[girlofgod]

i am not a big fan of gravel cuz i think it looks dirty, so i use glass rocks/marbles from michaels. the petsmart lady told me this would be fine...

any thoughts? i have very high pH in my tank and was wondering if they could be contributing?

thanks!

bri

 

[joeshmoe]

do you have any shells in there ?

 

[girlofgod]

no..just a variety of glass marbles. i know not to put shells in there because they can raise the pH...

bri

 

[Nick]

Have you tested your tank water for pH and than check your tap water for pH. It may just be your tap water's pH. If that was the case than nothing in your tank would be doing it.

 

[joeshmoe]

could be some thing in on the marbels.

 

[Lupin]

Marbles don't alter pH. Too much oxygen contributes to high pH but pH swings will happen anyway.
pH isn't your primary concern but GH(general hardness) and KH(carbonate hardness) are.:wink:

 

[girlofgod]

um...i dont have a kH tested, but my gH is very soft. i have been taking water in to be tested at petsmart as well and they havent said anything about my kH readings. they just gave me some danios and said that they would help cycle the tank and balance the readings, but i wanted to make sure that nothing i have IN the tank was contributing to high pH. thanks!

bri

 

[joeshmoe]

petsmart told me my water then i tested it myself and there two dif results

 

[Lupin]

Some rocks like limestones contribute to high pH. Substrates will also contribute to high pH. If you test both with vinegar and if they do fizz violently, don't use them. They clearly indicate that they can raise the pH.
There are many ways of lowering pH but you must monitor that to ensure you're not lowering it beyond the capacity that the fish will not be able to adapt well. Peat, rainwater and bogwoods are a few methods I can mention but make sure that when you use rainwater, it's not coming from industrial areas where pollutants are likely to harbor in the rainwater.
Danios don't balance your water chemistry and neither do other fish.:wink: Don't be too concerned on your pH. Danios are very hardy and will survive the cycling which has many extreme changes.

 

[Lupin]

I'll have to add that gravel is more natural than the glass marbles. There's no such thing as ultraclean tanks. I'd say you go for gravel rather than marbles. This will also increase their security and the marbles can cause glaring effects on the fish anyway when they reflect to the light.

 

[SimplySplendid]

About how big are the marbles?

 

[fishylover!]

also are the marbels painted at all? perhaps the paint could be contributing and i agree with blue u should ideally be testing your water at home and GH & KH are more important than PH. you can get darker / natural looking gravels which dont show the waste as much.. ( i should know i have white gravel lol ) also what else is in the tank in the way of decor? ornaments ect?

 

[girlofgod]

well, they are thumb-nail sized marbles of different colors, but they arent painted. they seem to me to just be colored glass...i have two fake plants and a rock formation, all bought from the aqua dept at lfs.

if pH isnt that important, howcome everyone makes such a big deal about it? and what about the fish that cant survive in tanks with higher pH? and why dont the people who are supposed to be experts on setting up tanks tell you to check your gH and kh?

bri

 

[joeshmoe]

what is your ph if you dont have a test kit go to the store but the might not have the best test kit so it might be off by a little.

 

[SimplySplendid]

You really should never use marbles as substrate for an aquarium. Marbles allow leftover food, waste, and debris to become trapped, which can lead to bad water conditions and sick fish. Keep the aquarium's colors simple and natural. Brightly-colored substrate can make the fish shy and less active.

 

[girlofgod]

these are some not so great pics of my setup...it does look kinda bright through the lens of a camera...but i didnt think it looked too bright to the natural eye....hrm...

bri

 

[Nick]

Hey, I love the decorations, the fake plants almost look real and you have a cool feature/cave in there. I've got to say, the marbles dont look so great. If you like the colorful feater go with blue gravel. But more natural is black. Either would look good, but not marbles.

nick

 

[SimplySplendid]

Well said, Nick

 

[girlofgod]

thanks guys!

bri

 

[fishylover!]

ph is important to an extent obviously if ur PH was extreme of either end of the scale you would need to do sumthin about it but the reason for this is usually because with extreme ph readings your GH & KH are likely o be a little out there aswell.. correct me if im wrong anyone??

LFS usually wont tell u these kinds of things either because they dont know themselves.... or they want to get u to buy as many things as possible including wasting time & money on PH up & PH down water treatments which usually cause more problems than they solve....