Rhysmachine101 Posted April 13, 2011 Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 Hey everyone! First off I want to apologise for posting something that has probably been posted a million times before- I have been searching for a while now and I cant find exactly the info I need; hoping you can help! My PH in all my tanks and is the same as my tap water- I don't have a high range test kit so I am guess-timating here a little but it's around 8.0. Fairly alkaline, I know Now, in my few hours searching this forum and the net, mostly I can find references to "if it aint broke- don't fix it" All my bettas seem quite happy and healthy- have had no problems with any other of my fish- but I was wondering if this will translate across to my spawning tanks? Will new fry be able to tolerate this rather high PH? Or do I need to somehow lower it safely: does anyone have any suggestions if this is the case? Thanks in advance! Rhys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kermadum Posted April 13, 2011 Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 That's pretty high, but if all your adult bettas are living ok in it, I'd be inclined to try a spawn and see what happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhysmachine101 Posted April 13, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 Hmmm, thanks kermadum, for the quick reply- might as well give it a go I suppose. I saw a thread along my travels speculating on ph and gender balance in the fry. Might be interesting? (if they don't all pack it in) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt_95 Posted April 13, 2011 Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 You could try aging your water in a barrel with peat or IAL or alternativly mix in some rain water if you have access to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melbournebetta Posted April 13, 2011 Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 I'd also look at putting in some shell grit, this helps to stabilize the pH to around 7.5 (this is what I understand to be the case) You could also look at adding some aged driftwood if you have any? definitely IAL Don't worry too much about the argument that pH affects gender ratios, at this stage there is no real correlation or substantial anecdotal evidence as yet. Perhaps you can contribute to the "discussion" after your spawn, it's going to be a long while until we start seeing real trends. Good luck with the spawn. Also, have you checked the Carbonate hardness? if the hardness isn't right the pH will swing quite a lot. -Ness Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhysmachine101 Posted April 13, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 (edited) Ok- I will have a look around the LFSs to see if they have any shell grit- so Matt and Ness; you think that the high pH WILL be a problem? My hardness in dKH is 4. 4 drops until yellow. I think- quite honestly still a little under-educated when it come to this. You measure from the very first drop you add, right? What's a good level of hardness in dKH? Edit: Disregard hardness question- educated myself . Edited April 13, 2011 by Rhys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
les Posted April 13, 2011 Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 Good onya Rhys id like to see your gender ratio at the end. if you have access to a still you can mix distilled with tap to bring it down its a bit expensive to by distilled or like Matt said age it with peat and it gives it a nice tanin look. what are you putting together to spawn? Cheers Les Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhysmachine101 Posted April 13, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 At this stage it looks like my Black Orchid CT- male and a Green Metallic VT-female. My understanding is that it will take around 2 gens to get back 100% crowntails- so then I can start working with colour. Am I incorrect? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BettaObsessed Posted April 13, 2011 Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 My PH is 8.6 and I have one lot of 11.5 week olds and another of 3 week olds. My 11.5 week olds are only the size of 6-7 week old but that is due to me not doing enough water changes not the ph. I've tried putting them next to each other and some flare and some show vertical bars so I am taking that to mean I have both males and females. If my guesses are right I have pretty much half male half female. Either that or I have males showing vertical stripes or females flaring :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhysmachine101 Posted April 13, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 Awesome news, BettaObsessed! Thank you so much! This puts me back on track a bit. Might as well still add the shell grit anyway, will help with the hardness... IAL was going in anyway, so... great! Thanks BettaObssesed, really appreciated! At least now I know they will at least hatch. Rhys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bettarazzi Posted April 13, 2011 Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 Shell grit won't bring the pH down. It will do the opposite. You need to soften the water. Shell grit will maintain the hardness. Rain water or reverse osmosis are your only options. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melbournebetta Posted April 13, 2011 Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 Eek - delete shell grit then! Rhys, if you're trying to get back to Crown Tail, why not start with a CT female? There are some at the Coburg Aquarium that are pretty nice (I realize this is a few hours away from the 'rrat) Are you coming into Melboune anytime soon? -Ness Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhysmachine101 Posted April 13, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 Oh! I didn't know! I went down to Coburg last week, to look for HM females, but they were all still in quarantine- and they all looked to be hormone fed (at least this is what the guy who let me behind the scenes led me to believe) and I could kinda see what he meant; they were all really lurid colours, it was odd, I haven't seen fish those shades before. I might head down Saturday then, and have another go- see if there are some pretty girls I can use that I overlooked last time. I was kinda resigned/getting enthused about breeding my own from what I had- might be nicer just to see if I can start straight away. Thanks 'Razzi and Ness, I appreciate it. Rhys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BettaObsessed Posted April 14, 2011 Report Share Posted April 14, 2011 You're welcome! If you have the room, you could set up another tank to get the ph down and use that to fill up your tanks. I have a 40L tank (sitting on the floor) that has a large piece of driftwood in it. I fill it up and it usually sits for at least 24 hours and then I use it for my water changes. I am finding its not big enough to do all of the water changes but I make sure I use it for my bettas first and then the other fish get tap water I have found the driftwood lowers the ph down to round 7.4. I had 2 IAL in there as well but then it dropped down to 6.6 which I thought was a bit low. I have been doing this for probably about a month so the first spawn were in the high ph for the first 6 weeks-2 months. I found my bettas were getting fin rot and the ph appeared to be the cause so that's why I set the other tank up for "spare" water. I had a gold fish in there for a while so the water was getting cycled as well but then decided that wasn't really working because the water that I was taking out was already part the way through a cycle and that didn't make sense. I also found last week (decided to do an experiment) that the water from my hot tap has a lot lower ph than the water from my cold tap. Am yet to ponder this to figure out why. My "spare" water tank has no heater so I put 2/3 this water and 1/3 hot water from the tap which is about the same temp as my fry tanks and the ph is still nowhere near as high. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt_95 Posted April 14, 2011 Report Share Posted April 14, 2011 Be careful using hot water, it often contains copper which is deadly at certain levels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhysmachine101 Posted April 14, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2011 Hmmm, yeah, not too sure why copper is still used in plumbing applications- it HAS to be more expensive than PVC, plus more reactive and less thermally insulative as well! I don't get it. :confused: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt_95 Posted April 14, 2011 Report Share Posted April 14, 2011 It is because copper is highly conductive and transfers the heat into the water well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhysmachine101 Posted April 14, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2011 That's what I mean, copper is extremely conductive; thermally and electrically. Your water heater heats up your water, then you turn a tap on and water flows into the copper pipes- the water is hot and as it travels along the copper pipe it loses some of its heat energy to the pipe. If it was PVC, which is thermally insulative, shouldn't the heat losses be less? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BettaObsessed Posted April 14, 2011 Report Share Posted April 14, 2011 Thanks. Have been doing things this way for 3 years now (2/3 cold, 1/3 hot) without any ill effects but will keep an eye out for mysterious illnesses :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts