High PH for tropical community?

I tested the PH of the water before I completed a water change and it read 8 ph. The tap water is reading at 7.5ph.
Is this ok or is it too high?
I have cory cats, otos and dwarf gourami.Its a 125l with live plants.

Hi,

That should be ok. I kept a community tank successfully at that pH. When you see a suitable pH range for a fish, it refers to the pH of that fish's natural habitat. As most of the fish we buy are tank bred, they can generally tollerate a wider range.

The fish you list above should be ok in that pH. It is more important to have a stable pH as constant movement can stress the fish. The change you see from your tap water and tank is pretty normal. I see the exact same here in Donabate. 8.0 is the true pH for your water. It's best to leave water sitting for 24 hours before testing to get a true reading.

Hope this helps.

Do you have coral sand or sandstone in the tank, it could be whats pushing up the ph.

The dwarf gourami wont like the high ph. they prefare it more acidic.
The Otto may be ok but they also prefer it more acidic.
More than likely the Corys will be the same.
You can lower the ph in your tank by using almond leaves or filtering your water through peat.
If you dont know anything about lowering your ph. post again and we will give you more info.

Hi Derek.
What test kit are you using. I recon it is way off. Our
water is usually a constant 7.2.

Most of the dwarf gouramis (colisa lalia being the most common) should be fine at a pH of 8.0. I've also kept corys at this. It really depends on the types of corys you have. Some of the more exotic wild caught corys would have problems at this pH.

Hi dclifford,

A lot of the most popular fish (but not all) are bred on fish farms in a variety of water conditions and will adapt to the water you keep them in. If at all possible it is a good idea to try and avoid adjusting your tap water, as there are so many variables and no fish will be happy if the parameters keep changing. If you are to adjust it perhaps an r/o unit is a good starting point so that you have more control over what is added to the purified water. Once your conditions are fairly stable and the fishes are showing no signs of distress it may be best to leave things as they are.

Forgive me if I digress a little here but you may find it interesting: -

I am not sure about the area you live in but most Dublin water comes from either Leixlip or Ballymore Eustace. I happen to be in the very peculiar position that the two water supplies cross over literally on my road (or should I say under it) and that can lead to extreme swings in parameters without any notice whatsoever. Whichever plant at any particular minute has a greater water pressure determines what comes out of my tap. (I cope with this by using a TDS meter to see what I am being dealt… one supply shows up as 75-84TDS and the other is 160-180TDS... very handy at times but normally the one I DON’T want at the particular moment!)

I made enquiries about the difference in the water supplies to try and understand a little better what the implications were and managed to get a detailed report on the water parameters of both plants. If you are on either of these water supplies I can post the relevant report to this thread if you are interested (most chemicals mentioned you will be familiar with as some are tested regularly by us fish keepers).

One thing I was very interested to find out (talking to the ‘big water boss’) is that no chloramines are ever added to Dublin water. Chlorine may bind itself to some of the minuscule amount of Ammonia in the water supply as it is being delivered but can be ignored in terms of fish health.

Anyway, enough of my rambling

@ Anthony
I am not in Coolock. I live in Maynooth now.
Do test kits have best before dates?, nitrate, ammonia etc.. I am going to borrow a test kit from work to make sure it give the same reading.


I have play sand as a substrate. I believe it is PH neutral.

I have no imediate plan to adjust the PH, was just checking to see if a PH of 8 was a bit extreme.

Hi Derek.
What test kit are you using. Some test kits are way off.

It is the Tetra test
www.tetra-fish.co.uk/tetratropical/produ...TE.asp?productID=271

I never used these myself but their dip testers are way off.

How do you find out where your water is coming from? I'm in glasnevin. I'd be very interested to find out the actual water parameters of my water. If someone has them could they post them please. cheers

I tested the water with a PH paper from work. It gave a value of 7PH.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrion_paper

burkey87 wrote:

How do you find out where your water is coming from? I'm in glasnevin. I'd be very interested to find out the actual water parameters of my water. If someone has them could they post them please. cheers

If you test the GH it will indicate whether you are on the Leixlip or Ballymore Eustace supply. Let me know the result and I will pm you the relevant analysis sheet.

I just tested my tapwater for GH and it was 12. Does this make sense? Could you pm me with the report if you don't mind? Thanks

burkey87 wrote:

I just tested my tapwater for GH and it was 12. Does this make sense? Could you pm me with the report if you don't mind? Thanks

Yes, it makes sense.
You are on the Leixlip (Liffey) supply line.
I have PM'd you the water analysis report.

dclifford wrote:

I tested the water with a PH paper from work. It gave a value of 7PH.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrion_paper

Litmus paper is not always the best way to test for an accurate pH result in aquarium applications.
There are plenty of liquid tests available in LFS which will give a more readable result.
Papers are liable to false readings depending on the other constituants in the water. For example, tap water will 'bleach' the colour as there is chlorine present and an accurate reading can not be taken.