about pH 7.0

[Platinumpete]

Thanks you guys that answered my question!

 

[Peter Lovett]

When it come to RO water it is true that for many fish it can be very toxic. I use straight RO with my Apistos but I do filter it though peat this lowers the pH and adds a little of what the RO unit took out. This still leave me with water that has a hardness of about 24 ppm so soft it will not register on most test kits. But the fish spawn like there is no tomorrow and much of the trace elements than the fish need come from there food.

But i would not suggest this for a community tank as the fish in it come from a wide varity of habits and water conditions a ph of 6.5 to 8 will be fine for most fish. The main reason for playing with water is for breeding. If you do not want to breed your fish it is best to leave it alone.

 

[steelhealr]

I agree with Peter above and sorry freddyk, I disagree with what you said:

Higher PH water has higher mineral content

A higher pH means higher alkalinity, lower hydrogen ions or higher hydroxyl ions. You can increase pH without increasing the mineral content of water. Try this freddyk...add sodium bicarb to water and check the gH before and after (general hardness/mineral content) and it will not increase. Higher gH water has higher mineral content. Careful. SH

 

[pnyklr3]

I have successfully lowered the pH and hardness of my tank by using RO for water changes. It causes no harm to the fish if it is done gradually. When I first started switching my tank over, I did a 40% water change, but added the new water to the tank over a period of time. You can also buy supplements to add into the RO water to replace the minerals that have been removed in the prossess of making it.

 

[Platinumpete]

Yeah, I agree, I'm going to leave my water alone, 8 ph is fine with me.... is 8.5 a little to high? I can't really tell them apart.....from my ph kits test results. but it is between that area. I do have friends that live in the same city that I do and they use tap water with the same ph, their fishes are find. Yeah i'm not worrying about breeding, I just want my fishes to be happy and live as long as they possbily can.

 

[pnyklr3]

Your fish will be fine....as others have said before, the pH only really matters if you are breeding. Any fish you get from your lfs will have already been acclimated to the local pH, and fine when you bring them home.

 

[steelhealr]

RO water will successfully lower pH by adding water at pH 7.0 after REMOVING the higher pH water with water changes. You are basically replacing your tank with RO water, not acidifying it per se. I caution people without extensive water husbandry experience about doing this, as RO water is 98-99% pure. It's not worth losing your lifestock. SH

 

[freddyk]

I have used baking soda to play with the ph and I agree, it works... temperarily. Because of the low mineral count the water ends up dropping back down. GH and PH and KH are all related and not seperate elements, even though there are ways of controlling one without the others.