So My Ph Is Around The 8.5 Mark

[drain_bamaged]

Can you tell me if this is ok for Betta and Neons?

Cheers

Darren

 

[Jakesheppard199]

are you keeping the betta with neons?

 

[drain_bamaged]

trying to decide between the two...so answers for both please

trying to decide between the two...so answers for both please

 

[waterdrop]

Well I can speak up for neons to say that they are a fish that comes from the soft and acid Amazon and are known to be a fish that likes an acid pH.

But this makes for an interesting discussion in that we always talk a lot around here about how one should pay less attention to the pH which is supposed to be ideal for a species and just concentrate on giving a fish a more stable pH and try hard to just go with the water you've been given by where you live.

So now we've got a good chance to throw out the question to any listening experienced fishkeepers out there among the members! Here's a pretty high pH this person has, pretty far away from the neon's favored pH, which would be down in the 6's. What might we see from this? We're assuming the OP has no interest in breeding the neons, just having their nice sparkly jets of color in the aquarium. Would the neons be less healthy? Would they even be likely to die? Or would we maybe not even see any difference?

I've currently got a batch of neons living in water that is KH=0 or 1, pH ranging from 6.8 to 7.4 or so. They are bursting with liveliness and health.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

I have gotten away with keeping neons as high as 7.8 pH but not tried anything higher. The real issue in most cases is not pH, it is the mineral content of the water. The so called soft water and acidic water fish are really fish that do best with low mineral content in their water. A pH of 8.5 is very high. I have no idea what the chemical may be that is pushing the pH so high but I doubt it is just carbonates at that pH. Carbonates usually stop driving the pH higher around 8.0 or a little more. Given oyur water, I would be more likely to try out a Betta splendens than a neon. Neons are definitely soft water fish while a Betta can often tolerate a wide range of water chemistry.