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What should the PH balance be for my tropical fish?

Alice asked:

I have a PH testing kit, and one Chinese Algae Eater. Tropical fish.
Should my PH level for my tank be above 7.0 or below?

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This was written by admin1. Posted on Sunday, April 4, 2010, at 8:04 pm. Filed under Fish. Tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.

3 Comments

  1. Ghapy wrote:

    The PH should be whatever it is. Don’t mess with it. Almost all the fish available are very tolerant and can handle the PH into the lo 8′s. My own tap water has been 8.3 for years and I keep all my fish in the same water – for 20 years I’ve had long lived fish and no disease.

    If you really want to lower it anyway, do so by adding distilled water to your tap water until you get the desired ph – never use just distilled water. Never use bottled additives to lower the ph because all the elements that were in the water to make it high in the first place are still there, and the ph ends up bouncing all over the place – an unstable ph is much, much worse than a ph a little too high.

    Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 12:14 am | Permalink
  2. Happi wrote:

    do not worry about PH. Ph isn’t very important because it will most likely be from 6.0-8.0 range and this is all normal ranges for tropical fishes. its also true that fishes like tetras prefer Ph around 6.8 but they could do well even PH above 7.0 – 8.0 range. and on the other side cichlids like 8.0 Ph levels, but in my experience they can do well around 7.0-8.0 range. do not use any chemical to adjust the PH levels, this could lead toward more problems and will mess up your Ph levels and make it unstable. do not mess with the water chemistry if you don’t understand how it all works. there are many natural way to make the PH level lower and that include adding co2 or peat moss. i have tetras and my water is hard and Ph around 7.4 and i have no problem keeping them. answer to your question is that you could keep tropical fishes from anywhere 6.0-8.0 range without any problem and fishes will adopt to the PH levels.

    TIPS: remember do not use chemical to adjust the PH because it cause cause sudden change in PH level and kill your fish and this method doesn’t keep the PH at stable range.

    Wednesday, April 7, 2010 at 6:48 pm | Permalink
  3. Jessica M wrote:

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    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.

    Thursday, April 8, 2010 at 6:43 pm | Permalink