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hi,

i live in castle hill and hv noticed that the water comming out of the tap is getting quite high (8- 8.5). i know alot of people say not to fiddle with the ph if possible but this is too high for me! i have a pair of oscars which usually prefer 6.8.

does anyone else have this problem? if so, how do u fix it? iv know that you should soften the water to reduce pH and one way of doing that is to get peat chips in the filter, where do i get peat chips from?

also how do people reduce the ph in the water they are aging to put in the tank? i dont want my ph jumping everytime i change the water! HELP!

You're on what I call the border of increased pH...

An Oscar, like so many other tropicals, will adapt to a high pH if all else falls in the range of good fishkeeping.

Changing pH values are risky. metabolisms are at stake here and attempting to regulate pH values may prove extremely harmful if mistakes are made in the speed of the reduction.

Too many lists are out claiming that this fish and that fish "like" a certain pH. You'll discover that tropicals "like" any pH within reason as long as the pH is constant and non-changing.

--garyroland.

i live in mt druitt and my water comes out as 7.5-7.8. because my tank has been set up for a while now the buffer system is quite robust and never budges from 7. when doing a water change i use soda water to change the pH of the water while still in the bucket.

its ok for this relatively small pH chaneg because as the carbon dioxide comes out of the water it does so slowly and the tanks buffer keeps the water stable. this would happen anyway even if i added nothing to the bucket but it would cause a localised pH jump where i put the water in which isnt healthy.

i wouldnt take ur tap water all the way down to 6.8 with soda water cos u might suffocate ur fish. however if you were able the set up a buffer system around 7.2-7.6 and then use this method, you would avoid the need for chemicals. the hard part would be to set up a new buffer range in an established tank with out disturbing ur fish. there's no easy way to do this and every tank is different. just go real slow with whatever u do.

Last edited by lifeofcrimeguy at 03-Oct-2004 05:52

come to melbourne! our tap water is naturally around 6.8. Also, I believe softness and pH are different. I use sodium biphosphate to decrease the pH. Perhaps water softenss is somehow linked to pH though.

At Penrith, it came out of the tap at about 8.2

I haven't checked the water there for a while, but what with the lower dam levels, i would suppose all sorts of stuff that doesnt evaporate is increasing in concentration.
Probably including the stuff that helps make water hard/soft acidic/alkaline etc.



For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

hey guys thanks for your help, theres alot of confusing info out there when it comes to water chemistry i reckon... plus i am a easily confused person

thanks lifeofcrimeguy, soda water? thats a new one to me! how much soda water do u use per litre? or is it something that u just experiment with?

most importantly small amounts. for 8 litres of water i use about 20-30 mLs. i probably should measure it but im kinda lazy. just measure the pH in the bucket before you put it into the tank and eventually you'll find the right amount for you.

ok thanks, one more question sorry!

is using soda water just like using pH down? because iv found ph down to be useless, i put it in the water im aging and by the next day the pH is back up again!

it would be very similar, and in resonable quantities, it suffocates fish licketty split (i use it for my plants sometimes in their own tanks, no fish)

Why not go with a more natural solution like peat in a bag in your filter? or a good size chunk of bogwood? They seem to slowly drop the pH (when added carefully) and keep it there.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

thanks calla will try that,

iv got a nice big piece of driftwood in there and removed all the river pebbles and carbon from the filter so hopefully this will help for now.

btw what does lickety split mean?!??!

licketty split? geez! you need to read more old kids books It means very fast.

I heard today that canadian peat (sphagnum moss) is the best for use in fishtanks.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett