# pH too low and how to raise it



## Monica Lopez (Sep 22, 2016)

Hello everyone!

I'm new to the forum, and sorta new to fish keeping! So here's the issue, around 3 months or so I decided to get a 16Gallon tank for my office hoping to set it up as a crystal shrimp tank or for other shrimp. I bought ADA Amazonia for the substrate knowing that it will help keep the low pH that CRS need. I cycled the tank but half way I decided to lower my fish load at home by bringing some of them to this tank. Once they tank was cycled I brought a betta, 4 neon tetras, 2 platies, and 4 red cherry shrimp from home. By then the water pH was at a steady 6.4-6.6. Recently I measured my parameters and found that the pH is too low and I'm afraid it could be harmful for the fish.

Here are my notes:
pH-5.9-6.0
TDS 208
Temp 78
Kh 1-2
GH 8-9
Ammonia is 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0 (all of these Zero's worry me a bit)

It should be noted that I use RO water only for this tank which I supplement with Bee Shrimp GH+. There are also some mineral rock in the tank.

Do you guys think that the pH is too low for the fish? if so how can I raise the pH naturally? Any tips are greatly appreciated!


----------



## Abraham Vivian (Sep 20, 2016)

pH 5.9 isn't too low. Do you inject co2 ? Try removing any recently added objects. 

Sent from my Lenovo A7010a48 using Tapatalk


----------



## Monica Lopez (Sep 22, 2016)

Abraham Vivian said:


> pH 5.9 isn't too low. Do you inject co2 ? Try removing any recently added objects.
> 
> Sent from my Lenovo A7010a48 using Tapatalk


No C02, and I haven't added/changed anything since the very first set up of the tank. I'm trying to add a picture of it but for some reason it is not taking at all.


----------



## Abraham Vivian (Sep 20, 2016)

Actually your tank is NOT having any problem. Why are you bothered in those decimals 5.9 6.4 etc. 5.9 means 6 only in aquarium hobby. Do some water change then at least your mind will be relaxed. 

Sent from my Lenovo A7010a48 using Tapatalk


----------



## Monica Lopez (Sep 22, 2016)

Ok I finally figured out the pictures. Here's how it looks.....

Bump:


Abraham Vivian said:


> Actually your tank is NOT having any problem. Why are you bothered in those decimals 5.9 6.4 etc. 5.9 means 6 only in aquarium hobby. Do some water change then at least your mind will be relaxed.
> 
> Sent from my Lenovo A7010a48 using Tapatalk


I just want to make sure that the fish will not be harmed by the acidity of the water. Thanks!


----------



## bsantucci (Sep 30, 2013)

Your tetras will be happy with acidic water, that's natural to them. I assume the mollies (i think that's what i see) will acclimate and be ok.

Also, don't trust those test kits, they are always a bit off.


----------



## Monica Lopez (Sep 22, 2016)

bsantucci said:


> Your tetras will be happy with acidic water, that's natural to them. I assume the mollies (i think that's what i see) will acclimate and be ok.
> 
> Also, don't trust those test kits, they are always a bit off.



Thank you!


----------



## discuspaul (Jul 27, 2010)

You should be just fine, Monica, with pH around 6.0 with the fish you have.
And since you're using RO water, and assuming you're also doing regular water changes, it wouldn't be unusual to have nitrates @ '0'.

If it would make you feel a better you could slowly, naturally, and safely raise the pH somewhat by adding a small bag of (calcium-based) shell/coral fragments (available @ most LFS) to your tank. Remove it when the pH rises to the level you wish.


----------



## klibs (May 1, 2014)

don't worry about pH


----------



## Nlewis (Dec 1, 2015)

^^^^^^^^^^^
What he said. You just want to make sure it somewhat consistent and there are no huge swings in the ph for any reason.


----------



## AdamTill (Jan 22, 2015)

Your platties, being liverbearers, probably won't love the low pH. The others will be fine. Generally most livebearers want higher pH, higher hardness water. Your hardness isn't too bad, but they'd likely do better in a separate tank.


----------



## Monica Lopez (Sep 22, 2016)

discuspaul said:


> You should be just fine, Monica, with pH around 6.0 with the fish you have.
> And since you're using RO water, and assuming you're also doing regular water changes, it wouldn't be unusual to have nitrates @ '0'.
> 
> If it would make you feel a better you could slowly, naturally, and safely raise the pH somewhat by adding a small bag of (calcium-based) shell/coral fragments (available @ most LFS) to your tank. Remove it when the pH rises to the level you wish.


Thank you I will look into this!



AdamTill said:


> Your platties, being liverbearers, probably won't love the low pH. The others will be fine. Generally most livebearers want higher pH, higher hardness water. Your hardness isn't too bad, but they'd likely do better in a separate tank.



I unfortunately can't take them home since my 20 is stock full of guppies and guppy babies. I don't think there is room for them there. I will look into increasing the pH with the shells as mentioned above.

Thank you everyone!


----------



## AdamTill (Jan 22, 2015)

Monica Lopez said:


> I unfortunately can't take them home since my 20 is stock full of guppies and guppy babies. I don't think there is room for them there. I will look into increasing the pH with the shells as mentioned above.


The downside is that the other fish WANT the softer water, lower pH. It's a damned if you do, damned if you don't sort of situation.

PS - BTW, as an FYI, if your pH is at 6, your tank isn't showing nitrates because your filter bacteria are either starving or not there. You can't MAKE nitrates at 6.0

When the pH is that low, the ammonia produced by the tank is actually ammonium. The ammonia converting bacteria (that convert to nitrite) can't process that.

As such, if you go and raise the pH right now, you'll likely kill or hurt your fish since it'll be a situation where you have no filter bacteria. You'd be highly advised to treat this like a fish-in cycle situation, or go and get a precycled filter from your other tank etc.

At very low pH ammonium acts like nitrate at high pH...it's only harmful in high concentrations.

At 6, there is no cycle...the bacteria can't operate that low, and will starve off or not grow. You handle ammonium build up with water changes and plants.

PPS - that's why you generally want your pH above 6.4 at all times, to keep filters working. Keep it below 6 and understand the risks and benefits, or above 6.4 at all times.


----------



## PlantedRich (Jul 21, 2010)

I was surprised to see any reading that low but then saw the RO. How about letting tit drift higher by just using some tap water. Austin tap is very hard /alkaline and if it is done slowly with normal water changes, you can achieve both higher as well as cheaper and easier. If you want a slow release hard item, I would think it logical to piece a limestone rock off one of the trails. 
But the tapwater will have it already dissolved in it. 
But for long term, I find that most plants/fish are not nearly as fussy as we might read. 
Welcome to the forum!


----------



## Monica Lopez (Sep 22, 2016)

PlantedRich said:


> I was surprised to see any reading that low but then saw the RO. How about letting tit drift higher by just using some tap water. Austin tap is very hard /alkaline and if it is done slowly with normal water changes, you can achieve both higher as well as cheaper and easier. If you want a slow release hard item, I would think it logical to piece a limestone rock off one of the trails.
> But the tapwater will have it already dissolved in it.
> But for long term, I find that most plants/fish are not nearly as fussy as we might read.
> Welcome to the forum!


Thank you! This would definitely be the easier option. Since somebody commented above about being careful on bringing up the pH because most likely there are no bacteria in my tank how should I go about doing that? Should I buy some of the bottled bacteria found in pet stores every water change? or let it grow naturally?

I'm currently doing 30% water changes every 2-3 weeks.


----------



## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

We sometimes overthink our biological filter. The bacteria that convert ammonia to nitrites to nitrates are a natural occurrence when we put fish in water for awhile. As long as we don't drastically overstock our tank, so excessive amounts of ammonia are being generated by the fish, the bacteria colonies in our tank will adjust to meet the "demand". If we have very low pH, the ammonia (NH4) will be in the form of ammonium (NH3-), but plants readily use ammonium as a nutrient, so if the tank has lots of growing plants, that ammonium will help the plants, and not be in the water long enough to bother the fish.

People who use CO2 in their planted tanks will almost always have a pH below 6.4, and they don't suffer from doing so. That should show that you don't need to be concerned with having the water at a 6.4 or lower pH. And, if we had to worry about getting rid of the ammonia eating bacteria we would have a serious problem, but we don't have to worry about maintaining our ammonia eating bacteria colony. Nature takes care of that for us.

This is not to say that you should ignore the need for that bacteria when starting up a new tank. You just don't have to continually concern yourself about it. Fish only tanks, with lots of fish, are a different thing entirely.


----------



## Monica Lopez (Sep 22, 2016)

Hoppy said:


> We sometimes overthink our biological filter. The bacteria that convert ammonia to nitrites to nitrates are a natural occurrence when we put fish in water for awhile. As long as we don't drastically overstock our tank, so excessive amounts of ammonia are being generated by the fish, the bacteria colonies in our tank will adjust to meet the "demand". If we have very low pH, the ammonia (NH4) will be in the form of ammonium (NH3-), but plants readily use ammonium as a nutrient, so if the tank has lots of growing plants, that ammonium will help the plants, and not be in the water long enough to bother the fish.
> 
> People who use CO2 in their planted tanks will almost always have a pH below 6.4, and they don't suffer from doing so. That should show that you don't need to be concerned with having the water at a 6.4 or lower pH. And, if we had to worry about getting rid of the ammonia eating bacteria we would have a serious problem, but we don't have to worry about maintaining our ammonia eating bacteria colony. Nature takes care of that for us.
> 
> This is not to say that you should ignore the need for that bacteria when starting up a new tank. You just don't have to continually concern yourself about it. Fish only tanks, with lots of fish, are a different thing entirely.



Ok, I probably shouldn't worry too much about it then. I only have 4 rooted plants (I have 0 clue what they actually are) and 1 moss ball. 7 fish, 4 shrimp total in 16 gallons. Is that enough plants to help absorb the ammonium? Should I worry about being overstock?


----------



## PlantedRich (Jul 21, 2010)

It is important to know about the bacteria as it is what helps us. Do some reading about the "nitrogen cycle" if it is new to you. Waste becomes ammonia, as that shows in the tank it is dangerous to fish if it becomes too high. Ammonia burns the tender things like gills. something like sunburn? Too much is bad but then there is also a cure built in. As the ammonia shows up the bacteria who use ammonia is also going to be there and begin to use convert ammonia to nitrite. Nitrite also not good but at that point a second group of bacteria begins to process nitrite to nitrate which is not very toxic is we keep the water changes done. So we get some ammonia of ammonium and some is used by plants. But if the tank has been running long enough both groups of bacteria will be there and the level kind of floats up and down as the food supply allows. 
Be aware of the hazards and keep up the water changes to remove pollution (ammonia, nitrite or nitrate) while it all settles into a routine. The best thing I can do is keep from making sudden changes to the whole thing. Buy only one or two fish if adding, don't clean too thoroughly for a time as cleaning does knock down the bacteria numbers. don't clean the filter really well and at the same time decide to move a bunch of stuff around. 
I would suggest keeping an ammonia test kit on hand as well as a test for nitrate. As you learn what your fish normally do, you will be able to spot anything that looks "off" about how they act and that is a good time to test for ammonia and it is often good to keep some idea of how fast the nitrate builds up. Overstocked to me means I have more fish than I can haul out the nitrate on the schedule life gives me! Plants help use the nitrates but they can also mean more work so it comes down to getting a balance.


----------



## Audionut (Apr 24, 2015)

Hoppy said:


> If we have very low pH, the ammonia (NH4) will be in the form of ammonium (NH3-),


Ammonium (NH4+), and Ammonia (NH3-).


----------



## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

Audionut said:


> Ammonium (NH4+), and Ammonia (NH3-).


Thank you :redface:


----------

