ph problem

[Whiskas]

I have a problem with my ph in all 3 of my tanks!!

My community tank that has - BN, neon tetra, glowlight tetra, guppies (cupla days old to adult), platies - has a pH of 6.2 (I think that right) if i try to up it using pH Up it just returns to 6.2, and the upping and downing of pH cannot be good for the fish.

SO how do I get the pH to get up closer to the safer 7pH? Someone told me to try putting a shell in the tank to bing the pH up, which i will do tonite.

And stabilise it? Is stabilising pH able to be done? Or is it just one of those things that is forever changing?

Now, my killifish tank (the adult one and the fry one) each have a higher pH, 7.4-6 from memory? How do i get this down, and more stable? would prefer not have to resort to using ph down chemical stuff, but will if this is the only way.

They have been at these levels for about a week or so. I have done the usual 20% water change.

All the fish appear healthy and happy but i know that things can change pretty quick in tankworld!!

[davidb]

dude your tetra tank won't mind being 6.6 thats the natural pH of the rivers they come from. i wouldn't alter the ph in killie tank either but if you are conserned use a pH buffer rather than pHdown because a pH buffer will not decrease the pH by too much if you overdose. avoide getting buffers with phosphate as ingredients coz this will cause algae problems

[Whiskas]

wat buffer would you recommend?

And what do pH buffers do?

[davidb]

it will lower-raise the pH to the pH you want. most of the powdered ones are ok. i have previously used the seachem range with good results (both freshwater and marine)

[Caryl]

If the fish are happy I wouldn't try and alter the pH at all. If you really want to raise the 6.2 though then adding shell or bird grit is easiest and will stabilise it.

[alanmin4304]

Don,t forget that shell is calcium carbonate that reacts with the hydrogen ions (acid conditions) but also will put calcium into solution and raise the hardness.

[herefishiefishie]

Whenever you have ph issues, you should get your gh & kh tested. This will tell you what you need to do with your water, rather then aimlessly adding chemicals into the water.

How often do you do water changes? Do you use a gravel vaccum?

Also, only raise the ph when doing a waterchange.

Frenchy

[Whiskas]

I try to do a 20%, or so, water change every week, but occasionally i miss a week.

Dare i admit this - I tried the vaccum thing but couldn't quite get a handle on it, made a bit of a mess! So i usually just stir the gravel up a bit with my hand before removing water. Still creates mess but a lil more controlled!

I was mainly worried about hte killifish fry as the pH musta happened quickly in that tank and the 4 week old (?) fry all died I have some newly hatched ones now, so dont want to change anything in that tank too quickly and loose the lil fellas again!