I recently posted in the disease section as I wasn't sure whether or not my problem was disease or water quality related. Either way, my pH is too low and I'm not sure the best way to go about fixing it.

Two days ago, the alkalinity in my tank was 0, so I added a jungle labs CorrectpH tab which I think is just baking soda and it's up to 80 today, two days later. At first the pH was 6.4, and I think it read 6.8 today although it was hard to see. Also, my strips say that if the alkalinity is below 120, pH may not be measured accurately.

I think the reason why I had no alkalinity was because I was using spring water for my water changes as I thought purity was a good thing...I understand now that it isn't necessarily. I checked the pH of my tap water and it's 8.4 and the alkalinity was off the chart. I wasn't suprised to get this reading in Fargo as I already knew that we have very high pH water here.

So, my question is, how can I safely change to using the tap water so the change in pH isn't a shock? And second, how can I use the tap water safely anyway? Will I have to treat it to lower the pH every time I make a water change because the pH is so high?

I have a similar problem with my water. My regular tap is very high and my filtered tap is too low. I use a combination of the two to get a PH of about 7.4-7.8.

The PH I believe can only be changed by .5 per day. So if today your PH is 8, tomorrow it is only safe to lower it to 7.5. Make sense?

And as far as the high PH, if I were you Id just use a combination...maybe half and half, to make your water conditions about neutral for your fish instead of adding chemicals or other PH decreasers to your water.

As long as you're not showing ammonia, pH of 8.4 is fine. I'd just use the tap water myself. A series of small partial water changes using the tap water should be fine for the transition.

If you're cycling, it would be better to mix the two to get pH in the low to mid 7s. That'll make ammonia less toxic while your biofilter bacteria get up to speed.