Ph Of 8.2 - What Do I Do?

[STRiDER]

(I'm moving this problem from another topic for clarity sake)

Hi All

My tank is now over a month old. My tap water has a PH of between 8.0 and 8.5 and so does my tank.
(For more info on my setup go here: My Tank

I have been running peat in the filter for 8 days with absolutely no change whatsoever.

Current stock:
19 x Neon Tetra
18 x Zebra Danio
2 x Bronze Corydoris
5 x Otocinclus
(more to follow)

How long will it take for a high PH to negatively affect my fish. They do not show any ill effects at the moment.

ie - should I leave the PH alone or should I try and lower it using other methods?

All comments welcome

 

[Glod]

Most fish will be fine as long as they are slowly acclimatised and the PH in the tank remains steady. As far as I know it's not the PH that causes problems as much a swings in PH.
In saying that, have you looked into why your PH is so high ? Is your tap water already that high ? If not something in your tankis probably buffering the water, probably a rock or shell that is leeeching something into the water.
If your fish don't seem stressed and the PH in the tank is consistant I would just make sure I acclimatise any new fish slowly so they don't get shocked.

 

[STRiDER]

My tank water and tap water have exactly the same PH.

I will try to get a carbonate test kit this week and see what the Carbonate Hardness is.

 

[STRiDER]

Here are the newest test results:

Tank Water:
PH : 8.3
NO2 : 0
NO3 : 5
GH : 220
KH : 110

Tap Water
PH : 8.2
GH : 100
KH : 50

These are fairly alarming as it seems something in my tank is pushing up the hardness.

The fact that I added bogwood and peat obviously did not help at all.

Anyone with advice?

 

[Torrean]

what is your substrate?

 

[STRiDER]

My substrate is a course river sand.
I could describe it as pea gravel with smallest sizes 1mm and biggest 6mm.

 

[Torrean]

where'd it come from? a river? If so then that may be the source of your PH troubles

 

[BigIan]

see my reply in your other thread....