Good water for guppies?

Christople

Hi I have three guppies 1 male 2 females. My params are pH is around 6 and 4 dgh. I don't know the nitrite and nitrate stuff for I am out of testing strips and I plan on getting them tomorrow. Also one of the guppies [one female] looks a bit nervous and is breathing fast. Tomorrow is my scheduled water change so should I change a bit more or not.

Lupin

Your water is very soft and acidic for the fish. Did you use test strips to determine your pH and hardness levels? Please forget the test strips and invest in API liquid kit for accurate results.

Do you have crushed corals with you?
Tank size?
Fish?
Filtration?
Temperature?

Christople

The temp is 80 tsnk is 38 gallon and sih are 2 guppies 2 rams 5 kuhlis rubber lip pleco bristle nose pleco and 10 or so neons[Hard to count]

Christople

I plan on getting liquid testing suplies from pecto, don't have any crushed corals the temp is 80 the tank is 38 gallons and the fish are 10 or so neons, 2 rams, 2 guppies, 5 kuhlis,1 bn pleco, and 1 rubber lip pleco

Lupin

Yikes! I'll take back what I said about crushed corals. A majority of your fish do not need it. You'll have to separate the guppies and do your pH and hardness adjustments in the other tank for their own convenience.

fan4guppy

I have a feeling that this is the posters only tank with the ph being around 6 very acidic and the water hardness it is not the best water quality for guppies. The amazing little creatures that they are. Lupin was suggesting crushed corals for a reason and that is that the corals can buffer your water to the ph where guppies prefer to have their ph. This is around 7.8 ph and they do prefer water about 78 degrees farenheit. With appropriate mineral content and Salt is often recommended for their water.

The Rams, Neons, and the plecos really like acidic water though and with this information it would be best to check out the ph levels for all of these species, as a learning guide for yourself. These fish generally do not like high mineral content and have a tendency not to like Salt (although some salt can be used during quarantining)

For the guppies sake it may be best to get another aquarium and slowly adjust them to the higher ph, but guppies can be very adaptable. Not everyone keep them in optimum water parametres.

Lupin

We need to clarify the salt we are talking about. There are many kinds of salt around the hobby.

For sodium chloride, the only time it should be used is when there are injuries that need to be treated immediately to avoid infections or health issues that DO need the NaCl as a means to eliminate them.

The rift lake salts intended to increase the pH, hardness and mineral content for Rift Valley cichlids may be used for guppies but in a separate tank. Any calcium-based material may also be used such as crushed oyster shells, crushed corals, aragonite, etc. Calcium chloride by Kent's for reef setups may also be used to increase hardness levels thereby stabilizing the pH as necessary.

fan4guppy

The discussion of Sodium chloride NaCl is a rather hot topic in amoungst the aquarium world. And although this compound is commonly used for the treatment of disease in aquariums it is one of the compounds that is found in fresh water around the world. Many zoologists, and scientists measure this compound along with other chemicals in fresh water to determine water hardness and salinity.

Christople

thank you for the info but I tested my pH and IT came up as around 7.6!!!!!!! wowowowowowowoowwow those test strips were way wrong. They said 6 ish. I plan on slowly bringing it down to around 6.5 for the majority of my fish like that. How much ph down do I put for thirty 8 gallons

fan4guppy

Test strips are not very accurate as you have found out. There are better test kits for KH, GH and PH, and really good hydrometers for measuring NaCl in water. Which I suggest that you get before thinking about adjusting water chemistry in your aquarium for any means.

Your fish have been adapted to your aquarium for how long? There is a saying that if domesticated fish have been adapted to your water parameters and you are unsure of water chemistry sometimes it is best to leave what is not broken alone. Unless you are planning on breeding specific species. Personally I would just leave your water at 7.6 ph. As your fish have or are in the process of adapting to your aquarium.

Personally I do not like any chemical use to lower ph as it can cause PH bounces in your water and I do not recommend this unless you are attempting to breed a species in their own tank. Or have the chemical knowledge and proper test kits to measure GH, KH and PH. (TDS meters)

There are better ways to lower the amount of mineral content in aquarium water. Some are expensive while others add tannins to the water.

Tannin Information

All methods should be done slowly to prevent ph shock to the fish.

Another means is adding distilled water to your aquarium to lower ph down to neutral. This removes some mineral content slowly then once the tank is at neutral with no "gravel that can contain mineral content" then the tank is at neutral. This can be expensive for the cost of distilled water.

The other means is by using reverse osmosis water which is a filter process that takes out minerals and other impurities in the water see Reverse osmosis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Then specific things like Peat Moss can be used in the filtration of water to bring water below ph 7 which is the neutral point in the PH scale. I won't get into the methods for doing this part as it again takes proper test kits and knowledge to maintain this environment. It is easier generally to add specific minerals to alkaline water than to change alkaline water to that of water with specific acidic properties. Although again this process would also have to be done slowly for the inhabitants of your aquarium to adjust. There are products used such as Black Water Tonic that are used by some but again chemicals added have to monitored regularly.

As I stated I would not mess with the water chemistry in your aquarium unless you are taking on a challenge to breed a hard to breed species such as Discus.