Water Help?

[lisab]

please help me i am new to the tropical fish tank business.....i ph tested my water 4 days ago now and it was 6.0.....so i put in ph altering solution not sure if i put the right one in though?? is 6.0 high ph or low ph??...well anyway tested the water the following day and there was no change so i took out 20%of the water....waited and the following day today tested the water and it is still 6.0....what do i do now change 50% of the water or try ph up or down stuff....help me please.........

 

[TribeOfShroom]

PH 6 is on the lower end of the ph scale. The scale ranging from 1PH (highly acidic) - 14ph (highly alkaline). A ph of 6 is just slightly acidic. I would have thought that a water change would have made a difference... I know the tap water around me has a ph of 7 (neutral).. I would have thought it wouldn't vary that much. To get the Ph to neutral if the water changes aren't working is to use ph up, but be careful with chemicals though. I've know tanks to be mis-calculated in sized and as a result had a major swing in ph killing the fish.

The other way would be to add some 'soft' rock, which slowly dissolve in acidic water. Although I've never tried this method and depending on the waters natural buffer I can't gurantee it will work or will stop working once the ph has reach the preferred level.

Hope this helps.

 

[Squid]

What are you trying to achieve. Are you trying to make it a neutral 7? Depending on the fish you are keeping, it is often more important to have a stable PH than one that might be more perfect. Playing around with chemicals to change the PH can be a bit of a lottery sometimes . There are some other ways to do it; people with a high ph can use bogwood to lower the PH and a more coral based sand can be used to higher the PH. This is often done by keepers of MBuna with low PH's

What fish are you looking to keep, or already keeping?

Squid

 

[TribeOfShroom]

What are you trying to achieve. Are you trying to make it a neutral 7? Depending on the fish you are keeping, it is often more important to have a stable PH than one that might be more perfect. Playing around with chemicals to change the PH can be a bit of a lottery sometimes . There are some other ways to do it; people with a high ph can use bogwood to lower the PH and a more coral based sand can be used to higher the PH. This is often done by keepers of MBuna with low PH's

What fish are you looking to keep, or already keeping?

Squid

I did that with my first tank when I found my PH was 8. I went out found a nice big bit of bogwood and stuck it in. Within a week the ph was down to 7. Bogwood is some good stuff, give the water a good tint as well.