Tap Water Dramatic Ph Shift.

[unimpressed]

In need of help, recent work down the road by the local water board shifted our ph, I figured this would be a temporary thing but over a month on and the ph levels have stayed the same, and this is very troubling news for me.

The PH of my tap water used to be a reasonable 6.6-6.7, which made it very easy to keep SA cichlids etc.

Now, my tap water is a staggering 7.7-7.8

(I unfortunately lost some fish from ph change whilst doing a large water change )

Now my remaining fish are currently in a tank that i've been slowly doing small water changes to very slowly adapt them to the ph, but I can't take them up to 7.8!

The current fish are: Severum, a syno and 2 plecos.

What can I do to lower my PH to atleast 7.5??

I know I could add bogwood but that's only a temporary solution

 

[DrRob]

First piece of advice is to ring the water board and ask them if they can tell you what they've done.
 
If they've changed the nature of your supply or the mix of lime and such like going in in a permanent way then it's something that you're going to have to work with. You never know, they may have a leak in lime based soil and it's something that they need to fix and you'll get the status quo back. There's no real mileage in pushing them, they're only obliged to provide safe drinking water to within certain standards, not stable stuff for fish, but it may be unintentional and fixable, or temporary.
 
Overall, my advise in general is to not mess with water given half a chance, otherwise you end up having to keep doing what you're doing for ever, but that would depend on what they've done.
 
It's also worth taking some water and leaving it out for a day or two and then testing it. Occasionally things gas off that give you a big change over a day or two.
 
Otherwise it would be worth knowing how hard the water is, as that'll give an idea of how easy it will be to shift the pH around. What test kits do you have available?

 

[unimpressed]

I have an API testing kit, i'll see if it checks for hardness.

There is bogwood in the tank now (only been setup 12ish hours) but it is mature wood that no longer gives off tannins.
 
Sorry for slow reply, working on the house.

 

[DrRob]

That's OK, replies on here vary considerably, we all have lives.

 

[unimpressed]

No test for hardness. Unfortunately.

Current PH test is showing 7.8 in the tank, 0.3 higher than i'd like to be, but as you say maybe it'll settle over a day or so. Should I remove the filter to allow the water to settle??

I'll check the local Pets at home for a hardness test solution.

 

[DrRob]

Never remove the filter, unless you're only rinsing it in tank water. The water will do what it'll do and faster if it's circulated.
 
Overall, the pH isn't the most important thing to measure. Generally the fish you're keeping are more sensitive to hardness and TDS than they are to pH. pH is a useful guide as it's easy to measure and tends to reflect the other two readings anyway. Sadly, the more water companies get clever with chemistry, the more we move away from that, hence my asking if they'd changed anything, as they occasionally pump up the pH with things like sodium hydroxide. Annoying but, being unbuffered it doesn't persist for long in the tanks. Hence my hardness question.

 

[unimpressed]

Ok thanks for your advice, I will garner a way to test for water hardness and contact my water board.

 

[unimpressed]

Just an update to this.

I managed to stabilise my water to 7.5 by mixing water between the old tank and the new tank, over time I will slowly water change the water until it's all new water @7.7ish PH.
 
Fish were introduced last night to the new tank, and I have never seen my Severum look so pleased with himself. His breeding colours are out and as such, I will be looking for a partner.