# pH of betta tank is 5.5



## UnderseaGal (Mar 4, 2014)

My awesome betta, Poochie, lives in a 2.6 gal Fluval spec.

The pH in the tank is at 5.5. It's been about that since the very start.
I've started buffering with Kent pH buffer (which I have on hand) during water changes, but because it's a very small volume I'm having a very difficult time getting the right amount in (you end up having to measure something like half of an eighth of a teaspoon or whatever). So as a result the pH has barely budged.

I love this fish so very much - he is the best. I don't want to lose him because of a stupid mistake.

Can he live in a tank with a pH of 5.5? How aggressively should I try to raise the pH?
I know the worse thing is a big jump in pH, which is why I'm so careful with buffering...

Appreciate any help.


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## Ra's al Ghul (Apr 28, 2010)

Use Seachem Betta basic, and some salt or equilibrium


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## Rockman (May 19, 2013)

5.5 is a bit low, for a few reasons. The first being that Bettas aren't quite that acid tolerant (They'd probably prefer something around 6.5ish as an ideal). The other being that a pH of 5.5 means you have essentially no buffer strength (carbonate buffers anyway... you might have some from organic acids or soil ion exchange (if you've got the fancy plant soil in there); but that's hard to determine; so you can't really count on it); which has the potential to create problems with pH crashes and filter bacteria.

One trick for adding chemicals to small volumes is to make a concentrated solution of it first and then dose that to the tank water. It's much easier to measure small volumes of liquid (ie with a syringe you can do tenths of a ml quite easily). Also you can rig your solution to meet a certain dosage volume.

For example, a 10 litre spec would take about 1/100th of a teaspoon to add 20 ppm of alkalinity (as per these instructions). However, you could add a full teaspoon to a 250 ml bottle of water and add about a teaspoon (actually a bit less... 4.1 ml instead of 4.9... but close enough) of that to the tank instead to give a similar dose.

Another approach is to use crushed coral or dolomite in your filter. That's a bit less predictable in terms of the water chemistry you end up with; but gets around the need to dose anything at all.



Ra's al Ghul said:


> Use Seachem Betta basic, and some salt or equilibrium


Personally, I'd probably prefer to keep my water conditioner and buffer mix seperate; but I suppose that's just preference.


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

IMO you can go 2 ways with this. 

1. You can try to get the Ph buffered to a higher level using methods mentioned above. You would learn more by doing it that way. 

2. Just leave the water alone. Your betta doesn't have a Ph meter in his pocket. Im sure he is happy at 5.5 as long as it consistently at that PH. Fish adapt. If it isn't broken, don't fix it.

My girlfriend has owned 2 Betta's since Ive known here. The first lived 3 years. The second is still a live and 2 years old. She knows nothing about fish or fish tanks. I tell her th eBetta is her so I donjt help with him. She tries to keep up with water changes at least every few weeks and has had success with Betta's by only doing that.

Betta's can breath air from the surface so the Ph and water conditions don't effect them the way they would a normal fish. Most Betta's live a crummy life at LFS and suppliers until they are purchased ex living in a cup so yours might just be happy with the tank and attention you have provided him. 

Just my 2 cents. Good luck with the fish


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## UnderseaGal (Mar 4, 2014)

Thanks so much for the replies, Ra's al Ghul, Rockman and jbyoung00008. 
Ra's al Ghul - thanks for the suggestion. I think it might be good for Poochie if I used betta-specific conditioner, regardless of what I end up doing with the buffer.
Rockman, thanks for walking me through it, and for suggesting something based on what I have on hand - I think I'll start with that and see how it goes.
jbyoung00008, thanks for the reassurance. It's good to know bettas can be hardy! I hope Poochie is hardy. I really like him.


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## Mr. Friendly (Aug 29, 2014)

have you tested the pH of the water you're using before it's put into your Betta's tank? if it's higher than 5.5, you may have something in the tank that's causing it to drop. 

something else you can consider is changing your water source. I heard of people that use RO water only with no treatments other than bacteria etc. if your source water has a higher pH, you've solved the potential problem. or perhaps the pH is different at a friends...or at work. test the pH levels and see if it's something you can/should do.

that said, like jby mentioned, leave as is. if your Betta is very bright, swims around, flares when he catches a reflection of himself and otherwise seems to be doing just fine, then you probably don't need to do anything. however, if he's not a vibrant color (granted, some of their mutations won't ever be 'vibrant'...such as light yellows) it may be something you want to do.


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## Steve (Mar 27, 2013)

jbyoung00008 said:


> 2. Just leave the water alone. Your betta doesn't have a Ph meter in his pocket. Im sure he is happy at 5.5 as long as it consistently at that PH. Fish adapt. If it isn't broken, don't fix it.


^ This is VERY true. Stability is far more important than "ideal conditions" that may fluctuate. Your tank is too small to have breeding bettas and all that jazz so it would appear to me that your goal is simply to keep it alive and happy. If your betta doesn't look sad (clamped fins, slow movement, reluctance to eat) I wouldn't change anything.

If you are really keen on using a buffer though, you could always just get 2.6G of water in another container and practice buffering that (without any livestock in it).


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## Rockman (May 19, 2013)

Apologies for the long post... apparently it's that kind of a day.



jbyoung00008 said:


> Betta's can breath air from the surface so the Ph and water conditions don't effect them the way they would a normal fish.


I do disagree with this bit. It seems like part of the betta mythology people invented to make them feel better about sticking them in cups. All fish are intimately linked to the water surrounding them by some seriously complicated biochemistry (which I don't pretend to understand). A betta's ability to breath atmospheric oxygen as a supplement to the dissolved oxygen in the water doesn't change any of the rest of it.

Bettas are hardy, certainly. They aren't magic though. You have the same concerns with water chemistry you'd have with any other hardy softwater fish.



Mr. Friendly said:


> have you tested the pH of the water you're using before it's put into your Betta's tank? if it's higher than 5.5, you may have something in the tank that's causing it to drop.
> 
> something else you can consider is changing your water source. I heard of people that use RO water only with no treatments other than bacteria etc. if your source water has a higher pH, you've solved the potential problem. or perhaps the pH is different at a friends...or at work. test the pH levels and see if it's something you can/should do.


I think you're getting pH a bit mixed up with alkalinity. Our wet coast water has very little dissolved mineral content in it; which means the pH isn't particularly well buffered (it's usually around neutral... but that's something that can be changed with very little acid/base). In a soft water aquarium the pH will normally drop quite a bit due to bioacidification. The pH that OP has is about what you'd expect in a fish tank without any significant source of mineral hardness. The tap pH here doesn't have a lot of influence on the final chemistry of the tank.

Anyway, you could go looking for a different source of water; but pH isn't the thing to look at. Alkalinity (mineral content that resists changes in pH) is what you want. Of course, it's much more convienient to just add more mineral content to the water (it gets you the same results). Using RO is going in the opposite direction; in fact pure RO is dangerous (water that is too soft creates stress on fish).



Steve said:


> ^ This is VERY true. Stability is far more important than "ideal conditions" that may fluctuate. Your tank is too small to have breeding bettas and all that jazz so it would appear to me that your goal is simply to keep it alive and happy. If your betta doesn't look sad (clamped fins, slow movement, reluctance to eat) I wouldn't change anything.


I agree with you about stability. However I would tend towards the opposite conclusion. A pH that low, while possibly in the range for bettas (depends on who you ask... more on that in a sec) can be quite unstable. In most freshwater environments (including aquaria) carbonate buffering is the most important buffer system in regulating pH. Carbonate buffers more or less stop working at low pH (part of the buffer is CO2 gas. As you start to go into acidic pH, more and more of your buffer exists as CO2 gas. Excess CO2 escapes to the atmosphere; so your buffer will slowly erode at any pH that's lower than about 6.5-7. Also, the carbonate buffer system stops working entirely below a pH of ~5.3 due to the magic of buffer chemistry); so the pH can be quite variable. At pH 5.5 you are never very far away from a 'pH crash'.

Another piece of it has to due with the filter bacteria. Filter bacteria are less efficient at lower pH. At a pH of around 5 they stop working altogether (there's no longer enough energy in it for them). This can lead to a build up of ammonia that can can cause problems if you don't notice it.

Now... there are exceptions to what I've just described (I have maintained very low pH tanks with perfect success over several years). However, they fall into the category of 'advanced techniques'. For most people it's much easier to just add some buffer with every WC.

Anyway... as for the acid tolerance of Betta fish. It gets really murkey. The actual water chemistry tolerance for most species is really poorly researched. Even with wild caught fish, you sometiems won't know the water chemistry the fish are typically found in (captive bred fish are harder). Hobbiests usually try not to stress their fish by running experiments on them (and even if they did, their notes are terrible) and science types don't usually spend much time on pet fish species (except zebrafish... I also saw a paper on angelfish and black skirt tetras a while back). We know what conditions we usually keep them in; but usually not what they actually tolerate.

Anyway... the general hobbiest advice is to keep bettas in water with pH 6.0 or higher. That's pretty standard for a lot of species (even the very acid tolerant ones); mainly because of the difficulty in maintaining stable water chemistry below that (as discussed above). However, wild bettas are not classified as being blackwater type fish that hail from really acidic conditions (most of which have special adaptations that let them thrive in really low pH... down to about 3 or 4); so they probably don't normally live in conditions that are much more acidic than the recommendation. Generally speaking most aquatic animals do not survive very long in pH 5 or less (which, if you're a water chemistry geek that might be interested, is why the measure of alkalinity is how much acid it takes to force the water to reach a pH of 4.7). In most countries the general water quality guidelines for aquatic life recommend a pH of above 6.

As to what actually happens to them when kept in very acidic conditions... it's hard to say. I've read a few papers that deal with the biochemistry of acid tolerant fish. Apparently it ties into things like osmoregulation, metal toxicity, etc. It's probable that keeping bettas in really acidic conditions stresses them somewhat. Which does fit with some of the observations I've seen on the net (bettas have been reported to get cloudy eyes in water with low pH... something I have observed in one of my own fish. The condition went away once the pH was increased above 6).


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

Rockman. Your knowledge for water chemistry is outstanding. Way above most people that's for sure. To a beginner Im sure you lost them on the first sentence. You lost me on the third and I somewhat get water chemistry.  

People keeping bettas are not experts in fact most are beginners. Bettas are bought as an entry level fish. Most people buying them could care less about water chemistry and if they did start messing with it, most likely they'd kill the fish. I know this because Ive worked at a few fish stores. I talk endlessly with customers. You'd be amazed on how many people are keeping these fish alive for years by doing very little. A water change once a week which causes Stability!

As for beta's being the same as other fish I still disagree. Ive watched a betta live in a bag for weeks. How is this possible if the are no different than other fish. Id like to see what other fish could do the same! You have also compared them to wild caught Betta's. The bettas we get around here are no where near wild so comparing apples to oranges is irrelevant. The ones around here haven't always had the greatest life. Im sure they have adapted to this. I don't dis agree with 5.5 being a low PH but is it worth messing with for a beginner and in such a small tank? A simple water change should raise the PH. Unless you are on a well. Measuring the PH out of your tap is important to see why the PH is so low. Maybe her tap water is low.. 

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I always enjoy reading yours. Most of us have formed our opinion from reading and trial and error. What works for one doesn't always work for another. Beginners get lost in the sea of information. I believe in stability!! That is always most important IMO within reason of course. Water chemistry in a fish tank is never set in stone. I actually enjoy proving peoples theories wrong. Ex. Black calvus's come from Lake Tanganyika. Everyone says they must be kept at a Ph of 8.0 or higher. The funny thing is mine breed constantly in my tank yet is usually Ph 7.0, Gh 7, Kh 7. Sometimes its a bit higher,yet it doesn't seem to effect them at all. How could this be? Stability. I do weekly water changes of 50%. Im over filtered, overstocked yet this fish are obviously happy as can be. Im also growing live plants which is said to be near impossible with African's too

Don't take my response the wrong way. If people don't question others opinions we'd all still think the world was flat.


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## UnderseaGal (Mar 4, 2014)

Mr. Friendly, Steve, Rockman & jbyoung00008: thank you for sharing your experience, knowledge and for generating a valuable wealth on information on this topic. Through my attempts at buffering the water (at water changes), the pH in the tank is now 5.8-6.0. Despite Rockman's "recipe" (thanks!), I don't have it down to a science yet, but I will continue to try, so long as I can keep it consistent enough throughout the process (thanks for the tip, jbyoung00008). It doesn't help that my water change schedule is not perfectly consistent and ranges from every week to every 2 weeks, but that's for me to fix.

Poochie is looking great so far. His colours are good (he's the most beautiful fish in the world), he likes to rest underneath the plants (adorable), and he is very interested at meal time. Fingers crossed it continues to go well (unlike in my other tank!).

Thanks again everyone - much appreciate your time & contributions.


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## Rockman (May 19, 2013)

jbyoung00008 said:


> People keeping bettas are not experts in fact most are beginners. Bettas are bought as an entry level fish. Most people buying them could care less about water chemistry and if they did start messing with it, most likely they'd kill the fish. I know this because Ive worked at a few fish stores. I talk endlessly with customers. You'd be amazed on how many people are keeping these fish alive for years by doing very little. A water change once a week which causes Stability!


Acutally... simplicity is it's own solution in this regard. The standard newbie tank with plain gravel and artifical decor works pretty well at stabilizing some of the water chemistry. Pretty much all gravel leaches a bit; and the lack of leaf litter, bogwood etc means there's not a lot of tannins floating around. The end result is a moderately stable system. It's when you try to get fancy with the special substrate and natural decor that that stops working for you.



jbyoung00008 said:


> As for beta's being the same as other fish I still disagree. Ive watched a betta live in a bag for weeks. How is this possible if the are no different than other fish. Id like to see what other fish could do the same! You have also compared them to wild caught Betta's. The bettas we get around here are no where near wild so comparing apples to oranges is irrelevant. The ones around here haven't always had the greatest life. Im sure they have adapted to this.


That is a good point. Wild fish do tend to be more particular about their water requirements. It's hard to say what kind of adaptations the domestic versions make. It's not compeltely irrelevant; but yeah... it's not 100% accurate either. There are some other fish out there that are incredibly tough (plecos, etc)... but



jbyoung00008 said:


> I don't dis agree with 5.5 being a low PH but is it worth messing with for a beginner and in such a small tank? A simple water change should raise the PH. Unless you are on a well. Measuring the PH out of your tap is important to see why the PH is so low. Maybe her tap water is low..


It's a weird one. Normally I don't recommend fiddling for the sake of fiddling (ie... so long as the pH's in the 6-8 range, it's probably fine). However, the pH sitting where it is could be quite unstable (there's a good chart here that shows how well the typical carbonate buffer works at different pH's. The slope on the graph becomes very steep somewhere around pH 5.something; it indicates that a very small amount of acid added to the tank could cause the pH to crash... not something you typically want). It's not absolutely guaranteed that that's going to happen (there are situations where it actually might be very stable)... but checking for that needs special tools/attention.

It's also a pretty easy fix. The reason the pH is low is because there's no KH keeping it buffered up. WC's won't make much difference (not a lot of KH in there either... she'll get a slight increase in pH for a few hours before it goes back to normal). The solution is to keep the buffers topped up by adding bicarb (or similar) to the WC water. Doesn't have to be super precise (just so long as there's some KH... 3-5 is probably ideal though); just try to be reasonably consistent with how much you add.



UnderseaGal said:


> Through my attempts at buffering the water (at water changes), the pH in the tank is now 5.8-6.0. Despite Rockman's "recipe" (thanks!), I don't have it down to a science yet, but I will continue to try, so long as I can keep it consistent enough throughout the process (thanks for the tip, jbyoung00008). It doesn't help that my water change schedule is not perfectly consistent and ranges from every week to every 2 weeks, but that's for me to fix.


That's progress. What kind of test kits do you have on your end? What kind of substrate/decor is in this tank?


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## UnderseaGal (Mar 4, 2014)

Rockman - in the end I caved and go the Nutrafin mini master kit. So I can test ammonia, nitrites and nitrates (all good on this front), pH, and GH and KH.
The substrate is ADA malaya. I have one pinkish rock (same kind as what's in my Fluval Edge, if you remember), and three plants: a bacopa, a java fern, and an anubia. I'll try to take a pic later today when the lights are on.

Poochie shares his tank with two ember tetras borrowed from my 12 gal to see if he's friendly. He seems to be - everyone is doing A-ok (though I did have one shrimp in there that died only after a few days, so I know he's not *that* friendly). The goal is to eventually introduce a small algae eater (dwarf cory or otto, haven't looked into it yet). The reason for that is that my plants seem to struggle a bit and some algae coats their leaves.

At every water change I add prime, Kent pH buffer and some Equilibrium to the new water. I used to use Flourish Excel but I changed my mind and don't use it anymore.


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## Rockman (May 19, 2013)

Ok... so the ADA might have some pH buffering ability (some of those types of substates are intended to use with crystal red (or similar) shrimp... they've got ion exhange properties that regulate pH without needing mineral hardness in the water); but the website doesn't mention it... so maybe not. It is designed to reduce pH though.

You've got a decent range of test kits... that's nice. The KH kit will be able to tell you how much buffering capability you've got (I think the usual recommendation is 3-5 dKH (50-90 ppm as CaCO3) for planted tanks; which will probably drive your pH closer to 7 once you've got it stable). The pH kit is more of a general indication only sort of deal (0.5 degree increments is pretty imprecise); but it does have a nice wide range (so you can at least be sure it hasn't crashed if you're not reading 5.0). I switched to a digital pH meter a few years ago (the cheap ones on ebay cost less than the liquid kits, and often are more accurate); which I'd recommend thinking about when you run out of indicator (it's nice for softwater tanks where you might want better information on what your pH is doing. In harder water tanks pH is less important).


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## UnderseaGal (Mar 4, 2014)

Rockman, thanks for the tip - I'll look into digital pH meters.
Just did a water change today and was a bit more generous with the diluted pH buffer - I'll test the pH again tonight.


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## UnderseaGal (Mar 4, 2014)

pH is up to 6.0 now. Phew. Thanks again everyone.


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