Tropical Fish Forums

MattyP · Regulars Joined: 31 Dec 2006 Location: Houston Texas

My pH and KH are both high. and I do not know what I should do to lower them. I heard about a buffer to lower the pH but how do I lower the KH level?

I have a 10 gallon tank unplanted.
Nitrate - 0 ppm
Nitrite - 0 ppm
GH - 80 ppm
KH - 190 -- 200 ppm
pH - 8.0 -- 8.4 ppm

thanks for your help

MattyP

Bob · Moderators Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Location: UK

What fish do you intend keeping?

Bob

MattyP · Regulars Joined: 31 Dec 2006 Location: Houston Texas

I already have fish in the tank. This is something that started happening in the past few days.
but I have 2 swordtails, 3 glowlight tetras, 4 neon tetras, and a chinese algae eater.

MattyP

Bob · Moderators Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Location: UK

I think we need a bit more info, when you say:

MattyP · Regulars Joined: 31 Dec 2006 Location: Houston Texas

the pH did not change suddenly. But truthfully I doubt it really changed at all... a few days ago I tested my water when I got 5 in 1 tester kit, and thats when I noticed the high pH and KH. I cleaned the tank yesterday, I did about a 30% water change. I expected the pH and KH to be lower, but they did not. No I did not add any new rocks but I did add new artificial plants last week.

I tested the tap water and here are the results:
Nitate - 0 ppm
nitrite - 0 ppm
GH - 180 ppm
KH - greater than 300 ppm (whoa...)
pH - greater than 8.4 ppm (dang...)

wow... I never expected the water to be that hard. Also explains why everything is still very high. What should I do? Or should I just leave it alone (my fish do not seem bothered by the pH or KH levels.)?

Bob · Moderators Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Location: UK

I wouldn't worry about it for normal community fish.

It's a bit hard for the Neons etc, but you won't be the only one keeping them in water like this.

Most fish are now commercially bred, they can cope with a much higher spread of water parameters than wild caught fish as long as they have time to get used to it when you buy them, but chances are your local LFS also has hard water (Ask them).

If you wanted to specalise in Amazon and other softwater fish, you would need to soften your water, but by then you would have learnt how to do this safely.

The main thing to avoid is sudden changes of pH, hardness etc, so I really would leave it.

One other thing (Sorry). Chinese Algae Eaters can be a real pain when they get older, they eat less algae, often become aggressive, and will rasp on larger fish etc. They can reach 8 inches and are a bit large for your tank.

Since typing this out, I found this thread:

http://www.aquahobby.com/board/viewtopic.php?p=245381#245381

Bob

PS one other thing, get a jug of tap water, leave it for 24 hours, then do a test on it, this will give you a base line that you can use to see if your tank water is being affected by anything in your tank.

MattyP · Regulars Joined: 31 Dec 2006 Location: Houston Texas

I was told about the Chinese algae Eater. I'm just goning to keep him for now but when he gets older I'm gunna get rid of him. The tetras really do not seemed bothered by the pH or the KH. I might just leave it. but I'm going to keep a good eye on the levels.

Thanks for all the help!

MattyP

Dusko · Moderators Joined: 13 Feb 2006 Location: Denmark

What I do is place some aquarium peat into the filter. That will lower your KH and pH slowly so no fish gets stressed. Always go with the natural ways.
Live-bearers like Platy, Swordtails, Guppys will do better in hard waters IME.
For example, I have 6 aquariums connected to the same sump-filter that had lots of peat in it. pH was at 6.5 and the Guppys had lots of skin parasite problems causing lots of Guppy loss.

Month and half (to be precise, the beginning of November) ago I took the peat out and replaced it with lots of tufa rock and conditions already improved. No more deaths.

It is good if you can get the pH at about 7.5 it is good for both fish IME.

Kind regards, Dusko.
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MattyP · Regulars Joined: 31 Dec 2006 Location: Houston Texas

What is the ideal pH and KH for the swordtails and neons to breed? Where would I find the peat or tufa rock?

DF Bobo · Exemplars Joined: 23 Jan 2006 Location: Canada

swordtails, like most poecillids, breed really quickly and easily, so don't worry about that. all you need is a male and 2 females (sometimes, you don't actually need the males in the same tank!). neons are more difficult though. they'll probably need soft acidic water to breed, but I don't know much about that, only that difficulty of breeding is "moderately difficult"
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