PH issue

[sef]

Hi,
I recently started gradually switching from our tap water to bottled after the pet store owner said our tap water had too much ammonia in it. Honestly, I didn't test it for PH because, when I bought my Betta Horatio, the pet store owner said that he uses tap water and all of the water around here (small, rural community) has about the same PH.

So I have been gradually changing out the tank water with the bottled spring water (at a rate of about a half gallon every few days), and, as an after-thought, emailed the company to see what their PH is. I just heard back this morning, and they said it is right around 7.8.

That seems a little high. I don't want to add too much stuff to the tank (5 gallon) unless I have to, so my next thought is whether I should consider switching brands. The only brand that our local store carries is Absopure, but I'm sure I could find something at one of the *Marts. I'm mainly concerned with making too many changes, since Horatio seems to be doing okay (good color; active; making bubblenest) with the new water.

Thoughts??

 

[sandyd]

i was just wondering if you did an amonia test on you tap water yourself? Sometimes the pet stores are just wanting to sell you more stuff. I use tap water in my betta tank, but i have low ph in my tap water, so i have to use increaser for the ph. I am really interested in how you make out with this, as i have never heard of bettas needing bottled water. I may be wrong though.
Sandy

 

[impur]

Did you test the tapwater first to be sure? If he was doing fine with tapwater i would stick with that. IMHO keeping the fish in a constant environment is the key to healthy fish. If what you have to work with is PH 7.8, keep giving it that water. He will appreciate a constant PH more than a fluctuating one of 7 to 7.4. But i would definately test the tapwater to see if the ammonia is actually present.

 

[sef]

Well, this is interesting!

First, yes -- I had the tap water tested by the LFS and watched as the results showed up. Ammonia was definitely present, and in fact (I'm still trying to figure out this one!) was HIGHER than the sample of aquarium water that I also took for him to test! So his comment was that my partial water changes weren't doing much good, as I was just putting more ammonia right back in the tank. And this seems to have been the case, because as soon as I switched to bottled spring water (gradually replacing the old tap with the new bottled), I immediately started to see an improvement in the ammonia level in my 5 gallon -- which is now 0.

But this is interesting: concerned that the change from our tap water to the bottled water might be too big a PH jump, I called the local water office (mind you, we live in a small, rural area) and talked to the guy who actually tests the local water around here. I asked him what the PH runs in our tap water, and he said it runs between 7.7 and 8.0, with the norm being 7.8 -- exactly the PH of the bottled water I was buying! Well, to me, this helped explain why Horatio seemed to adjust to the water so quickly.

So.....since 7.8 is the winning number around here, I am going to stick with that for consistency's sake and not mess with it any more. I will continue to buy the bottled water, though, because it does seem to make a difference with the ammonia levels, and because I honestly think our tap water is pretty gross (it gives my husband heartburn whenever he drinks it!).

Thanks!!

 

[dolphin]

Hi Sef

In stead of the bottled water, you could buy some ammonia absorbing sudstance, i.e. Nitra-Zorb. Put this in the tap water prior to doing the water change. This will remove the ammonia. The Nitra-Zorb is rechargable with a salt soloution. Cheeper than bottled water

 

[mickspark81]

My advise is please buy yourself a decent liquid test kit. Id recommed API master test kit. Not too expensive and imo is the only way to maintain a healthy tank

The test kit is really easy to use and very accurate