# ph level



## tiran (Apr 27, 2007)

when you go threw a minie cycle does it alter your ph level because mine went from 7.6 to 7.4 and if so do i just need to do bigger water changes so my ph matches the ph coming out of tap, because i did a big water change yesterday like 60% and its still at 7.4 should i do another one


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## rickstsi (Apr 6, 2007)

tiran said:


> when you go threw a minie cycle does it alter your ph level because mine went from 7.6 to 7.4 and if so do i just need to do bigger water changes so my ph matches the ph coming out of tap, because i did a big water change yesterday like 60% and its still at 7.4 should i do another one


I think that a 7.4 ph is not bad, just make sure it doesn't go up and down to the extrem. My ph when I first started my tank was at 7.5 but after 6 months it now stays around 6.5. I asked around on the forum and i was told as long as it doesn't change too fast i should be fine. I was also told that P's like the lower PH.


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## Guest (Apr 9, 2008)

When an aquarium matures, the pH will always fall a bit due to the presence of Nitrate.

(This is due to Nitrate being the conjugate base of Nitric Acid and the Bronsted-Lowry definition of acids and bases, but that's not important here)

To prevent the fish from having to endure rapidly fluctuating water conditions, we only perform partial water changes on a regular basis. A near-complete water change may be too much change for the fish to handle. This way, the tap water doesn't need to match the aquarium water's parameters exactly.


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