I learned this the hard way and my stupidity took about 3 months off the life of one of my Bettas.
You’d think that after about 5 years of checking the pH level of two 20 gallon tanks and 5 to 7 10 gallon tanks weekly before and after every water change you would learn what it takes to keep your pH at a stable level. And actually, you probably would get that down to a science by then but only if your water source remains the same as far as it’s chemical content.
You can never take your pH levels for granted. Check them every two weeks at the least. I thought after all that time, I knew how much water to change and how frequent the changes should be to keep the pH stable for the tanks sizes I was using. So I got cocky and stopped checking the pH regularly. I would only check it every few months and it would still be exactly where I want it.
That cocky attitude came back to bite me bad. My water source was medium hard water (very good for having a stable pH) and it was 7.6 pH out of the tap. So I kept my Bettas in 7.6 pH all the time.
One day, I see one of my Bettas not being his happy self. So I first inspected him as close as possible with a magnifying glass and didn’t see anything wrong so I decided I better check my pH level. To my shock, this poor guy was swimming in Acid a pH level of 6.2. I had been doing regular water changes just like always, he was the only guy in a big 20 gallon tank, I wasn’t over feeding him so I couldn’t figure out what made the pH drop so much.
Then it hit me……WATER HARDNESS. pH levels are easily changed in softer water so I measured the gH and KH water hardness levels and sure enough, somewhere along the line my water source was now SOFT water with a gH of about 15 and KH of almost zero.
You need a KH of 50 or greater to have stable PH. And you need a gH of at least 80 to have enough of the minerals in the water that your fish need.
I hate using any kind of chemicals to treat the water except to take the ammonia out but I had to resort to using Baking Soda to raise the KH and Epstein Salt to raise the gH and balance the Baking soda to stabilize my pH. Be careful with these chemicals as it only takes tiny amounts to introduce large changes and Baking soda not only stabilizes pH but it will also raise it up above 8.4.
But anyway, the moral of this story is never take your pH levels for granted. Measure it regularly and don’t use those dumb sticks that you stick in the water. They are not very accurate.
You’d think that after about 5 years of checking the pH level of two 20 gallon tanks and 5 to 7 10 gallon tanks weekly before and after every water change you would learn what it takes to keep your pH at a stable level. And actually, you probably would get that down to a science by then but only if your water source remains the same as far as it’s chemical content.
You can never take your pH levels for granted. Check them every two weeks at the least. I thought after all that time, I knew how much water to change and how frequent the changes should be to keep the pH stable for the tanks sizes I was using. So I got cocky and stopped checking the pH regularly. I would only check it every few months and it would still be exactly where I want it.
That cocky attitude came back to bite me bad. My water source was medium hard water (very good for having a stable pH) and it was 7.6 pH out of the tap. So I kept my Bettas in 7.6 pH all the time.
One day, I see one of my Bettas not being his happy self. So I first inspected him as close as possible with a magnifying glass and didn’t see anything wrong so I decided I better check my pH level. To my shock, this poor guy was swimming in Acid a pH level of 6.2. I had been doing regular water changes just like always, he was the only guy in a big 20 gallon tank, I wasn’t over feeding him so I couldn’t figure out what made the pH drop so much.
Then it hit me……WATER HARDNESS. pH levels are easily changed in softer water so I measured the gH and KH water hardness levels and sure enough, somewhere along the line my water source was now SOFT water with a gH of about 15 and KH of almost zero.
You need a KH of 50 or greater to have stable PH. And you need a gH of at least 80 to have enough of the minerals in the water that your fish need.
I hate using any kind of chemicals to treat the water except to take the ammonia out but I had to resort to using Baking Soda to raise the KH and Epstein Salt to raise the gH and balance the Baking soda to stabilize my pH. Be careful with these chemicals as it only takes tiny amounts to introduce large changes and Baking soda not only stabilizes pH but it will also raise it up above 8.4.
But anyway, the moral of this story is never take your pH levels for granted. Measure it regularly and don’t use those dumb sticks that you stick in the water. They are not very accurate.
