freshwater aquarium ph low

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Freshwater master test kit measures 4 essential water parameters crucial for maintaining ideal aquarium conditions

pH in the Freshwater Aquarium - Freshwater Aquarium pH - Fish is a personally written site at BellaOnline

Planted Aquarium Information; Substrate, bio available carbon (CO2), Nutrients (Fertilizers), GH, KH, pH, lighting, aquarium plants resources, Algae Control, popular ...

Freshwater Buffers: Condition freshwater aquarium and fish tanks with freshwater buffers at Foster & Smith Aquatics Fish and Aquarium Supplies Store

If the pH is extremely low, several small volume water changes ... test tap water pH prior to making freshwater aquarium water changes, and adjust as ...

Freshwater-aquarium-fish.com is an informational site dedicated to educating aquarists about the responsible care and husbandry of their aquatic pets., What Is pH ...

So breeders place this fish in low pH water in order to breed them. ... A typical pH for a freshwater aquarium is 6.5 to 8.0 depending on the tap water ...

So the tap water here in Austin is around 8.5-8.7 Ph. Gh around 6. I keep several sprecies of Amazonian fish, so this Ph is way too high. I would like to get stable around 7.2. I have been adding small amounts of API Ph Down to my 46g bowfront, with some success, although I am trying take it slow. Thanks for your insight. I am wondering if this is the most efficient way to get low and stay stable. Is there a better product out there? As far as filters, the Aquarium Pharmaceutical Purifier gets good reviews, but goes for 50 bones, and 25 for a replacement cartidge every 150 gallons. I am wondering a Britta filter might not be a cheaper option for a similar result. And if I do use filtration, am I leaving myself open to Ph swings from lack of buffering ions?

I am using the Freshwater Master Test Kit to test my 10g aquarium. Since day one - three months ago - I have had a weird problem happening. 1. When I check the PH using the low range PH test I get the highest value of 7.6. 2. Then I test the PH using the high range PH test and I get the lowest value of 7.4. Has anyone else experienced this? I've checked many times to make sure I am doing the test correctly yet I have this discrepancy every time...and no idea what the actual PH in there is! Thanks.

I have a freshwater aquarium and have hight pH. It is in between 8.2 and 8.8. I think this is because (and I talked to a guy at my work told me this is a no-no) I use softwater in my fish tank. I live in Indiana, and we typically have hardwater because of all the limestone. Should I be using hardwater? I have two anglefish and they are doing well. I was also told by a guy at the fish store who tested my water that the pH can be high as long as my alkalinity is high (which does not make sense, if my pH is high, isnt that alkaline?). My nitrates, nitrites, and ammonium are good. I have also only have my tank for about 8 weeks now. I was told that sometimes the cycling can take a few months. Until recently I had about 12 shells in my tank which can raise pH because of the calcium carbonate. I talked to another guy at a fish store and he told me, to use hardwater, something called proper pH (which i already used a ton of, but I think with the soft water and shells it did nothing), and to use a little bit of ROI water filtered by reverse osmosis. The ROI water would not contain much magnesium or anything like that so my pH would be nuetral (from what I understand) and it would over-all lower my pH. If someone could please explain the soft vs. hard water too that would be great. Thanks, Brad

I have a freshwater tank that I have been trying to set up over the past week. I will give every detail of the setup so no information is missing.. I cleaned all the items that were in my tank and equipment and the tank its self( I had it sitting and it was collecting dust..) I bought new gravel from PetCo and rinsed it off with hot water. I then boiled about 5+ gallons of water and the rest came right from my tap. I then used tap water conditioner to treat the whole tank (its a 20 gallon tank). I also used cycle stuff to put the healthy bacteria into the filter. I tested my pH the other day and it was 8.0 i then used correct pH to try and get it to a lower level. It dropped dramatically down to 6.4 and then shot back up to 7.8. It's stayed at 7.8 for the past two days. Now I know that 7.8 isn't awful but I would like to get to back down to 7.4ish. I'm thinking about doing a 50% water change and replacing with treated tap water. I don't want to get rid of all the water because it's been treated.. I'm really lost and not sure what to do. Please give me some advice, Thanks in advance! I should've mentioned that there aren't any fish in there.. only the gravel and decorations. My bubble wall is going constantly. Just kinda confused as to what is going on here.

Freshwater, 65 gallon, 2.5 years old. My substrate was well formulated in the beginning for plants. I have a bio Eheim filter of 5 levels, greater than that of the aquarium. Nitrates are always a bit high even with weekly 30% changes. PH at around 6 and stable. GH much lower but stable. I have a back drop to my aquarium which has grown a fine (beautiful) grass, moss algae but also likes to grown on plants. Have noticed that algae dominates plants. Most older plants are dying off. Liquid CO2 lowers the PH in my aquarium so I do not use it every day. I have replaced plants which should all be tollerable to 28-30% temps F. I have discus fish as main fish. Time for a complete overhaul? How long does original substrate last to maintain healthy plants? suggestions? Thanks

I understand that I will need to seriously upgrade the tank later but my current setup is as follows: 65gal AGA Magnum 350 BioPro Coralife CF lighting @ 3wpg 20w substrate heater Current 1/10hp chiller All natural homemade driftwood and decor (freshwater lake style) Low dose CO2 I have no problem maintaining ph and if neccisary I will go with a pressurized Co2 w/ ph regulator to maintain the optimum ph of 6.8. The problem is with the temp. I have done the math and have found that with the ambiant temperature, lighting and sub heater, I can only maintain a minimum temp of 68 deg. Can rainbow trout survive at these high temps? Going with a larger chiller is not possible due to cost of chiller and replacing my magnum filter (required flow rate). If it is possible, what negative side effects can I expect? Do they require any other special conditions? What plants thrive in these temps?

Bought a 20 gallon tank 10 months ago. Filtered water for 4 days, and it got cloudy. Added 7 small fish, still cloudy after a month. Added live bacteria to create cycle, still cloudy. Had water analyzed told everything was fine. Fish were happy and growing nicely. Had 4 painted tetras, 1 scissortail tetra, 4 glowfish and 3 platys. Tank never cleared up, even after trying water clarifying drops, adding more bacteria, doing serious water changes, etc. Top of water looks like it has a "film" on it, white fuzzy stuff accumulating in spongy filter and on various parts of filter which turn greenish brown when wiped off with a paper towel on fish tank wipes. Plastic plants started accumulating brownish slime which I think is brown algae. An acquaintance was getting rid of a pleco (getting rid of her tanks completely), so I said I'd take one. Well it's 6" long and UGLY! It is always stuck to the side of the tank, and have been throwing one Omega One Veggie Rounds disk daily. The glowfish loved pecking at it, but I don't think the Pleco is even eating it. Since getting the Pleco, I have lost a multitude of fish: 2 newly purchased tattooed mollies (I know it's bad, but my 6 year old really wanted them), 3 glowfish, 3 platys and now my blue painted tetra. We added 3 neons a week ago, and one neon is already dead. I don't know what's going on! Tonight I noticed what looks like clumps of bellybutton fuzz (for lack of a better term) with pink stuff inside it. I think it's either the Veggie Rounds or Pleco crap (this thing is crapping like CRAZY in this tank! I can't keep up with it when doing the weekly tank cleaning!) What the heck is going on? I checked the ammonia levels -- zero. I analyzed the water tonight and here is the readings: NO3 (Nitrate) = 20 (under 40 OK as per dipstick instructions), NO2 (Nitrite) = 0, pH = less than 6.0 (which is the lowest shown on the chart -- this is definitely low), Alk = 0 (instructions say between 120-300 is best for freshwater) an Th (hardness) = 0 (instructions say 50-150 best). I need PROFESSIONAL responses. This is a complex problem going on, and I have consulted various professional fish people here in NYC and I still can't figure out what's going on. The multiple deaths have only occurred since the Pleco arrived. Could he be doing something to the fish to kill them? Or is there something serious wrong with NYC tap water, left over night to get the chlorine out? Sometimes we use water from the tap and add de-chlorinator to it before putting in the aquarium too. HELP! PLEASE! I only have 6 fish left (beside that stupid Pleco) and I don't want them to die too! It's been really hard trying to explain this to my 6 year old, when these fish are dying every couple days!!! Not much decor in tank. Plastic plants and one fake aquatic reef arch (good place for hiding fish). Plastic plants removed and thrown out b/c of algae. Filter is a Whisper filter for 20 gal. tank starter kit. Has sponge-type filter and fiberfill "envelope" with carbon inside. Filter gets changed approx. every 2 weeks b/c of Pleco. Water did clear up ONCE in 10 months, and only lasted for 3 days before getting cloudy again. Had cleaned tank, waited a week and changed filter. Duplicated what I had done, and still cloudy. *No, I don't dismantle the entire setup when cleaning. We use gravel vac, but there's so much crap from the Pleco, that by the time we can remove a lot of it it, we have also removed at least half of the water in the tank as well. Cleaning every 2 weeks b/c of that (too much water removed each time).** As far as tank lighting goes, we stopped putting the light on at all b/c of the brown algae, but has done nothing to slow it down - algae growth even seems faster now. Had to throw plastic plants out. Fish don't move when light is turned on b/c they're not used to it anymore.** IMPORTANT -- cloudiness is white not green. Green brown slime was only on plants and filter water intake. White fuzzy stuff on filter and inside hood turns green/brown when wiped off. **Tap water with dechlorinated used for this tank is the same as oranda tank and that is clear as a bell, and water readings are perfect in it. Higher pH, alkalinity and hardness than the problem tank!