Ph Problems

[steve_jones83]

So when I started the tank nearly 2 years ago I had a problem with the PH being too high, nearly 8 and was losing a lot of fish.

About 6 months ago I added some bogwood to the tank and the ph was floating around 7.0.

3 days ago I removed a large rock from the tank (not sure what type, was given it by pets at home) ready to start thinking of changing to sand. Whilst watching the fish today I noticed they seemed sluggish. Just tested water, everything fine except the ph is between 7.6 and 7.8. Now I was worried about taking the rock out, but believed that would make the PH drop as I read that the rocks add to the alkalinity of the water.

Is this anything to worry about??? TBH I havent checked the ph for about 8 weeks so there may be no change, just seems that the fish have looke a little sluggish since removing the stone.

Any ideas or just leave it until I get my external filter next week and add somethingt to the filter to slowly brng the ph down??

 

[fluttermoth]

I'd leave it alone altogether. Raising pH and hardness is relatively easy; lowering it and keeping it stable is a whole new ball game and not one to be taken on lightly.

Most standard tropical fish are fairly tolerant of pH, and to a slightly lesser extent, hardness; as long as you steer clear of the very acid loving fish (some tetras and dwarf cichlids, dicsus, anything South American that is wild caught) you should be fine.

I doubt very much that it's the pH making your fish 'sluggish'; have you tested the other parameters? If there was a lot of mulm under the rock it could have caused an ammonia or nitrite spike perhaps?

 

[BigbruiserAl]

Agree with flutter, keeping it stable is the road to being a PITA. As long as introduce fish slowly and correctly they can adapt very well with a few exceptions of fish

 

[Aqua Tom]

Can we please stop using accronyms? I had to look up PITA. Why not just say pain in the a***?

 

[BigbruiserAl]

Can we please stop using accronyms? I had to look up PITA. Why not just say pain in the a***?

Because i was drinking a cup of tea and reading on the notebook so typing would have been a PITA using google is not a bad wish more people would do TBH