Does Anybody Here Rate Ph Down?

[FishAreFriendsNotFood10]

The water in my area is just rediculously high it comes out the tap around 8-8.4 and when i leave it for 24 hours it only ever drops to around 7.6-7.8

i had been using PH proper 7.0 when i had artificial plants but now i have live plants its getting harder to control i read API PH Down is useable with live plants and just wondered if anybody uses it regulary??

unltil i sort my PH out i cant really get the cardinal tetras i want to finish my tank off as they will just die

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Curious how your reading go more acidic after 24 hours, as I was under the impression that it is normal for standing tap water to go more alkaline, as any carbon dioxide comes out of solution.

pH adjusting products are generally regarded as as ticking time bomb, as it will be very difficult to lower the pH and then keep the pH and hardness stable. Water chemistry stability is the key to keep your fish healthy and happy.

Have you taken kH and gH readings of your tap water, along with the pH, using a liquid testing kit?

I suspect your water will be something similar to Southampton's tap water, which is why I felt I had to choose between certain fish types, that like moderately hard (kH 11, gH 14) and alkaline water (pH 8.2)...

• Rift Valley cichlids (Malawi, Tanganyika, Victoria)
• Rainbowfish (although some species prefer soft acidic water)
• Riverine fish from Africa and Asia (especially Myanmar,formerly known as Burma)

I chose the latter option, but then some of my fish come from softer water, like my Leopard Bushfish and African Butterfly Fish. Personally, if I wanted to keep Cardinals, I would seriously have to consider purchasing Reverse Osmosis water from my LFS or get a small RO unit integrated into one of my flat taps.

But hopefully you will get some responses in this thread of success stories about keeping Cardinals in hard alkaline water.

 

[FishAreFriendsNotFood10]

i only have the api freshwater master test kit.... but PH is always a problem for me from the word go and i only have a 90l tank so african cilchids etc are really not a option for me.

would a small unit like this RO Unit help me out?

im sure plenty of people keep fish in my area lol and im wondering how they keep there ph's balanced

 

[ZoddyZod]

im sure plenty of people keep fish in my area lol and im wondering how they keep there ph's balanced

the key word there is 'balanced'. As NOTG just stated, it is much more important to keep a STABLE pH for the vast majority of fish in the trade. Most will adapt to you slightly high pH, just stay away from any of the fragile species that positively must have soft acidic water (German Blue Rams for example). Attempting to change it via the use of chemical products is seen as very tricky and will probably cause more stress/harm to the fish in the long term as the pH will fluctuate.

If you source your fish locally, and the lfs shares similar water conditions, ask them how long specicifc fish have been kept in those conditions and that will be a fair indicator if they have adapted to it. If they are locally bred that will also help. Try to avoid wild caught specimens that come from acidic waters.

I was very keen to keep cuckatoo cichlids but was alwasy put off by their low-pH needs. After seeing them at a lfs and then discovering that many people on here were keeping them around an 8 pH it changed my mind!

there are shell dwelling cichlids that come from Africa that prefer hard water and can happily be homed in a 90l tank.

 

[FishAreFriendsNotFood10]

my PH is always stable but is in the high 7s like 7.6-7.8 most of the time.... ive tested my LFS water and ph everytime i bought fish (my local fish shop is 10miles away and for specialist ordered in fish i go as far as 25miles) and there water parameter as always PH 7.0-7.2 i have had many eyes look on those coloured test tubes aswell to confirm this

 

[ZoddyZod]

my PH is always stable but is in the high 7s like 7.6-7.8 most of the time.... ive tested my LFS water and ph everytime i bought fish (my local fish shop is 10miles away and for specialist ordered in fish i go as far as 25miles) and there water parameter as always PH 7.0-7.2 i have had many eyes look on those coloured test tubes aswell to confirm this

7.6 - 7.8 should not be an issue for many of the fish in the trade. My pH is 7.8 - 8.0 and I've not appeared to have any issues with any of the fish I have kept or keep.