It all depends on your starting baseline and then the ecology of the tank will affect the pH after that. The “normal” ecology of a tank will ALWAYS lower the pH over time.
If you have rocks that leach calcium carbonate and/or other minerals, this can keep the pH stable or raise it.. or if […]
Quit worrying about buying chemicals. Your tank water at 7.6 is perfectly fine for most fish. There’s no need to bring it down with chemicals or other means.
Now that you know your “softened tap” has a baseline pH of 8.0, simply add 30% RO water to your tap water for each LARGE PWC […]
I do not have a science degree but from what I have read about what takes place in aquarium water I would agree with Lenny and Ray and their points. Perhaps you could test the KH level and if it is found to be very low from the tap add a […]
Yes.
> > Back on April 17th I sent a rare HTML message showing what affects pH change in aquaria. Rather than do it up again, may I direct you and other interested parties to the archives to look up that message. > > \Steve//
> > —–Original Message—– > From: […]
I don’t think it’s the nitrate, per se, that affects the pH level (maybe if the nitrate level got really high.. 300ppm+) but rather the fact that if you have a high nitrate level… 50ppm+, then your N-bacteria (and other bacteria) have been working hard consuming all of the ammonia/nitrite and when they are doing […]
I would check my nitrate level. Whats your nitrate level before and after a water change. In a small aquarium thats over stocked a small weekly water change may not be suffcient. Its my understanding that the nitrate level can effect the ph level and its my guess […]
A general fact about aquariums is that the pH will always go down over time unless there are buffers added to the water. You may need to increase the PWC schedule on that tank.
Decaying detritus in the gravel puts out carbonic acid among other things and the bacteria eating the detritus also use up […]
The bigger question is why you have such dramatic differences?
Are you using the same source water for both?
What is the fish stocking in both?
Are you doing sufficient PWC’s and filter maintenance on the inside pond?
Tell us more about both ponds and I’m sure we can figure out why but my first inclination is that the […]
What are your pH numbers on your existing tank, new tank and tap water? DO NOT use those pH chemicals on your tanks. They cause far more problems than they fix.
Yes, there are some substrates that will raise the pH but I doubt that is your problem. What kind of substrate […]