Ph Too High?

[Fintastic!]

I check my water weekly using the Api master kit. My ph is always 7.6 using the lower range bottle so today I thought I'd check with the higher range bottle and it read 8.2! Am I to assume that my ph has been 8.2 all along and if so, how do I lower it? Is this bad for my poor fishies?

 

[Harlequins]

8.2 is fine for most fish,no need to lower it unless your fish are unhappy.

A stable ph is better than one that fluctuates up & down,which would be what happens if you put anything in there to lower it.

 

[the_lock_man]

8.2 is fine for most fish,no need to lower it unless your fish are unhappy.

A stable ph is better than one that fluctuates up & down,which would be what happens if you put anything in there to lower it.

Agreed. High pH is associated with high KH, and high KH has a high buffering capacity. That means that it is seriously difficult to get the pH to move at all. If it does move, it will quickly return to where it wants to be (ie high) and as Harlequins says, that is far more dangerous for fish, than living in a "different" pH.

As long as you drip acclimatise fish for long enough, they will be fine.

 

[Fintastic!]

Ah that's great. Thanks guys!

 

[Kamalray Tripathi]

8.2 is fine for most fish,no need to lower it unless your fish are unhappy.

A stable ph is better than one that fluctuates up & down,which would be what happens if you put anything in there to lower it.

yas agree with and one morething you can do simply change water slowly day by day...

 

[KrystaK]

What sort of substrate do you have?
I had coral rocks in the bottom of my tank and that brought my pH up to 8.0 from a tap water pH of 7.6..I've since taken most of the gravel out and added a course sand on top of it to support plants. I checked my pH this morning and it was 7.8. if you reeeely wanted to replace the substrate than that may help lower the pH