Lowering Ph

[nikkijack]

please bear with me as i am a very new begginer and all this is a bit over my head...
we took our water sample to a very reputable aquatic centre..readings were as follows

PH 8.5
nitrite 0.5
Gh 11

we have a 15 gallon tank..we did a fishless cycle

the shop said to put cycle in for a week and test again 7 days later

but me being me and promising my little ones there would be fish that day we tested we went and got 6 neon tetra's...4 have died, and 2 are survived and looking very healthy

appart from using the cycle is there any other way we can get ph down??
frequent water changes perhaps??

many thanks
nikki

 

[voo]

Neon's aren't a good choice for new tanks, they do better in mature tanks, so maybe add some in 3-4 months time.

Cycle won't help with the pH of the tank.
How long has the tank been cycling?

do you know the pH of your tap water? Also, what's the ammonia reading in the tank? If there's ammonia present and it's still cycling then that would give you a high pH

 

[nikkijack]

thanks for the reply, the tanks been cycling for just under 3 weeks
i don't know the ph of water yet, i'm gonna get a testing kit on tuesday
there was no trace of amonia when the shop tested the water sample.

i got the neons as someone i know how has done it for years said they would prob be best to have in a high ph tank,

live and learn!!
everyone says diff things, thats why i have joined here coz you all seem to know.

many thanks

 

[nikkijack]

so the question is small frequent water changes?? do they help the ph??

 

[Lynz781]

Also neons prefer a pH around 6. I have drift wood and bod wood in my tank that has lowered the pH of my tank water to around 6.4.

 

[nikkijack]

thanks for the reply

we picked up some driftwood and the bloke said your better off with this and directed us to slate i think it is, so we put a large peice of that in at the back of the tank

 

[dwarfgourami]

Putting in Cycle and waiting before you add fish is not the same as doing a fishless cycle. The fishless cycle involves adding controlled amounts of liquid ammonia and waiting until the tank has grown enough bacteria to deal with the fish's waste, then adding fish.
The ph is not your main problem here- though admittedly the neons won't like it- your main problem is that the tank is not ready to deal with the ammonia/nitrites produced from your fish's waste. Cycle is supposed to add bacteria to the tank, but probably does very little. As far as I know, it is not designed to alter ph in any way. Ph will be high if the ph is high in your tap water. The best thing to do, at least for a beginner, is to select fish that will like what you've got. Typical high ph fish are guppies, platies, endlers, rainbow fish (though many of these grow too large for a small tank) and African cichlids (too large for this tank and/or too aggressive to go in a community). Typical not-really-fussed-fish include danios, the common corydoras, bristlenose plecs and some of the hardier tetras, and in fact most fish sold in shops. It is a good rule NEVER to buy a fish until it has been properly researched, through books+online resources, rather than asking the advice of the salesman.

 

[nikkijack]

i have been back and had the water tested again today, nitrites have raised to 3.0
PH is now 8.0
GH is 15

i spoke to the man again and he said the tank is cycling as the nitrite level is going up, and will prob come down as well as the ph levels over the next week or so if i continue to put the cycle in again twice a day and feed the fish only twice a week (poor fish)

hubby is now saying he wants to ditch having tropical fish and just have coldwater fish, but i don't want to....any ideas folks as to why its all going up and not down??

i have done no water changes, i asked about this also and he said not to.

many thanks
nikki

 

[BigIan]

fish produce ammonia,

this ammonia is then eaten by a=bacteria and thurned into nitrIte

the nitrItes is then eaten by more bacteria and turned into NitrAte

the nitrate is much less harmfull to fish than ammonia or nitrite and is removed from the tank with water changes...

CYCLE is a useless product,

it sounds like the ammonia eating bacteria have begun to colonise the filter and are producing nitrite. the problem is the bacteria that eat this take much longer to grow. you need to do constant water changes, aswell as get yourself a test kit as soon as possible. keep the nitrite levels as low as possible (1 paart per million) by doing small water changes

 

[voo]

I think even with cold water fish you'd still need to wait for the tank to cycle.

Once the tank has finished cycling then you can add more fish, slowly, the ammonia and nitrites should reach 0 and your pH will come down.

Nitrates aren't so bad, and adding some live plants will help to reduce this.

 

[nikkijack]

thanks for that, i'm glad someone knows!! when i do frequent water change do i have to add aqua plus everytime???

sorry to be a pain lol
nikki

 

[voo]

Is aqua plus a dechlorinator? If it is, then yes, add it to the water each time you do a water change. The chlorine in tap water isnt good for a fish tank, so make sure it's added.

 

[nikkijack]

yes it is, i thought i had to but just wanted to double check first!!
many thanks voo for reply
nikki

 

[nikkijack]

i printed this thread out so i can refer to advice given to me at my net is due to go off..when i read it back, i realised my ph has dropped not increased. it was only 0.5 less, than last weeks reading...but nitrates and gh had increased.

does anyone have any views on filters?
is a undergravel filter better than normal one u stick on inside of glass??


my 2 fishes are still alive and looking well still, but we shall see!!

 

[ImperfectFaerie]

I wouldn't go with an undergravel filter, IMO they're crap