Increase Ph

[stanleo]

I'm not sure if this is right place for this so if it's not feel free to move it.
 
I was up late last night and looked in on my tank and found a whisker shrimp eating one of my neon tetras. So today I tested the water and everything is fine except the Ph is reading 5.5. I think this is too low so how do I increase it? The rest of the fish seem to be doing fine but it has me worried since I have not had a death in quite some time.

 

[techen]

That is insanely low PH for fish, What is the tap water PH?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

That pH should be fine for neons, honestly.
 
 
The bigger question you need to ask is: Why is my pH so low?
 
 
 
What's your maintenance schedule, etc.?
 
What's your tap conditions?
 
What's your ammonia, nitrite, nitrate?
 
 
 
Rather than trying to raise the pH, you need to find out why its gone that low in the first place!  Fix that, and the problem is solved.

That is insanely low PH for fish, What is the tap water PH?

 
Not exactly.  Many South American fish can tolerate as low as 4.0, including neons (at least wild specimens, not sure that the tank bred ones can as they are far more delicate now.)  In fact, dropping pH to this level (5.5, not 4.0) is a way of getting particular species to mate.  
 
 
Just as African cichlids can handle pH up at 8.5 (1.5 degress from neutral), some South Americans can handle that and even more on the other side of the spectrum.

 

[stanleo]

My tap water has ammonia in it so I use an RO filter to make the water which I know makes it soft but I am afraid of putting tap water in there even when using a conditioner because I read somewhere that they won't tank out the ammonia completely. If I am wrong about that please let me know. I add a calcium supplement block once a month. My routine is 30%WC every week and cleaning the filter once a month. and I dose liquid carbon and iron supplements for the plants after every water change. ammonia is 0, nitrite is 0 and nitrate is 20ppm. And I find that weird too since it is always at 20ppm every time I test and I thought with as many plants as I have it should be lower than that. But I know 20 is safe for fish so I never really worried about it.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

A few things:  
 
1 - The nitrate will drop because of the plants, but the fish continually produce ammonia, which will also continually create more nitrate.
 
2 - The conditioners will convert the ammonia to a non-toxic form but the bacteria in the filter should deal with this just fine.  
 
3 - How much ammonia is in your tap water?  If its not an outrageous amount (like more than is allowable by law from a water supply co.) I wouldn't worry about it.
 
 
 
Switching to just tap water will greatly help you, your plants, your fish, and your billfold.

 

[stanleo]

Ok its settled. I am going to take your advice and start using conditioned tap water when doing water changes. I have been debating it with myself for a while but you just settled it. Thanks Eagles. One more thing. Now that I am down to just 5 neon tetras, should I get more even though technically I am overstocked as it is?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

If you are going to start using tap instead of RO water, you'll need to take your time doing it.  Too fast and the fish and shrimp will suffer.  I'd suggest doing ONLY 10% water changes for a week during this time.  That is low, especially in an overstocked tank.  So the way to combat this is to feed SPARINGLY.  Give about half of the food you normally feed, and do it only 2-3 times a week.
 
After the first month, you can then increase the water changes to 25% and go back to regular feeding.
 
After the second month, your water changes can go back to normal and you can consider your water completely turned over.  

 

[TwoTankAmin]

The key here is KH. RO has virtually 0 and your tap should have some. It is the lack of carbonates that likely let your pH drop. You may be able to return to full tap at a faster rate than eagle suggested with little worry. Your shrimp will thank you for raising the calcium in the tank too.
 
However, to know how much of a water change is safe/recommended you should test both your tap and your tank for pH, GH and KH. That way you will have a bit of an idea of what will change and by about how much. It is hard to keep pH stable without sufficient KH. 10% weekly may not be sufficient to raise your KH the needed amounts to get the pH up and hold it there.
 
The other thing to watch for as you raise pH is that any ammonia present becomes toxic as you cross about 6.5 pH. Going up from there it becomes more so.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I err on the side of caution.