Ph 8.2

[rhostog]

I'm new to this, so please point me in the right direction if there's something already out there that answers my questions.

My tapwater has pH about 8.2, and it's pretty hard. I've had the tank nearly 3 weeks, and last weekend we got 4 small zebra danios - the shop water was about pH 7.2, so I added some pH adjuster to the tank before putting the fish in, bringing the tank water down to 7.5. In the 5 days since I added the fish, I've not changed the water, but the pH has drifted back up to 8. The danios seem happy enough, but I'm wondering if this means I'm going to be very limited in what I can keep? A lot of fish are recommended for acid or slightly alkaline water - will they tolerate my tapwater? Why isn't the pH adjuster having a lasting effect? I've read that bogwood can bring down pH - if I buy some and add it, will it cause a sudden change that will upset my danios?

Thanks for any advice!

75 litre tank
NH3 zero
NO2 zero
NO3 about 40mg/l
Filter is built into the lid, with carbon and ceramic beads.
Several plants and quite a bit of long stringy algae.

 

[sketchy]

Playing about with pH is a tricky thing to do, and many members on here reccomend leaving it be and planning your stocking around the tap pH.

Or, the alternative is to re-fill your tank with bottled water, which should have a pH much nearer to 7

 

[Tolak]

Hardness stabilizes pH. This explains the pH rebound, and why trying to adjust the pH of tapwater rarely works. Most all commonly sold aquarium fish will adapt to your pH, the only way to safely adjust the pH of water is to start with reverse osmosis water. This gives you a blank slate to start with, 0 hardness, pH 7.0.

 

[8inary]

I have a large tank, and use coral sand for substrait. Due to the size fo the tank I have used 80kgs of the stuff. One problem I found was that it increased the PH to around 8.5, I did have mixed cichlids and oddballs in to start, however I started putting in PH- to counter act the balance, however the tank is 1000ltr and took a whole 100ml bottle each time, in the end I stopped using it and just left it alone. The fish seem perfectly find and I have not had any issues.

 

[rhostog]

Thanks for all the helpful advice. Looks like my best policy is to live with the water I've got. I don't really want to go down the RO route if I can avoid it.

But what's the best way of helping new fish adjust to my horrible tap water? I asked my two local shops about their pH, and one said 7.2, the other didn't know but 'thought it was 7 point something' (!)

My books say don't expose fish to pH changes of more than 0.3 per day. If I buy new fish from either of these shops and put them in my horrible tap water, it's going to be a nasty shock for them. And it sounds like this pH lowering solution won't help if it's just going to get buffered back to 8+ within a day or two.

Any advice or suggestions very welcome!

 

[rossyt99]

Adding Bogwood/Mopani wood could be an idea....soak it in boiled water for a good while before adding.

+ Peat 'pillows' in filter are an option which should lower the water's PH.

I've not used RO water, but it is another (quite expensive) option to get a neutral PH.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i agree that stocking around your tap water is best, really it just means avoiding fish that like a really low pH, anything hardy or which prefers a pH of 7.5ish should be fine.

best bet is to do a drip acclimitisation with new fish, what you do is float the bag get a clip to hold the floating bag against the edge of the tank where you want it. rest a jug of water from your tank on the hood of the tank or a shelf, anywhere where it's above the water line basically. get a length of air line and tie a v loose knot in it, put one end in the jug (probably need to gently clip it in place) and start water siphoning through it, gently tighten the knot until the water is just coming through in drips, then let the siphon drip into the floating bag. you may need to refill the jug with tank water, do it until there's at least as much tank water in the bag as the original water if not more. It helps to ask the lfs to bag the fish up with a minimum of water so you have room to add plenty to the bag.

this just means that the pH of the water they are in raises up slowly until it's somewhere near the pH of the tank water, then you can let them free.

 

[Matt_northants]

Why not ask your LFS which fish they keep in tapwater? As there's should be the same as yours as they're local. Most keep some in tap and some in RO find out which section of the shop is which and choose from the tapwater part. Most captive bred fish are highly adaptable to tapwater and kept in it anyway. Maidenhead are normally good for having a "softwater" and "tapwater" section.
Unless you want to keep something really picky like apisto's and discus personally I wouldnt bother with messing around with water hardness.