thefishdude Posted November 27, 2004 Report Share Posted November 27, 2004 What is the ideal PH for an Oscar tank?? What is the best product out there to make sure my water is at said PH?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smokey Posted November 27, 2004 Report Share Posted November 27, 2004 Any major Liquid test kit will give you a fairly accurate response. The Nutrafin kits - they have three test kits - wide, low and high pH kits available. The ideal pH - slightly acid = 6.8. However; your water hardness should be soft, also. AND Unless you are into altering the water construction, in general go with what comes out of your tap. consistancy is best. HTH Smokey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thefishdude Posted November 27, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 27, 2004 I do have a test kit..... and the PH is definately not 6.8 -somwhere between 7.3 & 7.4 what I meant to ask is what product would I use to drop the PH?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smokey Posted November 27, 2004 Report Share Posted November 27, 2004 thefishdude, how are you doing. There are a number of "PH Down" products available. Aquarium Pharm. has a liguid "pH Down" product. There is a "Water Softening Pillow". by the same company. It can be recharged. or a $$.$$ reverse osmosis unit. [ long term investment]. However, 7.3 - 7.4 pH is not that bad for the oscars. and from expierence, altering the pH of water can be frustrating. The Ph may bounce back up, unexpecditly or crash. Becareful. Water consistanitcy is favored. Your water does not sound that bad, for an oscar. mpo. In most cases local fish have been raised in local waters. HTH Smokey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtac Posted November 27, 2004 Report Share Posted November 27, 2004 I don't recommend using pH lowering products unless you have an understanding of water chemistry and buffering (kH) dynamics. The problem using pH down is that yes you can get the pH down to what you want but unless the buffer is "cracked", the pH will bounce back up. Depending on the difference in pH values, this will do more harm than good with pH fluctuations. Water softening pillows are ion exchange resins that "soften" water by lowering GH by means of exchanging Ca and Mg ions for Na ions. For changing pH, kH is the water parameter to alter and the most convenient method to lower it is to use distilled or RO water. In a nutshell, when you lower the kH, you can lower pH. When one looks at the literature on "what water parameters are best", this is under the older information where the the fish is collected from. Today, a great percentage of fish are farm raised overseas, bred in Eastern Europe or from hobiests in the area. As smokey mentioned, water consistency and overall water quality (just elabrating) is the most important factor. If you want to breed them, well, cross that road when you get there. Save yourself the aggrivation and headaches and don't mess around with pH altering products. Keep in mind, raising pH is 100x easier than lowering it. JM2C Wilson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thefishdude Posted November 28, 2004 Author Report Share Posted November 28, 2004 Very good to know.... thanks for the helpful info: I'll keep her where she's at. :smokey: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.