Unfortunately the two Tiger Barbs I bought yesterday didn’t survive the night.  This morning I found them floating upside down in the tank.

Poor Tiger Barb didn't make the night.

The most likely culprit is the high pH level in my newly setup tank.  I live on well water so luckily the water that comes out of my tap doesn’t have Chlorine in it like city water does, but my water is slightly alkaline coming out of the tap and my initial setup of the aquarium put the water up to a pH level of about 8.2 – 8.4 which was too high for the Barbs to survive.

From what I’ve read, generally the Barbs prefer a more acidic environment around 6.5-7.0 pH with a broader range of 6.0-8.0 pH.  My guess is that the large pH level difference between my tank and the water at the pet store that was the shock that killed them.  Unfortunately I didn’t know I had such a high pH level in my tank when I brought the Barbs home as that was my first visit to the pet store and I got the testing kits at the same time as the fish.

The other four fish I have in there seem to be doing OK at this time, but I decided to investigate how to lower my pH levels before getting any more fish.

Lowering pH in an Aquarium

From my research I found that a high pH is actually a quite common problem in fish tanks.  The most common causes of high pH in aquariums are:

• Your tap water is already highly alkaline with a pH level higher than 7.0.
• Your aquarium decorations, such as seashells are increasing the alkalinity of your water.
• Your gravel may be causing an increase in the pH level of your water.

Of course the problem may be a combination of any of the above.  I would venture a guess that most people who live on city water probably have low pH levels below 7.0 so their tap water is acidic.  Then if they have decorations or gravel in the tank which raise the pH levels up, it creates a balance and your pH levels are fairly normal.  In my case I’m starting out with well water which doesn’t have added acids like chlorine in it to make it acidic so it’s quite easy for my water to have a higher pH.

How Can You Lower the pH in Your Aquarium?

I found two products that can be used to lower the pH levels in an Aquarium.  Firstly there is a product called “Aquarium Pharmeceuticals pH-Down“.  It’s basically a small bottle that you take and add a certain number of drops into you water in order to raise the acidity level of your water, bringing the pH levels down.

I wasn’t sure if this product was going to work, so I also bought another product called “Aquarium Pharmeceuticals Proper pH 7.0“.  This product is a bit different.  What this product does is that it regulates your pH levels and balances them out to a pH level of 7.0.  So if your aquarium pH is too high, it will buffer it down and if your pH is too low it will raise the pH level.

When I got home I first tried using the pH-Down product and after a few hours the pH level still didn’t drop much.  I didn’t want to overdo it and put too much of it into the water so I decided to leave that and try using the Proper pH 7.0 instead.  This product seemed to work much better.  I added in the recommended two scoops of the stuff for the 20 Gallon tank I have and then tested the pH about 30 minutes later and it was now showing it at an almost perfect 7.0.

I’ll have to test the water tomorrow and see whether or not it was able to keep it at that level or if the water went back up.  If the water goes back up, I might just need to accept the fact that my water is always going to be higher pH and focus on picking fish that prefer a slightly higher pH environment.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

View Paul Piotrowski's Profile      Subscribe via RSS