ph emergency

[rossv]

my ph right now is at 7.8 and is causing fish death!!!
is there any common household thing i could add to raise it a bit?
thx in advance

 

[squidd]

Baking Soda, but be careful, pre mix in fresh water till it settles, add a small amount to tank and test. ADD SLOWLY test often it's too easy to overdo it. And the fish don't like the shock.

 

[jarvis]

I dont think a Ph of 7.8 is would cause any concern or be the culprit for the fish death. What do you have for circulation in the tank? One thing to be carfull with adjusting anything is to do it slowly.

 

[poiboy]

I'm with jarvis. I dont think 7.8 would do to much harm for the fish. I would look somewhere else for the cause.

 

[bang guy]

Yep, the PH didn't kill your fish. The PH could be caused by whatever killed it though. Excess CO2 is a possibility.

 

[beaslbob]

Originally posted by rossv
my ph right now is at 7.8 and is causing fish death!!!
is there any common household thing i could add to raise it a bit?
thx in advance
I was losing new fish after about 2-3 months of operating my 55g. Nitrites has gone to 0.0 and were under control. Then I discovered that ph was 7.8 and lower. So immediately, I added some baking soda and the ph did come back up to 8.2 or so. A week later ph was back down to 7.4-7.8 (light brown/yellow on the test).
Now after a few more months of running the ph now stays at 8.4 with no additives. Ph should not be something that kills fish by itself. It can shock new fish if they are not aclimated slowly. From this board I discovered that ph is lower in the morning that night. So first check it at night. secondly, the ph drop is a normal part of the cycle of the tank. I firmly believe that over everything else, my tank just needed some more time for everything to stabilize.
I also have a less bioload, am feeding less, have added lotsa macro algae. All of those help stabilize the entire tank system including the ph.