The Trouble With pH

There's no trouble with pH, just kidding!!!

Well, sometimes there is. When you're importing your wild caught Altum angels you're probably going to be using R/O water and keeping your pH at 4-5 because these fish will keel over at the mere mention of neutral pH.

All kidding aside, some species, especially those collected straight from the wild, need to have the pH matched to their habitat to maintain them comfortably or to have them spawn for you, but oftentimes they can adapt slowly to the pH of your tap or well water.

However, for all the rest of us folks who mosey down to the LFS and admire the offerings, with plans to add them to our tank, or to set up a new tank with them, we don't have to worry about pH. I very, very rarely even test for it. When I was dosing CO2 into a high light, heavily planted tank I did measure pH as a way to monitor my CO2, but otherwise I don't test. I don't need to. I do plenty of weekly water changes (see the end of my last post for details about water changes) and this helps avoid Old Tank Syndrome, so I'm not worried about my pH dropping over time. It WILL drop over time in the presence of nitrogenous waste, and our tanks are a nitrogenous waste factory. Keeping up with the debris and excess nitrate will prevent a buildup of decaying material that acidifies the water, dropping the pH, and rendering the tank unstable. We do NOT want this!

So often I hear at pet stores or read it online that people need to adjust their pH. A customer will bring in a water sample to determine why the fish aren't doing well, and they always test the pH. The conversation goes like this: "Oh, I see your pH is at 7.4. We need to get that down to 7. Here's a product you can add to your water and it will take care of that for you. This is your problem." I have to speed walk out of there when I hear that, because I just might blurt something out involuntarily.

On the web I have read this type of thing as basic instructions for setting up a tank, or doing water changes. "Prepare your new water going into the tank with water conditioner for chlorine and chloramines, and then use your pH adjuster to get the pH to 7."  Click. I'm out.

Most currently available species of fish you'll find at the pet store or from your local hobbyist can do just fine in whatever pH your tap water might be. Honestly.

Years ago, in the early 80's when I was new to the hobby, I was told upon arriving at my new home in South Florida, with my fancy goldfish in the Coleman cooler after a 14-hour journey, that the tap water there was moderately hard and had a pH over 7, so it was not good for aquarium fish and would kill them. Wow! I had no idea! I collected 3-4 plastic 5-gallon water cooler jugs (the water was not safe for people, either! Wow!) and even used one glass 6-gallon carboy to tote water home from the grocery store water dispensing machine ($$). I am strong like bull and I did that for 9 years. I actually sold those goldfish when I moved back to Virginia, them having come from Virginia with me originally. Great fish. What I didn't know was that most aquarium fish are bred and raised in Florida, and, in fact, the water in Richmond, where I came from, is moderately hard and has a pH of ~7.4. Boy. I feel like a real dummy now, but, as mentioned in a previous post (kids, brace yourselves) there was no internet in 1984 and I relied upon the information provided in books and from the LFS. (People also did not carry cell phones back then, but I don't like to overwhelm anyone with prehistoric facts so we'll move on)

So, the upshot is, use your tap/well water and see how it goes. You'll need to test it for things like Nitrate (NO3), since excess nitrate is not uncommon in many water systems and even in wells that are close to farms, and that can cause algae problems and even health problems in the fish if it is at high enough levels. The pH is probably fine, and if it is on the alkaline side more's the better, since it will be easier to keep it there. When you start adding pH reducers then you're what we like to call, "chasing the dragon" and that means fighting the natural tendency of the water to creep up to a more alkaline level. Unstable and variable pH is harmful to fish, much more so than a steady higher pH.

I have kept, and still keep to this day, wild caught Leopoldi angelfish from the Rio Negro in Brazil in pH of 7.4 to 7.6 without any problems. I know they won't breed for me at that pH, and that's fine, but it does not affect health or vigor. They were adapted over a period of months and it went just fine.

At this point in my life, with young children at home, it would be too much of a pain for me to try to maintain tanks with low pH, with R/O systems and mixing vats, etc. It is doable, and plenty of people do it with great success, but I don't have the time to fool with it. Right now I am able to maintain 6 large tanks at home and 3 at work with straight tap water PWCs (Partial Water Changes) and everyone's happy and healthy, with an easy regimen that does not take me very long at all.

That's why I'm so glad that I can keep most available species of fish in my tap water just like it is without worry. You probably can too. This is the KISS principle. Keep It Simple, Silly.