# pH out of tap is 8.0 what to do?



## awhit (Jan 8, 2016)

I've had my tank cycling for about 5 wks and things are all good, except pH in tank is 8.2. So I was curious what my out of tap water's pH is, it's 8.0. I am planning on a planted angelfish community tank with cory cats and rasboras. I have plants, ghost shrimp and 6 aeneus corys in there now. Everyone is happy as far as I can tell. Getting ready to stock up the rest of the tank, but am concerned about the pH. Is 8.2 too high to keep everyone happy? If so, is there anything I can do to get the pH lower? Do I just scrap the community tank plan and have a cichlid or brackish tank?


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## corina savin (Jul 11, 2012)

Leave it as it is.
You can try if you want the peat, almond leaves, driftwood, RO water or everything else short of chemicals (pH down and stuff). I did all that and stopped when I realized that my fish don't care.


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## Rocky Conner (Jan 27, 2016)

You can also go with 'tougher' or hardier fish. I know that guppies are incredibly tolerant of tank conditions, especially salt content, so I would imagine that Mollys are a good option as well. Best of luck!


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## LauraInFL (Jan 7, 2016)

The easiest thing is to just get fish that like alkaline water. They'll be happy and healthy.

You could still put Angelfish in this tank - many fish are surprisingly adaptable to higher pH *if they are acclimated slowly*. I strongly recommend against wild caught Angelfish since they are accustomed to soft, acid water. However, captive-bred Angelfish have often been bred for generations in neutral or even slightly alkaline water, so they are much more likely to to adapt to your water.

Here's the thing to remember: most fish cannot tolerate abrupt changes in pH.

That's what gets people in trouble with chemicals, I think. They get the water in the tank adjusted to their desired pH with chemicals. Later, when they do a water change and add a lot of tap water that rapidly changes the pH. Then they add chemicals to compensate, changing pH again. It's a fish-killing pH roller coaster. And adjusting pH like that is usually unnecessary in the first place.

If you do go the chemicals route, when you do a partial water change you have to pH match the new water to the tank water *before* you add the new water to the tank. If you have a large tank (your post didn't say) that means pH matching multiple buckets of water for each water change, and a lot of chemicals. That's expensive, and a hassle. The cost and the hassle might discourage you from keeping up with the water changes, which would be BAD. Keeping the water clean through regular partial water changes is the single most important thing you can do to keep your fish healthy. You want the water change process to be as easy as possible, so you won't be tempted not to do it.

If you want to do something for the Angelfish, Corina's suggestions are good: driftwood and Indian Almond leaves release tannins into the water, and that's good for Angels. They may bring the tank pH down a little bit. But I wouldn't do anything more than that to try to modify the pH. And you really don't want to bring the pH down _too_ much anyway, because then you'll have pH swings when you do water changes.


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## beaslbob (Oct 17, 2012)

nothing!

planted tanks are notorious for high ph because the plants lower the co2 which increases the pH.

So high ph is a sign of low co2. I'm not aware of any fish that doesn't do better with a high oxygen, low co2 environment.

my .02


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## Rocky Conner (Jan 27, 2016)

beaslbob said:


> nothing!
> 
> planted tanks are notorious for high ph because the plants lower the co2 which increases the pH.
> 
> ...


I didn't even think about that - great observation! I'll be sure to keep that in mind myself for the future.


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## beaslbob (Oct 17, 2012)

Rocky Conner said:


> I didn't even think about that - great observation! I'll be sure to keep that in mind myself for the future.


You're welcome. 

You might want to keep an eye on gh/kh though.
I've had fish like neon tetras and hatchetfish which are supposed to need low ph soft water live and thrive for years in planted tanks with a ph of 8.4-8.8 (api high range test kit). 

But only with peat moss in the substrate which kept kh and gh in line for years also.

with no peat moss, kh and gh rose to very high levels and neon tetras did not last long.

which would indicate the soft is more important then than the pH.

my .02


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## Warhawk (Feb 23, 2014)

I have high pH tap water also and my angels do just fine. My local water was 7.6 for years then about 4 months ago it jumped to 8.2. It was few weeks before I noticed the jump but as I do multi small water changes a week it was a slow change in the tanks. I have Like LauraInFl said most fish captive breed fish can do just fine in tap water. 

Also like LauraInFl said you don't want the water to swing that will stress the fish and cause death.


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## awhit (Jan 8, 2016)

Sorry, tank details:
72 gallon, with about 25 gallon sump. I plan on about 10-15% water change every week, I have one of those things that connect to the sink faucet. I would prefer to not alter with chemicals. I do have a RO system for drinking water, but it only holds 3 gallons of cold water...
GH=60, KH=200

Thanks for all the advice!


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