Saxsena Posted April 23, 2009 Report Share Posted April 23, 2009 I have a planted tropical tank 200L with moliies and patties, few other same cat. fish, I checked the water PH yesterday and its 6.0. what can I do about that. Will water change fix it or do I have to do something else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simian Posted April 23, 2009 Report Share Posted April 23, 2009 regular change will stabilise the parameters. Do you have wood in the tank? if you do its prob that which is bringing the PH down. Try adding a few sea shells to the tank, I have found it stabilises the PH in my tanks with wood in. Avoid messing around with chemicals as these are IMO a short term fix. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquatopia Posted April 23, 2009 Report Share Posted April 23, 2009 Regular water changes are a necessary part of your tank routine in any case, so unless you have been doing that I would start. Having said that you do not really want to change the pH by more than 0.3 per day as the pH scale is exponential - meaning that for a 1.0 increase in pH it changes by a factor of 10 (pH 8.0 is ten times more alkali than pH7.0) So, you may find you need to do several water changes over the next week and then maintain a more regular water change regime in the future. Over time, if the water is not buffered in terms of hardness and alkalinity, stuff like fish waste, the carbon dioxide they expire, nightly CO2 release from live plants, tannic acid from certain types of wood etc will all increase the acidity of the aquarium and cause such a pH drop. Check what it is out of the tap too though (although its unlikely to be pH6.0) Hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted April 23, 2009 Report Share Posted April 23, 2009 why are you unhappy with a pH of 6? it is a fair level for mollies and platies I would say. Thing with logarithmic scales is like what aqua said above - the concentration of H30+ ions in a solution of pH 7 is 10 times more than in pH 6 in test conditions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquatopia Posted April 23, 2009 Report Share Posted April 23, 2009 why are you unhappy with a pH of 6? it is a fair level for mollies and platies I would say. Thing with logarithmic scales is like what aqua said above - the concentration of H30+ ions in a solution of pH 7 is 10 times more than in pH 6 in test conditions. Surely a pH of 6.0 in a community tank where other fish from the LFS (who mostly seem to run their tanks around the 7.4 level in my experience) are likely to be added, is not really all that desirable - unless the tank owner is cautious about introducing the new fish - or you would get the same kind of pH shock as if they were to suddenly up it from 6 to 7 straight off (as mentioned in my post about changing the pH by water changes). Also, i got the impression that the question was being asked in the context of indicating a falling pH trend, rather than a static level, (but may have misread that). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saxsena Posted April 23, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 23, 2009 does that mean that PH 6 ok for my kind of fish. I do have some shells that I can put in the tank and I'll change the water requarely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquatopia Posted April 23, 2009 Report Share Posted April 23, 2009 does that mean that PH 6 ok for my kind of fish. I do have some shells that I can put in the tank and I'll change the water requarely. Well in my opinion, no. The reason I say this is because it is likely you will want to add other fish in the future. And the pH of the tanks those fish will come from is most likely to be around the 7.0 to 7.4 range. This means you would have to acclimatise your new fish over a much longer period or you would give the new fish a pH shock which can be fatal. My best suggestion for a community style tank is to run it as close to neutral as possible (pH 7.0). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Posted April 23, 2009 Report Share Posted April 23, 2009 remind me at the weekend and I will show you a way or raising the PH The fish I breed prefom better at 7 than at 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saxsena Posted April 23, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 23, 2009 That will so great of you. Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted April 24, 2009 Report Share Posted April 24, 2009 Surely a pH of 6.0 in a community tank where other fish from the LFS (who mostly seem to run their tanks around the 7.4 level in my experience) are likely to be added, is not really all that desirable - unless the tank owner is cautious about introducing the new fish - or you would get the same kind of pH shock as if they were to suddenly up it from 6 to 7 straight off (as mentioned in my post about changing the pH by water changes). Also, i got the impression that the question was being asked in the context of indicating a falling pH trend, rather than a static level, (but may have misread that). how do you know the shops pH is 7.4? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquatopia Posted April 24, 2009 Report Share Posted April 24, 2009 how do you know the shops pH is 7.4? :roll: :roll: because I have tested it - from 4 different shops Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted April 24, 2009 Report Share Posted April 24, 2009 My tank (450 litres) has settled at a pH of 6. Fiddling with pH causes more problems than leaving it and as long as the fish don't absolutely require a specific pH they will be fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted April 24, 2009 Report Share Posted April 24, 2009 you tested the same water as in saxenas tank? and the shop he bought the fish from? how? he is in west akl. ive tested water in pet shops all over the country and still have to find a distinct correlation :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquatopia Posted April 24, 2009 Report Share Posted April 24, 2009 you tested the same water as in saxenas tank? and the shop he bought the fish from? how? he is in west akl. ive tested water in pet shops all over the country and still have to find a distinct correlation :lol: phoenix44 go back and read my post - i said in my experience most pet shops tanks are around the 7.4pH. It was a general comment meaning that if, as has been the case for me, the LFS that Saxenas uses has a pH of around the 7.4 too, then running his/her tank at 6.0 would make life more difficult for introducing other community fish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted April 24, 2009 Report Share Posted April 24, 2009 Ohh.. now why didnt you say that in the first place :lol: :lol: :lol: ha ha but still i think 6 is fine.. but obviously a sudden change to 6 from what ever it may have been kept is bad. we keep different tanks in our shop (about 20 I think) any where from 5.6 for some, and some at 6, some at 7 and then some at 7.5 or so depending on the fish and tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquatopia Posted April 24, 2009 Report Share Posted April 24, 2009 Ohh.. now why didnt you say that in the first place :lol: :lol: :lol: ha ha but still i think 6 is fine.. but obviously a sudden change to 6 from what ever it may have been kept is bad. we keep different tanks in our shop (about 20 I think) any where from 5.6 for some, and some at 6, some at 7 and then some at 7.5 or so depending on the fish and tank. Sounds like you care more about the fish than a lot of shops I have encountered throughout my fishkeeping interest then - good on ya. (PS That does not necessarily refer to the ones in my current city) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted April 24, 2009 Report Share Posted April 24, 2009 any one local will tell you that we have made mistakes with some tanks, lol. arowana + 6 pantadon butterfly's = sadness :evil: I was very upset. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquatopia Posted April 24, 2009 Report Share Posted April 24, 2009 Ouch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saxsena Posted April 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2009 phoenix44 go back and read my post - i said in my experience most pet shops tanks are around the 7.4pH. It was a general comment meaning that if, as has been the case for me, the LFS that Saxenas uses has a pH of around the 7.4 too, then running his/her tank at 6.0 would make life more difficult for introducing other community fish. I think that whats happened to the guppies that I bought last week from HFF. It (two of them) died after two days. I think she could not bare the PH difference. Now that put me in worry as i am interested in getting some mollies from trademe soon and I don't want to kill them thru PH difference. Any suggestion what should i do when i get the fish to introduce it to the tank. I have one empty small tank...if this helps in some way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Posted April 24, 2009 Report Share Posted April 24, 2009 sounds to me as if you (after getting the temps correct by leaving the bag floating in the tank?) your simply tipping the fish into your tank? You should be slowly adding water from your tank to the bag.... this could take up to 24 hours do I do that, no. But I breed a different type of fish. I do however add water to the bag after 30 minutes then again just before I remove the fish and place only them into the tank... no water from the bags Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted April 24, 2009 Report Share Posted April 24, 2009 Fish will generally handle significant changes in temperature, hardness and pH if it happens slowly enough. When importing fish it is normal to put the contents of the bag (fish and water) into a shallow container and keep adding small quantities of water friom the tank they are going into over an extended time then netting the fish out and putting them into the tank before disposing of the water. The fish are generally overcrowded to save on freight and the chemistry and temperature are quite different but the fish are OK if it happens slowly enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquatopia Posted April 24, 2009 Report Share Posted April 24, 2009 I think that whats happened to the guppies that I bought last week from HFF. It (two of them) died after two days. I think she could not bare the PH difference. Now that put me in worry as i am interested in getting some mollies from trademe soon and I don't want to kill them thru PH difference. Any suggestion what should i do when i get the fish to introduce it to the tank. I have one empty small tank...if this helps in some way. Thats exactly what my concern was in my original posting about having a tank pH of 6.0 where the likelyhood was that the pH of your LFS (or other supplier of the type of fish you seem interested in so far) would be around 7 to 7.4 As I said, its not recommended to up the pH of a fish's environment by more than 0.3 per day. I think thats probably the extreme and they might cope with more than that - but remember for every 0.1 change in pH its a ten times multiplier to indicate how much more acidic or alkali the tank is. A good start is to test the water they come from, then you know the difference you are dealing with. But again, as I originally suggested - I don't believe a pH of 6 is suitable for your tank and situation. It ought not to take you very long (no more than a week or so) to get it back up to a neutral pH of 7.0 with daily or bi-daily water changes and really I would advise not adding fish until you have sorted that out. Im sure the people on TM will hold the fish you buy for a week, especially if you agree to pay them electronically after the auction - that way they wont be thinking you might not show up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweetysmum Posted April 25, 2009 Report Share Posted April 25, 2009 Hi guys, sorry to butt in, but what do the initials LFS actually stand for. Thanks, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquatopia Posted April 25, 2009 Report Share Posted April 25, 2009 Hi guys, sorry to butt in, but what do the initials LFS actually stand for. Thanks, Local Fish Shop in my dictionary Im sure there are alternatives... depending on how pedantic people want to be ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saxsena Posted April 25, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 25, 2009 Local Fish Shop....I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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