Ph - How Important Is It To Be Spot On And What Does It Mean If It&#39

[VickiandKev]

I have been wondering about this but cannot be bothered with all the chemistry jargon as I get enough of that at vet uni.

I wondered if someone could simply explain to me the important of pH for a community and what it means if your pH is well off track.

Mine is 8.5 - which is shocking to be honest. I really don't want to fiddle too much though as all my fish are very well, surprisingly.
I tested my water simply because I had a flashy new liquid test kit and wanted to know my parameters but was a bit surprised by that result.

I've heard it can be an indicator for ammonia - but my tank was ammonia free, essentially.

What does it mean for my fish that the pH is 8.5 and would you suggest changing this?
Why should it be changed?
How should it be changed?

I would imagine the pH is high as the water is very hard, living in London, am I right?

I need a book .... 'pH for Dummies'

 

[always4lora]

In my opinion your PH for locally bred fish doesnt really matter wether it by high or low as the fish are used to it. If you're getting wild caught fish alot of (not all) them come from locations where the Ph variers so as long as you avoid the extreme's they will be fine. As for the majority of fish you order online or get from a fair distance where the ph is likely to be very differnt as long as you acclimitise them properly you wont have any issues.


So really for the mjority of fish it's not terribly important as long as theyre acclmitesed properly, best thing to do is read up on the individual fish you're looking into.

oh and 8.5 isnt to much to wurry about mines around 8 out of the tap and havent had any issues .

 

[grumpysteve]

8.5 is pretty high, but messing around with pH levels is a lot more hassle than its worth. theres no real 'cure' to it. some people will suggest putting bog wood in the tank, but this wont permanently change the hardness of the water, so the pH will rise again. others may suggest peat granules in your filter, but essentially the same applies. if you really wanted to you could pre filter your water using peat granules, but if you put peat granules in the filter in your tank, and put your tap water straight in there, you'd get some pretty drastic pH fluctuations. also you'd have to experiment with how much peat you need, and how often you'd have to change it.

the best way to soften water is to use an RO system, but then you'd be removing a lot of essential minerals from the water too. so you'd have to dilute your tap water with the RO water, until you get the perfect mix.

as long as you don't go for any fish that particularly require soft/acidic water your fish will be fine.

 

[OldMan47]

The pH of your water is almost a meaningless number. Although the pH for many fish is given in reference materials, it is far more important for a breeder than it is for a fish keeper. Some eggs can be difficult to fertilize at the wrong pH even though the fish thrive in that pH. I cannot begin to breed cories unless I replace most of my water with rain water because I live in a high pH hard water location. The cories in my tanks are now approaching 4 or more years and in some tanks they are over 6 years and looking great. Breeding cories is out of the question in that same water and, from what I have read, even if the fish were now moved to proper pH water, they still would have trouble breeding successfully.
If you just want your fish to swim around your tank and look nice, don't worry much about the pH. If you are a serious breeder, make sure oyu adjust the pH by using dilution to drop the KH of the water and then use a natural way to drop the pH of low mineral content water, such as leaves or wood or peat staining the water yellow with tannins and dropping the pH.

 

[nmonks]

As grumpysteve has correctly pointed out, changing the pH without changing the hardness isn't a good idea. Instead of worrying about the pH, check the hardness, in particular, the carbonate hardness. This test is usually measured in degrees KH or else mg/l calcium carbonate. Water with a high carbonate hardness will have a steady, basic pH around 8. For most community aquaria you want a middling value, not so low that pH is unstable, but not so high the pH is above 8. Where I live the water has a very high carbonate hardness, so I mix the water 50/50 with rainwater. This delivers a nice balance that suits a very wide range of fish: for example, both livebearers and Corydoras happily breed it in.

If this isn't an option, it would be wise to choose fish adapted to hard, basic water. These include livebearers, goodeids, Malawian cichlids, Tanganyikan cichlids, Central American cichlids, goldfish, many rainbowfish, and at least some characins (e.g., Mexican and cave tetras) and killifish (e.g., Aphanius mento). Brackish water fish will also thrive in a hard water system with some marine salt mix added, which opens up the possibility of all sorts of oddball species. I wouldn't personally bother with soft water fish at pH 8.5, as the general hardness and carbonate hardness will likely be far outside the comfort zone of such fish. While you might be okay, your fish are more likely to have shorter lives than otherwise.

Cheers, Neale