so, and often more. Also remember that PH doubles with each value. So the difference between 6.8 and 6.9 is much, much less then the difference between 9 and 9.1. At your levels it becomes harder to manage and can be dangerous for this reason: Ammonia and Nitrite are more lethal as the PH gets higher. With a ph of 6 an ammonia level of 1 will be manageable, at a PH of 9, it's fatal. So your choice at this point is to go through the effort of buying or filtering water for yourself, or abandoning fish altogether and trying perhaps reptiles or something else. FYI, the reason tap water is usually at least neutral and usually alkaline is because acid water (below ph 7) rusts the metal of the pipes of the water system.

Answer 3

1) What kind of water did you use? Do you have a water softener at your house? Did you use that water? Some kinds of water have a naturally low PH, like rain water or distilled water and are not good for keeping fish in unless you need to lower the PH of tap water that's too high. Water conditioners, letting the water sit, etc., will not affect the PH of your water. You need to use specific products designed to alter the PH of your water in order to affect this quality. If you have a water softener and are using your softened tap water, that may be your problem. Try getting some spring water. Not bottled water, but the spring water you can get from those stand-alone dispensers for 35 cents a gallon. You will still need to use a water conditioner to remove chlorine or chloramine additives in this water.

2) If you drained your tank and washed all your plants and ornaments you probably killed any beneficial bacteria that was growing in your tank. This was a drastic measure that did not need to be taken. There's no need to rinse your gravel. If it's remained wet there may yet be beneficial bacteria on it, unless it's starved. If the gravel had dried out, your bacteria has probably all died.

There are things you can do to raise and stabilize the PH of your water without having to pour chemicals into your water all the time. For instance, adding crushed coral to your gravel is a PH stabilizer and adding shell grit or small sea shells will help raise the PH as they will leach calcium carbonate slowly into the water. You can also add a bit of baking soda for a quick, if temporary, PH boost.

Answer 4

Test strips suck, both yours and the pet stores. Likely nothing wrong with the ph. Use liquid reagent test kits, they are far more accurate. Aquarium Pharmasiuticals are #1
If you acctually had a ph of 0 then it would melt the container and burn the skin right off your hand. It would be worse than battery acid.

Answer 5

Try a liquid test kit for ph. If you can drink your tap water without burning your throat, its not that low of a ph. Test strips are inaccurate because once exposed to air, the chemicals in them start to degrade immediately.

Answer 6

frist danios are fragile and die for no good reason sometimes. second ive kept piranhas for over 10 yrs and have never even worried about ph, you can fight with that forever. your better off just introducing your fish slowly to the water. they will adjust. those dip tests are notoriously inaccurate. get a good master test kit.you may be over stocking you tank.(1 in of fish per gal water) you shouldnt have to cycle again, but i would get some stress zyme it has the good bacteria in it. and yes your gravel does contain the good bacteria. hope ive helped good luck!

Answer 7

I would test the tapwater first for the pH
it might be that your tapwater has none of it, or is to low

Also you definately need to recycle your tanks, since you have washed everthing out already

Also, did you do regular partial waterchanges of well? or just checking the water

Because if you do the cycle with fish, you need to keep your ammonia under control



hope that helps
Good luck

Answer 8

Boil the gravl if necessary, and try a no-fish cycle. Do not buy test strips from the last seller, either,and please research before you start another tank.

Answer 9

make sure you use water dechlorinater