High Ph And A Love Of Plecos!

[FishFanatic04]

Turns out that bottom feeders {catfish, plecos, and loaches} are my favorite fish!! I don't know why, my hubby thinks I'm looney. My PH is hanging around 8.0. The mopani wood isn't changing anything, but I will be adding injected co2 next month or so, but I know that's not going to change much.

Guess the question is...What Pleco could I have in my 75g with this ph? It is stable...so could I attempt to acclimate one carefully? I could use a quarantine tank with filtered water and do tiny water changes over a few days with my tap.

 

[toddnbecka]

Bristlenose pleco's are pretty adaptable, I spawn/raise them in 7.6 w/out any problems. There are also some imported pleco's that come from hard/alkaline water. The L-204 would be right at home, don't know which other ones offhand.

 

[bristlenoseitplecoman]

They are very adaptable like he said. my BN pleco is from the amazon and loves acidic water but my ph is at 8.2. I suggest that you don't try to change your water parameters. I tried and ended up with a big mess. A way to make it a little better is too do frequent water changes but I don't do that because i have a 55 gallon tank which is large too.

 

[FishFanatic04]

Thanks for the replies. I will be doing quite a bit of water changing so hopefully that will help. Yeah it looks like a pain to mess with ph especially since mine is super stable, hasn't changed at all in a month, not even 1 point. Will look into BN's! thnx.

 

[snazy]

Injected CO2 lowers the Ph as in number only, but it is kind of an "unreal" value. It actually doesn't change the Ph as in mineral content. That's why Ph swings based on amount of CO2 in the water don't really affect fish.
The drift wood in my tanks doesn't do a thing to the Ph either.
Generally, I would not mess with Ph. Test the water from the bag the LFS put the fish in. You would be surprised that it may even turn out the same as yours. Especially if the shop is in the same area as you.

 

[FishFanatic04]

yeah the two local chains will have the same water..the only time I plan to try and lower ph is when trying to get certain fish to spawn...but I have a breeding tank ready and I can use bottled water there to control the ph. Unfortunately some of the fish we want aren't available locally...so I'll need to read up on acclimating them. I haven't even seen any Plec's except for a common.