Lowering PH?

[newland]

Hi All

I've had my tank set-up now for about 3 months

Everything is fine and my fish seame healthy.
I've tested for everything in my tank and everything is ok apart from Ph which is around 7.8-8.2

Any way of lowering this?

My tap water is 7.2-7.4
Any reason why its highering and how do i mataine a lower PH.

Thanks all.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

What fish do you have? In the majority of cases ph altering is unesarsary and usually causes more problems than it solves...

 

[nc_nutcase]

coral based substrates raise PH... driftwood lowers it... I avoid adding chemicals unless absolutely necessary. Therefore I try to use natural substances such as the two I mentioned to gently push PH up or down as needed.

Toby

 

[Arthur.Ave]

you could use baking soda, i think its 1 tea-spoon for every gallon.

 

[Dubby]

If you have a planted tank then adding Co2 will help lower the ph too.

 

[newland]

Hi there

I have 3 guppies + 3 baby guppies, 2 platys, 2 coby or something like tiger fish not too sure on their names.

1 Live plant
I have an oxygen pump going all the time.
Lights left on from 9am to 10PM-11PM

I don't want to add/buy chemicals if its not needed.

Does this ph level need to be lowered?
I may try a small amount of baking soda if someone thinks its a good idea.

 

[freddyk]

There is not a problem with your PH. I have never met a fish that can't live in those parameters, INCLUDING DISCUS.

Baking soda raises PH!!! Add baking soda and I guarantee you're ph will go up to 8.2-8.4.

 

[sinistral]

I second freddyk's post. With the fish you described (not sure what a coby is), stability is much much more important that making the tank look like a specific number.

The advice you got about altering pH in general was correct, but the problem with adjusting pH is what Tokis-Phoenix alluded to: it's easy to do something wrong and cause a wide-pH swing...then you try to fix it and it swings in the opposite direction...then another fix and swing...and on and on, and then the poor fish are subjected to rapid, stressful changes to their environment when they were perfectly healthy in the first place.

The other thing is that once you change the pH and commit to it, it means you will forever have to continue changing the pH during every water change when this is really not necessary. HTH~

 

[gadazobe]

Fish will adapt to practically any ph as long as it's stable. There is no need to change your ph just keep it stable - it's the sudden changes that stress the fish out.

 

[dartos]

I think that the "problem" with your pH is your oxygen (air) pump. This is causing the oxygen gas levels (along with other gases in the air) in your tank to go up (obvious). But the problem with this is that it is competing with the carbon dioxide gas in your tank. The oxygen (and air) is replacing the carbon dioxide (This deals with partial pressures in a volume, I won't go into that). This affects your pH because the carbon dioxide is in an equilibrium with carbonic acid in your tank. The more carbon dioxide you push out, the less carbonic acid that can exist and therefore the higher your pH is going to go.

I don't know how large your tank is or how essential the air pump is (if you have a filter that is causing a break in the water surface through its water flow, then you might not need the pump) but you might want to lose the pump if you really want to lower the pH. Others have given you many ways to lower the pH, but I don't think that any will be too effective till the oxygen pump is removed, or at least regulated. The baking soda is just a buffer (not absolute acid nor base), and therefore will try to get your water towards a neutral pH. In your case it might lower the pH but I don't know how much. I personally would recommend against this because you will be raising the KH of the water and this will prevent fluctuations in pH (good) but this will also make your water harder and your fish may not react well to this.

I guess my long-winded recommendation would be to remove the oxygen pump if you want to lower the pH, but I would not try to mess with it too much. If your fish are happy with the pH that you currently have them in, then why change it? However if the fish start to have problems or you are thinking about getting some sensitive fish then I might think about adjusting the pH. For what its worth, if you do remove the oxygen pump the pH will begin to lower but only with some water changes and time. Because of this I think that this would be a good way to both lower your pH and doing it slowly so as not to shock the fish.

I guess you have to ask yourself if you will be suffocating the fish without the air pump and if the fish will be happier in a lower pH. Good luck with whatever you try and keep us posted on what you do try and tell us how it's going.

 

[nc_nutcase]

Dartos,
Thank you for being long winded. Had you simply said "take the air pump out" I would have forgotten what you said before I opened the next thread. But since you took the time to explain "why" you suggest removing the air pump I have learned something. I think all too often people are short and forget to explain the why's.

Thanks,
Toby

 

[steelhealr]

I think that the "problem" with your pH is your oxygen (air) pump. This is causing the oxygen gas levels (along with other gases in the air) in your tank to go up (obvious). But the problem with this is that it is competing with the carbon dioxide gas in your tank. The oxygen (and air) is replacing the carbon dioxide

Whoa...hey...let' s be a little bit careful here for our newbies. First off, AIR PUMPS and OXYGEN PUMPS are not synonymous. Second, bubbling AIR through your aquarium DOES NOT INCREASE OXYGEN ANY GREATER THAN AMBIENT..ie..more than what is already in the air. It DOES increase the water circulation thus exposing bottom water to the surface thus improving the oxygenation at the surface level...NOT by bubbles dissolving oxygen in the water. Lastly, unless someone can prove differently, I doubt there is any way that an airstone or airpump can raise tank pH by a full unit and a half.......I think the problem is with either substrate or something else in the tank. SH

 

[sinistral]

I would second steelhealr's point. I actually don't believe that gases compete for solubility with each other in a solution. I would cite Henry's law:

The solubility of a gas in a liquid depends on temperature, the partial pressure of the gas over the liquid, the nature of the solvent and the nature of the gas. The most common solvent is water.

...not the partial pressure of other gases. I'm open to correction from people with superior recollection of chem.

There could be many reasons for a rise in pH. Often it has to do with the way water is treated in your local treatment plant. The pH, hardness, or softness is often determined by environmental factors, changed in the treatment plant, and then is restored to its original condition in the tank, or altered to some other parameter by tank conditions. Hope that's helpful and not confusing.