What Ph

rust81

Fish Crazy
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I live in London and the ph of my tap water is always around 8 - 8.2. My local LFS have always said that this is fine as they keep their tanks around this level. Over the past year i have had a few fish die including some bristlenoses, which i am constantly told are hardy. On visiting another fish shop today, i was told that my ph is way too high and that i should start to drop this in all my tanks.

So my question is....could all my problems stem from my ph of 8ish? Should i start to reduce this (gradually over time)?

Any advice welcomed

Thanks,
Rust
 
I dont think the high pH would kill a bristlenose. Though the various species are from softwater environments, most sold in the UK are hybrids and are super adaptable to water conditions. I have seen them living quite happily in Malawi tanks for years. Of course it is possible that you have had wild caught or F1 specimens and in which case I dont think they would react so well.
 
well, im pretty sure pH is not your problem, and if u start changing it its hard to keep stable, which potentially is more dangerous to the fish, honestly, i think they just want u to buy some of that Ph buffer stuff.
 
If the fish didn't die in the first few days (really even the first few hours), it isn't going to be pH related. The long-term effects of living in non-native pH waters are pretty minimal. Primarily, the fish may never receive a spawning trigger. But, not spawning is not a cause of death.

Fish are exceptionally adaptable to pH changes. The pH of natural bodies of water (lakes, rivers, streams) change during the day and sometimes very rapidly. At the temperature of the bodies of water change, so does the pH. Aquatic plant activity -- which is dependent on whether the sun is obscured by clouds or not -- changes the pH, too. Temperature and aquatic plants have been shown to change the pH over 1 pH unit throughout the day, and the fish in the body of water are perfectly fine. Secondly, runoff from rains is almost never the same pH as the body of water, yet there aren't massive fish kills after every heavy rain. Finally, in the large bodies of water like the African Rift Lakes, there are layers and/or regions of water that are different pHs, yet fish can move about through the different regions just fine. pH gets blamed for a lot of issues that are rarely actually pH.

First and foremost, sometimes fish just die. Where they adults when you bought them, or juveniles? If they were adults it is usually pretty hard to know how old they were.

Secondly, you probably should describe much more detail about your tank. How big is it? What is/was the stocking list? What kind of maintenance schedule do you keep? Specifically how large and how frequent of water changes do you do? What are the current readings of all the water parameters (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, GH, KH)? What chemicals do you add to your tank? What are the most recent addittions -- plants, animals, decorations, rocks. If you tell us all this, the forum will be able to diagnose your problem more accurately.

p.s. FYI, it is properly written pH. little p, capital H.
 

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