PH of Aquarium Water? How to Test?

How to Test Fish Aquarium ph isn’t hard. You can also raise and lower it. I highly advise investing in a master test kit made by API. They’re the best kits.

Other comments on fish related talk:
I’ve rescued a couple huge goldfish and have them in a 20 gallon tank for now. I don’t have a big tank. What should I do?

Good luck! Do you have a separate large tank for them to go into? Almost anything would be better but wouldnt want to stress current fish with whatever these fish may have (that you can treat if quarantined).

They're all bottom sitting from the super high ammonia. You'll want to get them into clean water. 7 single tails like this would eventually need atleast 280 gallons to thrive, but anything bigger than this is a step in the right direction. Provide clean water and frequent water changes to get them back healthy.

Yeah until you can get them into something bigger or find a somebody with a pond. In that hex compared to this 10 gallon theres only 4 more inches of swimming room in the tank just more depth. From what I can see they are comets & Commons, which do get huge and really need a pond, but massive tanks will do ok...like 120 gallons or so.

They are pond fish: commons and I see at least two Comets. TBH, a hexagonal tank wouldn’t really be that all much of an upgrade. These guys need (horizontal) room to swim and a LOT of surface area. What is going on here? He's trying to help them and he wants help to do what he can to better their lives. An extra 25 gallons is a bloody good start. Thanks for helping them! Sure is, healing is often a multi step process. Nobody is bashing the guy everybody has said thank you and suggested a pond afterwords or a big tank, as is only ethical.

When you get them switched over to a bigger tank, try to increase the clean water gradually over a few hours. After living in such a small space and poor water quality, they might get shocked if they go straight into clean water. Also, if you want to accommodate them quickly and cheaply to the 55 as David suggested, you could look at storage totes short term or stock ponds (Rubbermaid) are cheaper than actual tanks.

Wow strange. I put sand in a couple months ago and it didn't change a thing. I got the National Geographic sand because it doesn't suck up in the tube when I am cleaning or my filters etc. Its a bit pricey but worth it. Mine regularly eat sand, they pass it no problem. What do you think happens with carp in the wild? The bottom of ponds are not bare; a healthy fish will pass the substrate no problem.

A recent post reported a dead goldfish with a digestive system packed with sand. Probably a rare occurrence, but I just can't see how indigestible material can be ok in a fish digestive system. Makes more sense to go with substrate too big to get into a fish's mouth in the first place. BTW wild carp evolved in environments where sand and gravel are common. Fancy gfs mutated long after that and probably never developed abilities to deal with all natural materials.

I had an amazing experience with East Coast Ranchu! Cynthia was awesome with answering questions and it was so awesome to have the option to pick up my baby at a nice warm FedEx instead of having him sitting at my apartment front door. Thanks so much if you read here, Cynthia.

New baby explored the quarantine tank and started looking for food immediately. I’m following the 24 hour rule, but I’m expecting him to have a nice appetite when it’s time to eat. Here’s a crappy video. Can’t wait to get him in with his new family! Po is gonna love him.

So my comet goldfish will periodically lay at the bottom of my tank for a bit but then be swimming around the tank like nothings wrong, every thing I’ve been reading is saying swimbladder disease but she swims fine, anyone know what could possible be the cause or is this normal?

My two oranda did this when I had them in a 10g tank while I was preparing their bigger one. Your tank appears big but it could be from overstocking or underfiltering? You should try feeding peas like they do for swimbladder issues though to see if that helps her improve. Even if it is not swimbladder they could all still benefit from a little bit of veggie.

How much are you feeding them? It is looking a bit on the slim side for a fish that size... Mayb try to put some greens in with them so they can have a snack through the day time as well. I would up your feed for sure.... a couple of times a day is ok... I don't know the size of the pellets but it doesn't sound like it is enough... You could try a live soft leaf plant and just drop that in the tank you might be surprised how fast they lay into it... Hornwort is one my fish love, duck weed is another... deshelled pea's are another food that fish love.

[felipeperez]

Y'all may think this was boring but this was really informative. Thanks mate.

[tolmiepheasants]

You put 3 drops at the same time, cap it, shake it. Here is your ph 3 seconds.
Don't need to do drop by drop !

[jasabasenara]

You're spot on. GREAT honest video. 👍
Whatever your ph is in your tap water, just leave it.

[keithmoore]

+
I dont know how fussy these API kits are, just a tip...turning the dropper on the side and adding drops is no where near as accurate as holding the dropper vertically. The reason...if this makes sense, when you hold dropper horizontally it spreads the width of the drop out, so it will take a larger drop to fall. Vertically their is no deviation, it will be consistant. Otherwise keep up the videos, I watch many of them

[harryhannington]

first youtuber i’ve ever watched who is realistic. Everyone says your water must be this, your fish much have this must have that. your the only person who actually talks sense

[mandymoore]

I don’t think it’s geeky I think it’s kinda cool. Anything that interests a person to the point of wanting to know more and more and more is very interesting

[SemihydroponicswithSma]

I just found your channel and i love it. Tomorrow i will have a betta delivered and i was frinking out that my water ph is not in the parameters that i found on internet🤔 but what are you saying is making perfect sense. I will take the time to watch all you videos. Thank you💚

[lwarfield]

Thank you Palmer Aquatics! This was perfect it! You answered all my questions. YOU ROCK! (:

[thethingwithfins]

I would contrast and say that for some types of fish PH can be the most important thing. I had well water that was on average around 7.5 every time I tested. Everyone told me to not worry about it and I stopped testing. It rained a bunch during hurricane season and unknown to me the ph lowered to around 6. And Guess what certain species such as LIVE BEARERS cannot survive/reproduce in lower ph. I didn't know, bought a bunch of pricey breeder guppies and lost ALL of them slowly, assuming it was a disease and it turned out to be the ph. You really shouldn't assume that a fish is going to adapt cause that is likely just going to cause stress on a fish and possible losses. Never neglect ANY parameter.

[Gulbahar]

Thank you for the info👍don’t worry about the negative people 😊

[Ace-wuit]

Thank you so much for your video that help me so much about my pH in my water

[gavanreid]

Dude not all fish come from fish farms as a lot of fish have not been successfully breed in captivity and people have to go out into the wild and catch them so ph is important in some cases. I can also say depending what you have in your aquarium can change the ph level and even the tap water I have noticed can fluctuate between changes hell I’ve even had ammonia issues happen after water changers and was losing the battle with it till I actually tested the tap water and the ammonia levels were through the roof. So getting to my point I believe testing ph is very important and should be done at least twice a week. I find a good ph level for most freshwater fish like cichlids is around 7.5

[petercsigo]

I'm a horticulturist I can tell you for the experience ditch that pH solution get the general hydroponic pH kit. You put three drops in it you don't need to shake it every time you put the drop in it lol.

[southnyourmind]

I wish there were some fish farms that had some clown killifish.

[corey]

Always good information from Palmer Aquatics !

[mandymoore]

Holy hell! Do u actually have a flowerhorn in w those other cichlids?! That’s amazing!

[waatao]

But ph will drop overtime. So u saying if it goes full acedic is fine? I have had a wipe out due to acidic water

[ajoyrod]

I'm now keeping mystery snails with my bettas & while they alone were fine with my ph being a bit over 8 as that is my tap ph where I live & my baby snails were hatched in it, some of my live plants bought in tubes at pet store, were struggling & 2 of my male bettas were having issues with their fins (looked like fin nipping from stress). So I tried slowly lowering the ph in some of the tanks using seachem neutral regulator at 1/2 strength with weekly water changes. The product says to use weekly till lowered to 7 & then monthly also makes it seem that it won't lower the ph below 7. However after about 1 month of use at 1/2 strength it lowered my ph as low as 6 in 1 of my tanks. I can see noticable effects on snail shells. Also tested ammonia as my 2 struggling stressed bettas started suffering fin rot (in treatment now) & my ammonia is up to 8 in 1 tank. I've done water changes in all 7 tanks (25-90% depending on readings).

[theOneThatWas]

You didn't do any of it right with the testers. It states to drop all the drops then mix it. Even says that turning your bottle completely upside down so you can get a complete drop for better accuracy.

[rudyvalentino]

I really enjoy your videos and find them really helpful. I am brand new to the hobby and my Nitrogen cycle just started! Everything is going like it is supposed to but I have a question about pH. During cycling, what kind of pH range should I expect? I am at an 8.0 and it just started cycling after 11 days.