What exactly is your ph reading? Unless you’re keeping wild caught fish like discus or elephant noses, etc., then your ph is most likely fine. Most fish we buy will tolerate 6.0-8.0 without issues, and even slightly higher or lower. Some fish may not be able to spawn,or the eggs may not hatch if the ph is too acidic or alkaline, but they’ll survive it.

Stay away from those ph up/down products. Just dumping them in alone will not work. There’s much more involved then just altering your ph, you need to mess with the gh and kh as well. A stable ph is much better and healthier for fish then one that fluctuates-which is what happens with those ph up/down products.

If you do want to lower your ph, gh, and kh, a good natural way is with driftwood. The tanins it leeches out causes the ph to drop, but it also gives the water a tea color-great if you have tetras or angel fish. But, a lot of people don’t like the tea color. Another option is to mix your water with RO water. That can be expensive in a large tank.

Also, check your ph out of the tap. Get a glass of water and test it. Let it sit out at least 12-24 hours and retest it. That should be about what’s going on in your tank. If it’s substantially different, then something in your tank is raising the ph. Certain rocks will raise the ph in a tank. Here’s some good links with info on ph, gh, and kh:

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1st look at the current ph level…if the h is too high, then u go in the pool, and add your P…..but if the p is too high, then you gotta suck some p out, so you get your hose, and go to work

Diluted apple cider vinegar is said to do that if you use it as a final rinse, i do this.

Thier is a shampoo and conditioner called Roux porosity control which has the ph level on the products.

Finally Keracare have the ph level on most of thier products like the shampoo conditioner and leave in conditioner.

It’s a way of showing the H+ concentration in a solution & it’s calculated using the following equation;
pH= -log[H+]

therefore,
High pH>>> [H+] low>>more basic
Low pH>>>[H+] high>>more acidic

That ph is perfect for the fish you have, and I would strongly suggest you leave it alone. Ph in the range of 6.0-8.0 is generally considered fine for most fish we buy from the store, since most of those fish are tank bred or farm raised. The only exception would be wild caught fish, and they’d require the tank to be set up pretty much exactly how it is in the wild where they come from.

When you get into altering ph, there’s a lot involved, much more then just putting a ph up/down chemical in. You have to know what you’re doing, and alter the gh and kh to get the ph to stay stable. A stable ph is much better for fish then one that fluctuates, which commonly happens when you try to alter the ph.

Again, your ph is fine for the fish you have.

add ammonia.

Your PH is high because tap water in general is higher – acid water corrodes pipes.

PH chemicals can be very unstable and I don’t recommend them. They force the water down, but all the elements in the tank that made it high in the first place are still there so it can end up popping back up. Unstable water is much worse than water too high.

There are a few things worth understanding.

The ph you see on fish profiles is an estimation of the ph in the fishes wild habitat. They are much more tolerant than this though.

Most fish are bred in captivity anyway.

My PH is 8.2. I keep all my fish in that including fish that apparently won’t work in it. All my fish do well, grow, live long. Many have bred. For 20 years this has been so because I keep things simple and understand fish are more resilient then most think.

Keep it simple, less will go wrong. Don’t start using additives because it complicates things, all you need is conditioner.

A pH scale is basically a scale of acid and bases and it ranges from 1(very acidy) to 14(very basic). For example water would be a 7 on the scale and a lemon would be a 4. So, if the shampoo is pH balanced it just means that is has a healthy balance of acid and bases.

There is a product called PH Balancer… go to the pool store and buy some… also… while you are there ask any other question that you may have about your pool. They are very knowledgeable usually.

pH is a measure of how acidic or basic the water is. pH is a logarithmic scale from 0-14, with 7 being neutral. Below 7 and a substance is defined as being acidic, while levels above 7 are said to be basic or alkaline. Everything that enters your pool has a pH value. Ever heard of acid rain? This is rainfall with a very low pH. The human eye at a pH value of 7.35, is just slightly basic. This is, coincidentally, in range with proper pH levels for your pool. To have pH in balance we adjust the water with additions of pH increasers (bases) or pH de-creasers (acids) to achieve the range of 7.2 – 7.8. If your testing (recommended daily) of the water shows a pH value below 7.2 the water is in a corrosive (acidic) condition and you will need to add a base to bring the pH into a more basic range to prevent corrosion. Conversely, if the pH is above 7.8, we are in a scaling (basic) condition and must add an acid to bring down the pH to prevent the formation of scale.

This one ups the PH balance.

This one lowers it…

Ghapy said it all as I totally back that up.

One thing I feel the need to add along with that is the only reason you should change your pH is if you see it affecting the fish (and not for any other reason with water quality).

CAE’s are pretty tolerant of pH anywhere between 6.5-7.5.

Here is a link about pH and changing it, but I warn you to use it with caution and only if need be.