High Ph

fish nutter · Mar 10, 2010

Hi everyone,

I have a 240 53 gal / liter tank with 14 rummy nose tetras (one died recently and went a dark tinge along it's body)

I have a PH of 7.8 which is too high for my rummy nose tetras. What can i do?

star4 · Mar 11, 2010

Adding bogwood can lower ph, especially if it is still leeching the tannins. Or you can use a ph buffer which you can add to the water when doing a water change.

grumpysteve · Mar 11, 2010

leave it alone. anything you do to lower the Ph wont permanantly change the hardness of the water, so the Ph will start to rise again.
fish don't know how hard the water is in their natural habitat because chances are they've never been there, and trying to change the hardness is a lot more hassle than its worth. the easiest (and imo the only way worth bothering with) is using RO water, but that works out expensive, and if you're buying it, what if the shop doesn't have enough and you need it for an emergency?
my water is hard, my Ph is 8.0-8.2, and all my fish are happy and always have been. all i have to do is be more careful when acclimatising fish.

VickiandKev · Mar 11, 2010

I ditto what grumpysteve says.
IME pH buffers are a waste of time - if you're trying to change the pH by more than about 0.5 of a unit a buffer won't do it anyway, buffers by nature have only a relatively small pH range in which they will work and essentially are to prevent changes in pH due to waste etc, than change the pH of a water body.
You can add unsoaked bogwood, this does work quite well, the tannins will make your water tea-coloured but won't harm your fish (and have been speculated to be beneficial for certain species) ... otherwise you can add almond leaves which you can buy from aquatic stores or online, or else peat, which you can add to the filter.

Before you decide to do anything though, I'd read up on it. I wouldn't worry overly about a pH of 7.8 - I have a pH of 8.0-8.5 and I keep all sorts of fish in my tanks, just obviously acclimatising fish needs to be done with care.

My sister keeps her rummynose in fairly alkaline water and they do really well - her pH is about 8.0 or higher.