How Do I Reduce Ph?

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mhoppe.spink

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I got my 15 gallon tank used from the classified ads, and it came with a BOATLOAD of stuff: a Whisper60 air pump (which is loud and obnoxious and isn't powerful because i think the diaphrames are ripped inside and i am too cheep to replace them [loads of people have had trouble with these online]) a heater, a bubbling volcano, sunken ship, backdrop, castle, plastic plants, gravel, siphon, stand, and a huge box of chemicals and test kits. Two of these chemicals were Ammo-Lock and Ph Down by API, and I was "playing around with my aquarium" one day and wanted to add these to my tank. I added both as the instructions directed, and the next day when on vacation for 3 days. When I returned, all my fish were alive, but the water was VERY cloudy and I couldn't see 1in into the tank. The ammonia was 8+ ppm, and It took me 3-4 complete water changes to get rid of all the toxin. This was about 1 month ago. Now I want to reduce my Ph and am afraid to do so because the level of Ph now is safer than what the ammonia level could be if I add the Ph down just like I did last time. Is the solution old? Did I add too much? Does the tank have to be Dark? Should it not be mixed with anything else? Or did it work perfectly and the problem was not related? These are all questions that i have been asking myself. What is the correct method of reducing my Ph?
 
The question is, why do you want to? The fish won't know...

What is the current Ph and reason for wanting to reduce it?

What is tap water Ph and is it hard water?
 
I cant relly tell, but the test strip is bright red not, and that means it is pretty acidic, but there are 3 colors to compare to, and i cant tell which it is more like. The water is hard, but not very hard.

If the fish wont know, then why do you need to keep an eye on it?
 
I cant relly tell, but the test strip is bright red not, and that means it is pretty acidic, but there are 3 colors to compare to, and i cant tell which it is more like. The water is hard, but not very hard.

If the fish wont know, then why do you need to keep an eye on it?

If it's acidic then you want to raise the Ph. A liquid test kit might be a better choice for you.

Hard water and acidic is almost conflicting. Hard water would generally have a higher Ph than soft.

It is good to monitor to make sure you aren't getting swings as this can indicate problems in the tank (cycling and instability amongst others). Most fish will live happily in a Ph outside of what they live in naturally. Buying fish from a nearby LFS will mean they have similar water stats so the fish should be acclimatised to what your water is already.

Trying to alter Ph isn't a good idea. I'm not really sure whether you need to go up or down from what you're saying, but assuming it is down, adding bogwood and putting peat in the filter can slowly lower the Ph, but if it's hard water then it'll have little impact.
 
Right i always get acidic and basic confused, but i think it should go down because it is too BASIC. I always forget the two. If your saying it does't need adjustment, then thats okay too. My fish look happy at least
 
Right i always get acidic and basic confused, but i think it should go down because it is too BASIC. I always forget the two. If your saying it does't need adjustment, then thats okay too. My fish look happy at least

I'm not saying it doesn't need adjustment, without knowing which fish you keep and what the Ph is, that's impossible to say. But if the fish are happy as it is, then it sounds ok.

I have fish that prefer acidic water that did fine when my Ph was high. It got as high as 8.5+ at one point. They all now live happily at around 6.6
 
Right i always get acidic and basic confused, but i think it should go down because it is too BASIC. I always forget the two. If your saying it does't need adjustment, then thats okay too. My fish look happy at least

I'm not saying it doesn't need adjustment, without knowing which fish you keep and what the Ph is, that's impossible to say. But if the fish are happy as it is, then it sounds ok.

I have fish that prefer acidic water that did fine when my Ph was high. It got as high as 8.5+ at one point. They all now live happily at around 6.6
I've got zebra danios. They have been through almost everything and seem to be impossible to kill.
 
Right i always get acidic and basic confused, but i think it should go down because it is too BASIC. I always forget the two. If your saying it does't need adjustment, then thats okay too. My fish look happy at least

I'm not saying it doesn't need adjustment, without knowing which fish you keep and what the Ph is, that's impossible to say. But if the fish are happy as it is, then it sounds ok.

I have fish that prefer acidic water that did fine when my Ph was high. It got as high as 8.5+ at one point. They all now live happily at around 6.6
I've got zebra danios. They have been through almost everything and seem to be impossible to kill.
Zebra danios are quite a hardy fish and good to start with. the ph for them is 6.5 - 7.0.

when you say it is a new tank did you cycle the filter as 8ppm ammonia is massive :blink:
 
Right i always get acidic and basic confused, but i think it should go down because it is too BASIC. I always forget the two. If your saying it does't need adjustment, then thats okay too. My fish look happy at least

I'm not saying it doesn't need adjustment, without knowing which fish you keep and what the Ph is, that's impossible to say. But if the fish are happy as it is, then it sounds ok.

I have fish that prefer acidic water that did fine when my Ph was high. It got as high as 8.5+ at one point. They all now live happily at around 6.6
I've got zebra danios. They have been through almost everything and seem to be impossible to kill.
Zebra danios are quite a hardy fish and good to start with. the ph for them is 6.5 - 7.0.

when you say it is a new tank did you cycle the filter as 8ppm ammonia is massive :blink:

That's my point about the fish not knowing. You say the Ph for them is 6.5 - 7, I think it's actually a bit either side of that, but there is unlikely to be any negative effects seen in Ph from 5.5 - 8.5.

You might struggle to get fish to breed if they're not in their favourite conditions, but it's not going to do any damage to most fish
 
"when you say it is a new tank did you cycle the filter as 8ppm ammonia is massive :blink: "

It only had fish in it for1 1/2 weeks. I cycled it for 3-4 weeks without any fish when i first bought it. I had no problems before i went on my 3 day vacation
 
when you say it is a new tank did you cycle the filter as 8ppm ammonia is massive :blink:

It was about 1 1/2 weeks old and had been filtered for 3-4 weeks without any fish when i first bought it and had no problems before i went on my 3 day vacation
[/quote]

Did you add ammonia whilst it was filtering for 3-4 weeks?

How long have the fish been in? Sounds like the tank is cycling.
 
Right i always get acidic and basic confused, but i think it should go down because it is too BASIC. I always forget the two. If your saying it does't need adjustment, then thats okay too. My fish look happy at least

I'm not saying it doesn't need adjustment, without knowing which fish you keep and what the Ph is, that's impossible to say. But if the fish are happy as it is, then it sounds ok.

I have fish that prefer acidic water that did fine when my Ph was high. It got as high as 8.5+ at one point. They all now live happily at around 6.6
I've got zebra danios. They have been through almost everything and seem to be impossible to kill.
Zebra danios are quite a hardy fish and good to start with. the ph for them is 6.5 - 7.0.

when you say it is a new tank did you cycle the filter as 8ppm ammonia is massive :blink:

That's my point about the fish not knowing. You say the Ph for them is 6.5 - 7, I think it's actually a bit either side of that, but there is unlikely to be any negative effects seen in Ph from 5.5 - 8.5.

You might struggle to get fish to breed if they're not in their favourite conditions, but it's not going to do any damage to most fish
i agree with that like i said they are hardy fish.

check thislink out did you do this
 

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