ph level too low?

Question

Last Friday I did my monthly cleaning to the inside of the glass with the scrubber. The water appeared cloudy prior to doing it. The next day it had not cleared up so I put in a new filter pad. Still cloudy. Took a sample to the fish store today, said the p.h. was off the chart and my fish were literally burning up , so she gave me the ph up to neutralize the water. She said to start slow, maybe half the recommended dose today and the rest tomorrow and re-test the water. I have added half of the recommended teaspoon. Then she said to add some of the amquel tomorrow also. Would it be ok to add clear up drops or should I wait to see what happens with the ph. The fish, which are black skirts, red eyes , rasboras seem to be fine, eathing , doing the little bit of chasing they normally do. I will feel terrible if I lost them !

Answer 1

If this is a new tank, the water is cloudy because it is "cycling" ( http://fins.actwin.com/mirror/begin-cycling.html). In a new tank, there is no good bacteria that "eats" the ammonia produced by your fish, ammonia is eaten by one bacteria and nitrites are produced. Another bacteria colonizes in your tank to "eat" the nitrites and nitrAtes are produced. If you already knew, my apologies. I'm simply guessing you didn't know because the cloudiness in your tank is most likely a bacterial bloom.

Cloudiness will appear in new tanks as beneficial bacterial colonies are establishing themselves. In established tanks, excessive feeding and/or the addition of new fish will cause the tank to go through a "mini" cycle. Essentially, the bacterial colony established in your tank will grow to consume excess ammonia produced by overfeeding or waste produced by the addition of new fish.

Ammonia is what will "burn" your fish. It would be helpful to know what your pH readings were. pH refers to the acidity and alkalinity of the water in your tank. 7.0 is neutral. Less than 7.0 is considered acidic and higher than 7.0 is considered alkaline. Maintaining a stable pH is always better than using additives to raise or lower pH. I strongly recommend that you do not use the additives to "buffer" your pH!! Unfortunately, most pet store employees know very little about fish keeping. Their job is to sell product and that's exactly what they did. Your fish "prefer" a neutral pH. A range of 6.5 - 7.5 is ok. The best way to control your pH is by using reverse osmosis water or distilled water when doing your water changes. This will gradually bring your pH in line and will not stress your fish as much as buffers. (Tap water is generally 7.5 - 8.5 pH)

Perform 25% water changes each week. If your tank is less than a month old, then change 10% of your water every other day. Also, I strongly recommend purchasing water testing kits for ammonia and nitrites. You need to get your ammonia and nitrites down to 0ppm. Once these levels are sorted out, then get a test kit for nitrAte. Once you have above 20ppm nitrAtes in your tank, your cycling process is complete.

Again, I stress pH needs to be stable. Don't use the buffers as that causes your pH to fluctuate and that is very stressful on fish.

There is much more information I could provide, but I fear I may have already overwhelmed you.

Here is a very good link that will assist with routine tank maintenance: http://aquariumhobbyist.com/articles/NewAquarium.html
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article34.html
http://www.liveaquaria.com/general/general.cfm?general_pagesid=309

Answer 2

When asking a question such as yours, it's helpful to include the actual pH value. (You can add it to this question by using the "edit" on the toolbar and "add details".

Without knowing this info, the best that I can tell you is that most fish are quite adaptable and can live in a pH from 6 to 8.5 without problems. Before resorting to try to change the pH at all, it should be outside that range, or you should be keeping wildcaught fish, or fish that require a higher pH (such as African lake cichlids). Since your fish are tetras, they would prefer conditions to be slightly acidic.

If it is necessary to change it to bring the pH above 6, chemicals aren't the way to do it. They will change the pH quickly, and you'll need to add them with every water change. If there's something in your tank, or your water source that causing the pH to get lower, this will cause your pH to fluctuate a lot, and constantly changing pH is worse for your fish than a consistent, yet less-than-ideal pH.

Have you tested your tapwater (or what you use for your water source) to see if the pH is different? This could indicate something in your tank should be removed. Driftwood, and some sandstone rocks (especially if collected yourself, and if you live in a coal region) will cause the pH to lower. So will fish waste, if you don't do water changes often enough, or not remove enough volume (I suggest 25% be removed every week using a gravel vacuum, so you can compare this to what you're currently doing). Once a month will let too much waste accumulate, then when you do a change, the water chemistry will be changed more drastically, and this is something fish don't care for. It's also more work for you, since it allows algae and fish wastes to build up more, so you have to do more to remove it. Smaller, more frequent cleanings actually make the job easier.

The best treatment you can give your water is regular changes of a consistent volume, such as 20-25% weekly, and if you need to raise the pH to get it above 6-6.5, use curshed coral or sea shells (the smaller the pieces the better) in an mesh bag inside your filter. These will slowly dissolve by reacting with the acids in the water to neutralize them. It also increases the water hardness some, so be sure your fish can handle that.

I would suggest you test your water again (with your own kit or by another store) to confirm a very low value as well. If the store used test strips (paper strips) these go bad quickly and the reading could have been off. Or, the person at the store may be misleading you to try and make a sale if the pH wasn't below 6. It never hurts to confirm that your tank is experiencing problems, if it doesn't show by a change in the behavior of your fish. If conditions are so bad that it's not to their likeing, they will usually show it by loss of appetite or unusual activity level (lethargy or racing arond the tank, trying to jump out, or scratching against objects).

It's also likely that it's the pH up that's causing the water to be cloudy, so if you stop using it, that should help.

Answer 3

If these pet store people would pay even half the amount of attention to ammonia, nitrites and nitrates as they seem to do to ph, we would have much healthier fish. Why do these pet store people make such a big deal of ph? Unless you have sensitive fish, such as discus, it just is not that important. Unless fish are wild, they can handle a wide range of ph levels from 6.0-8.5. It's far, far more detrimental to the fish to add these chemicals that only temporarily adjust the level and cause a fluctuating roller coaster effect than to have a steady, high or low ph. Really, leave your ph alone. If you insist on trying to adjust it, don't use chemicals. If it reads too hard (high ph), add driftwood, a log, peat or almond leaves to sweeten the water. If you have hard water and want to sweeten it and have shells or rocks, take out these things. If it reads too soft (low ph), add crushed shells to the water. If you have soft water and want to harden it a little and have wood, etc., take out these things.

I don't advocate Amquel because it also has an "ammonia neutralizer." These types of products give false readings for your ammonia and may make it seem lower than it really is in your tank and lull you into a false sense of security. Use a dechlorinator and a stress coat, but nothing that claims to "neutralize ammonia."

You invest in your own test kits for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates, and do your weekly 20-30% water changes, substrate siphoning, proper cleaning and maintenance and filter rinsings, I can pretty much guarantee that you won't have cloudy water.

Answer 4

You can get the Mater Test Kit by By Aquarium Pharmaceuticals for less than 14$ at Pet Mountain
www.petmountain.com/category/...st-kits.htmlet
It as pH , pH high, Ammonia, NitrIte and NitrAte.

I would Not get the Test strips as they are not very accurate.

Also I would get a notebook to keep a log of the water tests so you can keep track of the numbers and what is going on with the tank i.e. adding or removing anything, condition of the fish. when you clean the tank, how much water you removed/added, when you change filter media....and anything else that you what to keep tack of.

Answer 5

Just go and get the appropriate chemicals that increase the ph factor and see if you can save your fish. Hurry!