Raising PH

[wldfowlr]

This may be a very stupid question, but I would rather risk ridicule, than killing fish because of my ignorance....
As I posted in another thread, I am wanting to keep an agressive tank, with 2 Volitans in it, thats it....My water test are are all fine...but, everything I read says PH must be between 8.1-8.4...is that right?
I can't get mine to go above 7.5...I have two Florida Anemones in tank now, and they seem to be doing fine...Should I worry about this, or worry more about the PH staying "consistant"...
I have a water well, not city water, and even my pools PH is constantly neutral, around 7.0-7.5.....Opinions or suggestions?

 

[snakeblitz33]

Personally, I think that you should keep your pH raised a bit more with a buffer. Seachem makes a good solution of buffer.
Personally, almost all of my tanks run at about 7.8 pH and they have for the last four or five years. Though, if it went down fruther then that, I would definately do something about it. I've saved many a fish with amquel and pH buffing solution.
I hope you have fun with your aggressive tank!

 

[wldfowlr]

Thanks....I will try that....

 

[ameno]

a low PH is usually a sign of not enough oxidation in the water. Is the 7.5 your day time reading or night time reading, As stated you would not want it to go any lower then that, and I would recommend raising it. Do you have good surface aggitation? If not point a power head to skim across the top. this should help, also how are you testing for ph, sometimes a meter will get off calibration or a test kit can be bad, you might want to look at that first.
Also when doing water changes do you let it set with a power head running for at least 24 hours? this is to help oxidate the new water before adding to the tank.
You say your using well water, are you fitlering it thru an ro unit? if not and your using straight well water you will probably have a algae problem eventually, well water contains a lot of TDS that will cause algea to grow.
P.S. there is never any stupid questions, fell free to ask about any concerns you might have, there's always people here willing to help.

 

[steelytom]

Check the ph of your water before adding salt. i would think well water would come up through the ground with almost zero oxygen. You may want to aerate the water for a day before using it. Especially when making salt water. There is some kind of bad reaction when you mix salt into water with no O2. Check you KH as well, you may need to raise it up.

 

[wldfowlr]

All good advice....I appreciate it...

 

[wldfowlr]

By the way....My tap water PH is very high....it nose dives when I add salt...wierd, huh?
I have a saltwater pool, and the same thing happens...

 

[mantisman51]

That is strange. My filter water is 8.0, but after adding Instant Ocean salt, it is 8.2. I have only had an issue with PH since I have alot of corals and anemones. It drops to 7.8-8.0 within a week, requiring more frequent water changes. I planned on doing more frequent water changes anyway, because of the coral, but I was surprised to see such a big change.