high ph and filtering through peat

[gale]

My ph is off the charts and my lfs does not use the same water I do. They *say* their water is high ph, but I can't believe much of what they say, obviously. They just want to sell me fish. So anyway, I have a penguin 170 in one tank and a penguin 125 in the other. How do I "filter through peat"? Where do I buy the peat and where in the tank/filter do I put it? I'm also planning to get a piece of driftwood for each tank but not sure how much that will affect anything. thanks!

oh also, what small schooling fish can tolerate high ph? I would guess it won't lower it a whole lot even with the peat.

btw I did a search all about high ph and lowering it naturally and fish that can live in high ph, etc and came up with about 2 million hits.

 

[digital_run]

Hi gale... Unless you are planning on keeping fish which "require" a low ph, then i wouldn't bother trying to alter it. Most fish will adapt to water conditions and are much better suited to a stable enviroment instead of an unstable one. What fish are you planning on getting...You might not have to change anything

 

[gale]

I'm setting up a 10g and was going to put in a school (maybe 5) of harlequin rasboras if my lfs has them, or another small schooling fish (but not neon tetras, we had trouble with those in the past). Plus a couple of kuhli or dwarf loaches OR ghost shrimp.

In my 20 I am going to add two female mollies and will probably not add anything else until my algae needs cleaning, then I will get 2 or 3 oto cats.

do any of those 'require' a low ph? Mine is probably close to 9 It's at the top of the high ph card in my test kit.

 

[pnyklr3]

My pH is very close to that, along with having very hard water. This was never a problem (kept mollies, bristlenose plec, clown loaches, gouramis, and various tetras) until I decided to get some South AMerican cichlids. They would have done fine in the water, but I am breeding them and needed to lower my pH and hardness.

Your mollies with be fine in the high pH. It is much better to leave the pH alone, than try to change it. FIsh can tolerate the high pH, but not the swings in pH that will happen with water changes and the like.

For future use, you can always use RO water. That is what I have slowly switched my 55 gallon over to, and it only costs me about $4 per water change (40 cents a gallon around here; some people have their own unit). By using RO water I make sure that I'm not getting any of the pH swings, and all the "yuckies" that come in tap water. I do, however, have to add in a supplement (found in you lfs) to replace the "goodies" that get removed from RO water.

I think you should be alright with the fish from your lfs. I'm sure they wouldn't go through the trouble, and cost, of using water of a different pH than the local water. If you have any doubts, float the bag of any new fish, and after 20 minutes, start adding in small amount of your tank water to the bag to bring the pH to the same level as yours. Good Luck!

 

[gale]

I think you should be alright with the fish from your lfs. I'm sure they wouldn't go through the trouble, and cost, of using water of a different pH than the local water. If you have any doubts, float the bag of any new fish, and after 20 minutes, start adding in small amount of your tank water to the bag to bring the pH to the same level as yours. Good Luck!

I know they do use tap water (ie local water), but they're an hour away and we have well water, while they use city water. The closer lfs is the same situation-they use city water. We live about 30 minutes from that one. I don't know how water supplies work but I assume they don't all come from the same source.

The last fish we got, I did acclimate them the way you described, and so far, so good. I just don't know why this high ph has me so stressed out.

 

[freshmike]

Do Penguins have an extra filter "basket" like emperors do? If so, that is the way to do it......also the bogwood will help.

 

[gale]

Do Penguins have an extra filter "basket" like emperors do? If so, that is the way to do it......also the bogwood will help.

I'm not sure-this is the only filter I've had. It has a slot to put in the cartridge, which sits closest to the tank and next to it, there is a big open area that holds water. If you mean filter baskets, then no. It doesn't have those. I know the penguin 330 does only because it says so in the book for the 170.

 

[freshmike]

Argh. Well, you "could" just place the peat in behind the one media container that you have......like rest it there.