Best pH for community aquarium??

Question

Hi,
I just got a 70 gallon tank, and i want to start a community of small freshwater fishes. I've read that certain species of fish "Prefer" different pH levels. Ex: Angelfish (6.5-7.2) and neon tetra (5.8-6.2).

What level should i keep my aquarium at if i want a WHOLE lot of different fishes?????

Answer 1

Check your tapwater and see what pH it has
if you keep angels, you will have a planted tank, which means that will lower your pH anyway already
Don't play around with the pH, it's better to acclimate the fish to your pH then messing with it
here is an article on how to do it the best way
http://www.fishlesscycling.com/articles/acclimating_you_new_fish.html




Hope that helps
Good luck



EB

Answer 2

If your tap water is anything from 6.5 to 7.5, I won't worry too much. It's one thing to get the PH at a certain level, and another thing to keep it there (buffering). If your buffering is not in check, the fluctuating PH will do more harm than good.
Tap water will be bufferred at whatever PH it initially tests.

Most community fish are from the Amazon or South East Asia, and prefer low PH (6.5ish). The specific values will differ depending on which book you read. Of the fish regularly kept in community tanks, it's only Corydoras and Livebearers that prefer high PH. I wouldn't worry about Livebearers, they thrive in anything. Cory's..well, I often see them being kept together with Neons and the like, even though according to the book, their PH ranges don't overlap. I have kept and bred Angels at my local tap water, of which the PH is above 7. Personally I think for a community aquarium it's much more important to keep the nitrate levels in check through partial water changes.

Answer 3

Hi
Dont wast your time or your money trying to change the ph of your tap water. If you have city water your ph will be fine to keep any fish you get. The only reason to change your ph is to breed some types of fish or if you have well water with a crazy ph of like 5. or 10. somthing thats way off.
Also if you do something to change your ph the level will not stay the same all the time and changes in ph can kill your fish.

Answer 4

flora may reason the pH to "pulsate" - in the course of the day, they deplete CO2 as area of photosynthesis and launch oxygen, which may reason the pH to upward thrust. At nighttime, the opposite takes position, which may reason the pH to fall. although, except you've an excellent style of flora and CO2 on your tank to commence with, it often don't have a substantive result. The better probable perpetrator is that even as you've tender water. pH-elevating chemical substances (which to be trustworthy, are thoroughly worthless) in basic terms advance the pH of the water - in the adventure that your water is tender, then it can not preserve that pH and it is going to easily drop back. Your fantastic answer the following might want to be to advance the hardness of the water utilizing overwhelmed coral, limestone, seashells, etc. Baking soda is extensively utilized on an as-needed foundation, even though it would not somewhat have a similar everlasting result the previous concepts do. All of those will advance the pH to boot - which back, makes pH-affecting chemical substances worthless.

Answer 5

It depends.

I think a good 7-7.5 is good.