Hello,
So I have taken up fish as a hobby. I have had horrible luck with maintaining proper ph level. It seems no matter how hard I try the level rises. This horrid city water i think is to blame. I get the ph to drop but it only stays down for about two days. What am i doing wrong? Does anyone have any useful information for me? I have been at this hobby now for over a year. I have lost a total of 3 fish in the past year. I have a 40 gallon tank. I have 2 20 gallon filters running the tank. Well hope to hear somthing soon. Thanks
What is the pH of your tapwater and then the aquarium? How high does it get after you adjust it? How are you adjusting the pH? Best not to fiddle with your pH. By constantly changing it, varying pH changes will stress and even kill your fish.
My Ph veries from 8-8.3 aprx. I have not been able to get anything more accurate. I have tried adding PH down, I have tried the powerd and the liquid. My best luck was with tablets. But it only goes down for a couple days.
Okay, I got it. First of all, please stop using the pH adjusting chemicals. Your fish will be okay with that pH as long as they are acclimated properly to it. A lot of captive-bred fish can adapt to various water conditions. By adjusting your pH, you risk swinging the pH thus likely to kill several of your fish. Leave your pH the way it is. Better to maintain a constant pH than fiddle with it.
i tried putting lucky bamboo in my tank in a mesh bag and the ph dropped like a rock (mesh is good for easy maintenance.) im not sure if this practice is acceptable though...also other plants that bring ph down is good also. i just couldnt find any
i tried putting lucky bamboo in my tank in a mesh bag and the ph dropped like a rock (mesh is good for easy maintenance.) im not sure if this practice is acceptable though...also other plants that bring ph down is good also. i just couldnt find any
To explain this, plants do decompose and at this rate, they often release tannic acids which contribute to the lowering of the pH. All the same, the increase and decrease of pH is also played by the hardness level of the water.
I agree, stop trying to adjust your pH, especially if you plan to buy more fish. Most fish stores (i've worked in 6 and visit others a lot) do nothing to adjust pH. This means that the pH in your local store is generally the same pH coming from your tap. Having worked in 3 different cities the pH has always been around 7.8-8.4 and the fish do fine. If you try to adjust your pH to perfect 7.0 and then go buy a fish from an 8.4 store...the new fish will have a very hard time acclimating right away. Its okay to adjust the pH if you can ALWAYS keep it constant but it requires a lot of testing and usually drip-acclimating your fish. Looking at the fish you have though, they will be fine without any pH adjustment.
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