An Extremely Stupid Question About Neons

[Josiah]

Can neons adapt to ph around 8.0?

 

[jpedersen024]

Maybe the question should be... why do you have a ph that's 8?

 

[Josiah]

Because of the natural ph where my grand mother live's. There's ALOT of limestone so it natrually raises it, out of the tap the ph is 8.0-8.2

 

[demonmagus]

Apparently they can, but I'm not that sure

 

[nmonks]

They can survive at pH 8.0, but incidence of things like mysterious diseases and short lifespans are much more of a problem. A healthy neon lives 4 years or more. While you will often hear people say they kept them in hard, alkaline water without any problems, rarely do their neons last more that a couple of years.

If you have hard, alkaline water, consider either the tetras naturally adapted to hard water (for example x-ray tetras and red-eye tetras) or opt for things like rainbowfish and livebearers that will prefer hard water.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[Josiah]

Okay I'll be sure to tell her. I'm actually trying to get her to get african cichlids instead, because the natural water is perfect for them.

 

[nmonks]

With African cichlids (by which I assume you mean Rift Valley Lake cichlids) neons, or most tetras for that matter, won't really work. The cichlids will be too aggressive. The one exception might be the blind cave tetra, a species that lives in limestone caves (so likes hard/alkaline water) and is a pretty aggressive animal in its own right. Otherwise, rainbowfish are the best option. Either way, these fish only really make sense with cichlids that are not too aggressive. Something like Lamprologus brichardi (or whatever its called nowadays) would be fine, but Melanochromis auratus wouldn't be a good companion for rainbows or tetras.

Cheers,

Neale

Okay I'll be sure to tell her. I'm actually trying to get her to get african cichlids instead, because the natural water is perfect for them.

 

[Josiah]

No no no tetras and ciclids is a big NO to me. I mean replace them with african cichlids.

 

[Fadi]

why not just buy some PH down, it will more than likely reduce the PH and better the envirnoment for your neons.

 

[Josiah]

I'm using ph down but for some reaosn it doesn't work very well, I have to do it twice a day for it to go down at all.

 

[diburning]

Its the alkalinity. Use some neutral regulator.

 

[@ombomb]

I'm using ph down but for some reaosn it doesn't work very well, I have to do it twice a day for it to go down at all.

You are much MUCH better off using natural methods to bring the pH down if you really need to, either injecting CO² or adding bogwood to the tank.

pHUP / pHDOWN type products are an absolute disaster waiting to happen.

 

[Josiah]

Okay I think I actually got it for her. Thank you for the help.

EDIT:I'm talking her into getting bogwood.

 

[TammyLiz]

If you can, try to get mopani wood. It leaches a lot of tannins. Make sure she isn't going to be upset with the color change of the water.

I used to have water with high pH, and the pH down never worked. I believe it is because the hardness of the water just buffers it right back up. No buffers would work for me, either. The KH was just too hard. I bet its the same with your grandmother's water. I tried keeping neons but they never lasted longer than a few months! They did a little better when I stopped trying to use the pH down and just left it at a steady, although high pH. I hope everyone can understand that these are very old stories. I would NEVER use pH down these days. I feel embarrassed that I ever even tried. They used to include it in the package with the test kit, as if it was just an all around fix-it package for pH. What a crock of ... ahem.