wheelyfeet
New Member
Hi,
I'm new and posted an intro in the newbies section. This question concerns our local water supply's changing pH.
We are on a community well and years ago when I owned a spa, the water always tested very soft and I had to add calcium to the spa water in order to maintain proper pH.
When we filled our 75 gallon tank a couple of weeks ago, I was surprised to find that our calcium hardness was 107 (we have no gH) and our pH was 7.6 - 7.8. However, two days ago our water from the tap dropped to a pH of 6.8, and I suspect the hardness has fallen low as well. All we can figure is that they switched from stored water to the well head water. We had lower than normal rain and snow last year so the well depth probably dropped pretty far. So far this year we are having record rain falls. Considering we normally get a lot of rain, that's lots and lots of rain!
Anyhow, a drop from 7.8 to 6.8 is HUGE, considering it's logrithmic. How should we handle our water changes? I figure we shouldn't change the pH more than one value at a time, but over how many days? I'm concerned because my husband has been changing out about 15% of the water daily in the 75 gallon tank in order to lower the pH. I'm afraid it might be too much, too fast. I've been changing out about 15% of the 10 gallon tank every three days. I'm also still cycling my betta tank, so need to do water changes in that tank about every other day to keep the ammonia levels tolerable.
Thanks,
Debra in Washington State (greater Tacoma area)
PS
Other than this problem, we have wonderful water. No chemicals are ever added.
I'm new and posted an intro in the newbies section. This question concerns our local water supply's changing pH.
We are on a community well and years ago when I owned a spa, the water always tested very soft and I had to add calcium to the spa water in order to maintain proper pH.
When we filled our 75 gallon tank a couple of weeks ago, I was surprised to find that our calcium hardness was 107 (we have no gH) and our pH was 7.6 - 7.8. However, two days ago our water from the tap dropped to a pH of 6.8, and I suspect the hardness has fallen low as well. All we can figure is that they switched from stored water to the well head water. We had lower than normal rain and snow last year so the well depth probably dropped pretty far. So far this year we are having record rain falls. Considering we normally get a lot of rain, that's lots and lots of rain!
Anyhow, a drop from 7.8 to 6.8 is HUGE, considering it's logrithmic. How should we handle our water changes? I figure we shouldn't change the pH more than one value at a time, but over how many days? I'm concerned because my husband has been changing out about 15% of the water daily in the 75 gallon tank in order to lower the pH. I'm afraid it might be too much, too fast. I've been changing out about 15% of the 10 gallon tank every three days. I'm also still cycling my betta tank, so need to do water changes in that tank about every other day to keep the ammonia levels tolerable.
Thanks,
Debra in Washington State (greater Tacoma area)
PS
Other than this problem, we have wonderful water. No chemicals are ever added.
