pH levels

[MxMike]

Hi

Looking for a bit of advice please. We're upgrading to an aqualantis 350 litre (picture below for reference). It has been planted up with live plants and cycling for about 2 weeks now. When we first added water we used (as well as tap safe) API Quick Start.

The first set of tests gave a pH level of 7.8. As this will be a community tank for our platys, angels, neons etc, we want to bring this down. We've added API pH Down and have been testing every other day. The pH is still reading at around 7.8 or 7.6. Do we just keep adding more doses of the pH Down until it reduces or is there anything else we can do to help bring it down please?

Ammonia and Nitrite have remained at zero throughout. Nitrate started at zero and is now hovering around 5.0ppm.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Essjay]

Stop adding the pH down. Adding any chemical to a tank once there are fish is not good; and changing pH is not easy as the level depends on other things. It is usually better to leave pH alone and let it be what it will be.

pH is a lot less important than GH. Look on your water company website for your hardness - in Scotland that should be Scottish Water, though they do make a bit hard to find. You need to find your supply zone by entering your postcode, then download a hardness pdf and locate your supply zone in that.

The fish you list are a mixture of hard and soft water fish - angels and neons are soft water while platies are hard water. One or other will not be happy, depending on the water hardness. Once you know your hardness, it is best to choose fish which have that level within their hardness range.



Cycling - have you added a source of ammonia? - all bacterial starters need the addition of ammonia to feed the bacteria. Unless you have, both ammonia and nitrite will remain at zero. And nitrate will remain at the level in tap water.
API Quick Start contains the species of ammonia eaters which grow in fish tanks, but it does not contain the correct species of nitrite eaters. It should help drop the ammonia level quickly but it will take longer for nitrite eaters to grow.


With the amount of plants in your photo, a plant (or silent) cycle isn't really an option unless you add fish a very few at a time with large intervals between each addition. Or get a lot more plants.

 

[GaryE]

If you keep adding pH down, you will have regrets.

You have well buffered water, which means the minerals in the water will overcome the effect of pouring acids in. I would stop right now and live with the current situation. If you are serious about the tank, as you sound, you'll be changing 30% or so every week, so even if the buffer were weak and the acids worked, you'd be undoing that every week.

The platys will love the water, and the neons will survive in it.

 

[MxMike]

Stop adding the pH down. Adding any chemical to a tank once there are fish is not good; and changing pH is not easy as the level depends on other things. It is usually better to leave pH alone and let it be what it will be.

pH is a lot less important than GH. Look on your water company website for your hardness - in Scotland that should be Scottish Water, though they do make a bit hard to find. You need to find your supply zone by entering your postcode, then download a hardness pdf and locate your supply zone in that.

The fish you list are a mixture of hard and soft water fish - angels and neons are soft water while platies are hard water. One or other will not be happy, depending on the water hardness. Once you know your hardness, it is best to choose fish which have that level within their hardness range.



Cycling - have you added a source of ammonia? - all bacterial starters need the addition of ammonia to feed the bacteria. Unless you have, both ammonia and nitrite will remain at zero. And nitrate will remain at the level in tap water.
API Quick Start contains the species of ammonia eaters which grow in fish tanks, but it does not contain the correct species of nitrite eaters. It should help drop the ammonia level quickly but it will take longer for nitrite eaters to grow.


With the amount of plants in your photo, a plant (or silent) cycle isn't really an option unless you add fish a very few at a time with large intervals between each addition. Or get a lot more plants.

Thanks for your reply. To clarify - no fish are in the tank yet.

 

[MxMike]

If you keep adding pH down, you will have regrets.

You have well buffered water, which means the minerals in the water will overcome the effect of pouring acids in. I would stop right now and live with the current situation. If you are serious about the tank, as you sound, you'll be changing 30% or so every week, so even if the buffer were weak and the acids worked, you'd be undoing that every week.

The platys will love the water, and the neons will survive in it.

Thank you

 

[GaryE]

BTW - I had well buffered pH 7.4 water, and wanted to bring the pH down to breed a fish. This was before I learned how little pH really matters.

In a fishless 5 gallon, I poured hydrochloric acid in and dropped the pH into the 5s. Within a very short time, I checked and had a pH of 7.4 again. Buffered water (mine back then came from a limestone reservoir) can't be effectively changed without using reverse osmosis and removing the alkalinity causing minerals. They really shouldn't sell pH down.