New Tank, Akaline Water

[Karenb]

Hi All,

I'm new here today and have come along hoping for a little help. I have set up and cycled a 90 litre tank and want to start stocking it. The problem is my pH is very high, around 8 - 8.5. It comes out of my tap this way so I think this will be an on going issue. Can anyone recommend some good starter fish that will tolerate this pH? I was hoping to have some corydora catfish, platies, gormais and a small colourfull shawl like platies/guppies but from what I've read these may not fair to well in my water. I've never kept fish before, I've just been doing a lot of reading!

 

[Knox213]

Hi All,

I'm new here today and have come along hoping for a little help. I have set up and cycled a 90 litre tank and want to start stocking it. The problem is my pH is very high, around 8 - 8.5. It comes out of my tap this way so I think this will be an on going issue. Can anyone recommend some good starter fish that will tolerate this pH? I was hoping to have some corydora catfish, platies, gormais and a small colourfull shawl like platies/guppies but from what I've read these may not fair to well in my water. I've never kept fish before, I've just been doing a lot of reading!

With new tanks you SHOULD use live bearer's first to get the tank fully running.


but hey. im not always right listen to other peoples advice before trusting what i say. i might be wrong

 

[waterdrop]

Hi KarenB and Welcome to TFF!

You have and interesting question about your pH and I'd like to get to that in a moment.

Here in the beginners section we always like to go back over the cycling process, because its so important, when we get a newcomer who says they are cycled. Cycling, to many of us is a big deal and we get pretty detailed about it.

If you've been hanging out reading threads for a while before creating your new ID then perhaps you've already read our working article on fishless cycling by rdd1952 in the Beginners Resource Center? The process of fishless cycling to create a working biofilter takes between 3 weeks and 2 months usually and involves putting pure household ammonia in your tank, often on a daily basis, depending on what test results you get from a good test kit? Is that the method you used to cycle?

The test for a biofilter being good enough to "pass" the fishless cycling test is if you can put pure ammonia in the tank at a 5ppm concentration and then have the biofilter reduce both that ammonia and the resulting nitrite(NO2) down to zero ppm within 12 hours from when the ammonia was put in and for the biofilter to be able to do this reliably for a week.

OK, sorry! , probably you have done all that and we should get on with your real question! A tank pH of 8 to 8.4 is the absolute optimum for growing bacteria(!), but not necessarily all of the typical tropicals we like to keep! The interesting thing to learn however is that its not so much that -actual numeric pH- that will necessarily be bad for fish but really its more an issue of how -stable- the pH is. And even that is really only a somewhat secondary indicator as its even more accurate, I believe, to say that its really how stable the -mineral content- of the water stays. Mineral content is measured with various "hardness scales" which each have a bit of history and can be confusing in themselves!

Most of the fish you list have a reasonable chance of doing ok in the pH water you mention, if your tank is able to maintain a stable water chemistry and if you acclimate them to it successfully. Many livebearers prefer water with a pH up in that range and live plants, if you desire them, can do pretty well with it too.

Anyway, let us know your further questions and I'm sure some of our folks who share the type of high-pH water you have (I happen to have extremely soft water) will come along and share their knowledge! Certainly hope you have a long and enjoyable stay here on TFF!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Karenb]

Thanks for your helpful replies!

I did indeed cycle my tank in the manor you mentioned, it went quite a bit quicker though because my friend's husband gave my a filter sponge that had been in his established tank's filter for a couple of weeks.

I'm interested in this pH fact, as long as it's stable it should be ok? I will invest in a better pH kit, I only have broad range at the moment, to make sure.

 

[grumpysteve]

most tropical fish are captive bred, so they are hardier than wild caught. most of them are pretty adjustable when it comes to pH and water hardness. if you're planning on buying fish from a local shop chances are their water will be of similar quality anyway, so the fish will be used to it. there are ways around the hard water issue, but TBH they're more hassle than they're worth IMO.

if you want fish that thrive in hard/alkaline water maybe some small cichlids? they generally need plenty of research though. if not then most tropical fish will be OK with your water, captive bred fish don't know how hard their water should be! just do a bit of research and don't go for anything that particularly requires soft/acidic water

 

[craig855s]

See what the PH of the water at your LFS is, if its the same or very close to what yours is then the fish you buy will be acclimated to that PH and should survive well. If the LFS PH is drastically different then you may want to either keep fish that like a high PH (livebearers like alkaline water,as do old world cichlids) or slowly slowly acclimate newly bought fish of your choice in your tank.

My PH is 7.8 and it is stocked with various different fish including fish that prefer a PH of "no more than 6.8" and they are happy as can be

 

[Joe97]

Hi Karenb,
Platies can have a maximum PH of 8.2, I think that's about it from your list. You could always buy something to lower your PH. I don't know what but if you went to a fish expertiese shop I'm certain they could advise you on something.
Joe

 

[ZebraDanioFan]

Depends on where you live but the water in the city I live in uses something called soda ash which is said to reduce the amount of metals which may leak into the tap water. This increases the pH level to be very high. It measures in at about 8.8+ on my API test kit. A day or two before I do my weekly water changes, I let the water sit out in my 30 gallon tank. I treat it for chlorine, aerate the water, and I also heat it. In about 12 hours, the pH will in fact drop to the range of 7.4 or so, which is what my 55 gallon tank is at. I am assuming that you measured the pH of your tap water directly but if you dont measure the true pH value of your tap water and you buy fish, you are going to run into problems.

 

[drobbyb]

Hi Karenb,
Platies can have a maximum PH of 8.2, I think that's about it from your list. You could always buy something to lower your PH. I don't know what but if you went to a fish expertiese shop I'm certain they could advise you on something.
Joe

Even though 8.2 may be the listed recommended pH, you can easily acclimate them to the OP pH. A few tenths of a point isn't going to effect the fish if they are properly acclimated.

Reliably lowering your pH can be costly and is often unnecessary. As waterdrop said, stability is more important than the number.