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@TheAmericanX

4 ай бұрын

Gi therel Octopus Going buy me Plants from your website soon as i get set up Going make a dirt tank just a sall one Happy vant wait Excited

It took watching a bunch of YT videos to learn that the majority of fish "farm raised" are raised in "terrible, hard water" like I have available in my community. Also, I had no idea that the vast majority of all fish in the hobby are farm raised rather than wild caught.

@TheAmericanX

4 ай бұрын

Hi there l Octopus

I got a rescue tank a couple of months back from a guy who kept them in tap water. We have hard water here with a pH around 8-8.5. Rather than try chasing it down to 5.5, I decided to just worry about the chlorine/chloramine and nitrogens. That's thanks to you. And the fish are thriving so far.

Ah yes, an intro about fishkeeping and darts. The two hobbies always found together.

@TheAmericanX

4 ай бұрын

Hi there Octopus

Thank you for making videos like this! I work at a pet store chain and I always recommend your channel to people looking to learn more about fish! Definitely not all the stores in our chain have experienced employees, but I strive to make sure our store does

Glad I found your podcast info. Right up my alley! Thanks!

Great information John . I never chase ph and I raise guppies. I just keep it stable. Thanks for your honesty.

@angiebear8727

4 ай бұрын

Same. Used to try when I was new but is way easier to keep it stable and get plants and fish that like my well water.

I did everything you said not to do when I took on a neglected betta from a co-worker. She had been in a nano tank with no filter, no heater, and plastic decorations, with fairly advanced tail rot. I was able to keep her fairly healthy with 3 mystery snails for several months in a 20 gal planted tank with HOB filter, heater, driftwood, cholla wood, etc. Then I noticed the snails' shells were showing signs of pitting and I figured our 6.2 pH water might be the cause. I started trying to raise the pH and within two months, everyone had died. Now I have a very pretty planted tank with a few smaller snails, stable water parameters and no idea what else to put in it that will thrive on our low pH water. Trying to keep it above 6.4 has proven impossible. I think if I'd left the pH alone, the betta would have survived. Still not sure what to do about future snail shell integrity, but I'd love to know what fish would work best in this tank. We're over an hour from any aquarium stores, so that has also made it challenging and KZread has been very helpful. I wish I'd seen this video last year.

Great video John! I've always believed a stable ph is better than chasing it. In fact I couldn't tell you the last time I tested my ph honestly

Great advice!

Completely agree with this video. In fact, both myself and my aunt have aquariums with thriving fish and plants from hard softened tapwater. Yes, softened. My mollies,platies, and low light plants are thriving.

Strong agree. My experience has been that for the vast majority of fish - and I am aware there are exceptions - if your pH is between 6 and 8 - very close to neutral - almost all fish that want a pH within that range will be fine as well. Yes, yes, there are specific highly sensitive fish, but stuff sold in your average fish store? They'll be fine. Consistency is key, and maintaining your tap pH is going to be way more consistent than chasing anything. So as long as your tap pH isn't 8, don't worry about it.

Great advice as always. I'm lucky that I like lots of different fish. It's just so much easier to work with the water you've got and get friends to suit, I just prefer doing lots of smaller water changes, so it's just simpler to use it straight out of the tap with obviously some conditioner. But then I don't run numerous large tanks as I just don't have the room, and to be honest, the dedication.

I have a aquarium from my 12 live year, and i never ever had hunted for the peremeters. My fish where always havings there best lives and i always have done the cleanings on time or water changes. So i dont understand why people always japing about peremeters. Ofcause i have by setting a new aquarium for what reason, if the old one was broken or for new animals like for 5 years back for my axolotls. 2 till 3 weeks with plants and then starting with first the cleaning crew before the animals i wanted and have learned about would come in the aquarium. I love your lessons even if i already new some of it, but i have also learned some things i never heard of. Ceep goning you guys are great and the most reliable people i now.😊❤

My LFS here in the UK use the same water for all fish as far as I know.

The number of new people I come across online chasing pH is really amazing. I have no idea where they get that information. The best advice for newcomers is stability and consistency.

@andytchir8601

4 ай бұрын

I've been introducing my mom to the hobby since dad passed and she was mentioning specific pH and temperatures for fish and plants from videos she watched on youtube. I told her (after buying useless products and learning from my mistakes) that basically all she needs to do is put dechlorinator in tap water and run a heater in the low to mid 70s and just keep things steady.

@GenXHeart

4 ай бұрын

Well, like "Joe" I'm one of the "new people" and I can only speak for myself. Overall the message of taking the chemistry seriously was the most intimidating part entering the hobby. The message is clear. "DO THE TESTS AND GET THEM ALL PERFECT OR... YOU"RE AN ASSHOLE AND ALL YOUR FISH AND CRITTERS WILL DIE... and don't use the strips, cough it up for the master kit" Heck, I joined a forum and practically every single post has people reporting every number. Why would newcomers NOT think it's not an issue?

@evilone543

4 ай бұрын

@@GenXHeart Yes, do the testing and know your water basic water chemistry. It is important. Ammonia and Nitrite are important to get perfect. It’s important to know what your PH, GH and KH are, but there are no perfect numbers for those. Like John says in the video - I keep fish that work with my numbers. For beginners chasing these numbers will almost always be worse than learning to keep things stable and consistent. Once we gain confidence and experience then we can branch out to more advanced aquarium keeping.

@GenXHeart

4 ай бұрын

@@evilone543 You missed my point.

@TheAmericanX

4 ай бұрын

Hi every one on Planet earth my name is Jackie jack jone bradly l Octopus

The nearest wholesale fish dealer has water with a similar PH that comes out of my tap. The city water that comes out of my tap is the same water that supplies every shop that I buy from.

Those are beautiful mollies that you have in that one tank.

between you and primetime, should go as each other next halloween, this last couple months has been an eye opener. I've always wanted a fish tank but didn't really know much about it. this last couple months has reminded me on why i failed chemistry and didn't do very well in biology. i'm doing my best to learn though with a more mature mindset and slowing chipping away at the wife to let me dip my toes into the hobby.

Great video, John, as usual! I've been keeping a 29 gal. tank for the last 2 years and have found your thoughts to be right on. Many years ago before we really knew much about water parameters, I kept a variety of fish and most did fine, in spite of not cleaning the tank more than once or twice per month. Now, I'm a lot more diligent. Thanks!

Thank you....well said.

I 100% agree, Everyone in my area keeps fish from tetras and angles to rift lake cichlids. My ph is 8.0 and my water is really hard, everyone locally that i've talked to uses straight tap water and has no problems with any fish that prefer lower ph. even tons of people have been breeding these fish in our water, for example the owner of my LFS is breeding discus in the tap water! I didn't even think that was possible! So when it comes to testing I only test my ph and hardness to make sure its not fluctuating.

Newbie here, thank you for this.

Keeping my water consistent is why I have breeding Platy;s and Barbs. I have very hard water with a high PH of 7.8 in my area, and it had done no harm at all to any of my fish. I keep Platy;s, Barb's, Mountain Minnows, Tetra's, Danio's and Pearl scale's. None of which have ever suffered because of my water parameter's. Like you say, most of all your store bought fish have already been through some tough water adaptations before they get to you. The most stable waters they have ever had is probably once they get to your LFS to be honest as they may have been there for a few weeks or months before you buy them. Keep the knowledge going my Balding KZread Adviser! And may Joe get his wished for fish!

Good advice John. I have kept fish for 30 years. I chased that 7 ph for years. Waste of money and time. I live in Florida and have hard water. Most fish will adjust.

Awesome! Love the Reno-bomb!!

Carl, glow light tetras and sound advice. What more could you ask for from fishTube?!

Makes perfect sense John. I've always had the best luck by getting my fish from smaller independent stores and finding out what their water parameters are first. As long as I'm close-ish to what the fish are living in when I buy them, I don't seem to have too many issues.

Kitty was called fat boy 😂❤🎉

My wife and I have been fishkeeping since we were young, I took a few years off when I was in college and the first couple years of my career, but about 10 months ago we decided to get back into it. Now we have a 55 smaller fish community tank with a lot of fish and a 36 with a few cichlids and catfish, at first we were chasing the PH up and down and loosing fish, we finally said enough and left the PH alone, within 2-3 weeks it went right where the fish in each tank prefer it. Idk how but I think the fish affected the ph in a positive manner.

I'm glad that you mention keeping your ph consistent. I buy my fish from breeder and my local store. Since I'm a bit of a nerd i know that they go in 7.2 ph from birth since they use tap water from the same source as i do. But my question is this. Is it like in there dna to thrive better in a ph of closer to 8? Talking about Malawichiclids. Just a thought?

Excellent advice as usual...also, I'll be watching the new podcasts with Jason.

I would even say find out what type of water you have before buying a tank then decide what fish you can get by researching the needs of the fish. I bought Glofish tetras not realizing what size tank they need and found myself upsizing the tank size until they stopped bumping each other. Never found a video that said what the minimum size should be. Fortunately I have used the other tanks bought in error for growing out plants and quarantine.

@NinniAquariums

4 ай бұрын

Not a video, but if you go to a homepage called seriouslyfish, they have information about almost all aquarium-fish and also writes about the size of aquarium needed. Sometimes their advice is a bit to small aquariums, but for most of the time it's perfectly fine.

If you're purchasing fish from a local store, wouldn't your water be generally the same anyway? Depending on if they're using RO water or not, of course.

I live in Florida and am surrounded by tropical fish farms. The water is like 6, I worked at a farm that raised African Cichlids in that water. Florida water was great for them. I would be more concerned with the water at the pet store, so you don't get a big change for the fish.

There is nothing better than worlds colliding!! Welcome JOE to our obsession!

Wouldn’t it be safe to say that if you are buying locally then they will have similar if not exactly the same water as in your tap?? Especially if it’s city or rural water and within a few miles then it will be the same. They are living there so agreed they will be fine. Thanks for the video!!! Always fun to watch 😀 12:46

All of the Congo Tetras in this video make me happy. They're probably my favorite fish to keep.

Chasing several ideal water parameters actually created problems in my aquarium. The owner of my LFS tested my water by just tasting it (!!), he said it tasted salty. He guessed correctly that I was adding all kind of stuff to my aquarium which all promised to be beneficial -- however, in reality it caused the reverse. Nowadays, my aquarium (a Juwel Rio 125 LED retrofitted with Juwel Helialux Spectrum LED lighting with controller, Eheim Professionel 4+ 350 external filter along with the default internal filter which I kept as failsafe should the external filter fail) runs on what I called "controlled neglect" and the fish and plants are doing well. I don't even remember when I last did a water change. :) Yes, every now and then I do a quick check to see if the most important water parameters aren't going out of whack but as of yet, everything's still going strong.

It is true most fish are raised in water not native to their natural species conditions and there's generally a wide safe space of pH. But some fish just won't thrive long term in the wrong pH. For example New World cichlids won't be healthy nor live as long as they could in high alkaline or hard water. They're my favorites but I just can't keep them in my local hard 7.8-8.0 water.

John. U mentioned maybe not guppies? I have in one tank embers, rummy nose, neons, platys, panda cats that are breeding, but CANT keep guppies alive for long and can’t figure out why. Tap ph is 7 but the tank is always 6.5. Other parameters perfect.

Very informative, thank you. On a different note can I get your opinion, can you treat a tank for Planaria if you have week old Molly fry? I can’t seem to find anything on line

Isn't it better overall to keep pH steady? I have never chased ph .. I currently have a ton gallon empty but thinking of revamping it for nano species .. my 20 gallon has platy fish , one nerite snail and one mystery snail .. I also have live plants. They're doing well enough and I'm glad for it .

Your PH should be whatever it is naturally. Whatever your PH settles at your fish will be fine with. As long as it isn't an extreme one way or the other. My PH naturally sits at 7-8. That's my fluctuation. And I keep dozens of different types of fish. The rest of my levels hang out at between the 2 lowest levels on the card and all of my fish in my 8 tanks are great. Most of them are trying to breed and they all grow old. Use live plants and you won't have to worry about anything once your tank settles and matures. I haven't done a water change in over a year. It all works out in the end. Your fish are FAR more resilient than we give them credit for. God bless

The point is simple - fish are adaptable. The average fish seen in shops have been bred in captivity for long enough to no longer need their wild conditions. Also , as John points out , transhippers , wholesalers , and shops aren't going around with test kits and testing. They are not dosing their water with today's potions. Water changes on continuous water change systems comes straight from the local water supply. Not treated at all. Have been to wholesalers and tanks are simply cleaned after use , refilled with untreated water , sponge filter(s) added , and will be ready within 1-2 days for fish.

Most freshwater creatures from fish to amphibians to snails and crustaceans do well in a pH of 6.5 - 7.5. Yes, there are outliers (like African Rift Lake fish, which usually need harder, more basic water), but even many South American blackwater fishes that hail from acidic rivers don’t necessarily require low pH. As a general rule, as long as you’re around neutral, you can keep most species in your aquarium.

Yep I don't chase PH at all. Now if I was breeding particular fish for best success in that you might want to. Other than that my PH is what it is. And I keep many varieties from South Americans to nano fish to rainbows and barbs all in the same water from my tap.

Hi John can you give some advice on changing a tropical to a marine tank ( its a work in progress) empty tank about 35 gallons with a back filter please ?

2:16 what kind of archer fish are these?

Like most big cities in the United States I live in one with very hard water. All the fish stores in my area say captive bred fish raised in hard water will do fine in an aquarium with hard water regardless of the pH of a fish’s natural habitat.

The only things I put into my fish tank as far as chemicals are Stress Coat and I'll use Copper Power Green if I get any sickness (like ich).

ph is something I've thought about like... twice. I keep guppies and tetras and otos and gouramis and all of them are thriving. As long as your ph isn't 8.5 or 6.0 you don't really need to worry about it. Of course, there are fish that I would worry about like wild caught bettas, but other than that it's nothing I ever think about

@robertjohnston25

4 ай бұрын

Mine recently went up from 8.2 to 8.4 🫠 lol .1 safe still!

Sorry John, not all of us can be awesome at fishkeeping and darts... 🎯 😜 Great video! 👍✌️

I’m going to admit, my PH is 8.2 & I have Angelfish. They’ve been in my tank for over a year, they are thriving & have adapted. I don’t chase PH. Captive breed fish usually can adapt. I may get hate for it, but a stable PH is better than an unstable PH you’re constantly adding chemicals too.

I am really confused if i am torchering and keeping my fishes in captivity even if the tank is well maintained and fishes are under the limit for tank

Th top fish at 5:59 with various colours pattern to it, whats it called. It really taught my eyes.

i got a local fish store that i buy from time to time but ive ben getting neon tetras here lately they ben dying so i decided to wait then got more month later and tested the water they was in and it was super alkaline like 9 and my water is at 7.4 but the internet says they need to be kept acidic like 6.4 or so im confused i know fish can adapt but

I have been keeping fish in tanks for a long time and never cared about the PH. I just got the biggest tank I could find and added water. Recently I am growing other things in the water and started testing the PH. After fighting trying to get the PH down in some tanks that I have been using several years I set up 4 one gallon jugs so I could track the PH on a smaller scale. I never realized how much higher the PH went by just adding air. I was able to get the water stable and now the PH wants to go to low so I just add more water.

Typically your fish store has similar parameters. Fish are very adaptable unless your home water significantly different from most water sources. Unless your breeding ph not a concern. In the wild temperature and ph /parameters vary wildly depending rainy season or not. Swimming in lake or ocean warm and cold areas. Some parts of river or lake brackish at different times of the year. Most freshwater fish are farm raised vs saltwater where most first are wild caught with more trauma with different waters

Right! Less brimborium, more doing

Sounds to me like some companies and stores have found a way to extract money from newbs who don't know better.

Fish and darts cool

Help joe! 👍👍 with fish As for darts nice joe

I want to see more of fat boi ❤❤❤

At my work, in a pet store, we have a sign with information about all the fish in the different aquariums. Name of the fish, size of the adult fish, what temperature it needs, how big of an aquarium it needs and so on. But we're not mention the pH. Simply because all fish in our store goes in whatever the tap water is. They all thrive, and those who stays long enough also gets babies. And our customers most likely have about the same water since they live close to us. AND STILL when I'm now doing my research of fish for my next aquarium, I see articles online, thinking "No, can't have that one, my pH is not right" or whatever. And never that I would even mention that to the costumers, for them I only talk about temperature, keeping things steady and have the right size and number of fish for the aquarium and so on. I think I have to stop doing things too complicated for my own aquariums...

These? Nope. Those? NUh uh. Well what the 🤣😂🤣😝🤪Hilarious!!!

I’ve always figured “well my LFS’s pH is most likely the same as mine and their fish are raised in it, it won’t matter.” I’ve lived by this for years and never had an issue. Idk

I never bothered about the pH. About 7 straight from the tap. Everybody (fish) is happy. I'm happy.

Did you keep the substrate in your oscar/bichir tank or you went back to a bare tank? I'm having the poop issue with the sand😂

You mean this whole time there NOT wild caught ?!!😮

Yeah cat

Hay what's you thoughts on phosphate pads should I be using them or is it a scam ?? I don't think you have covered this before.

Help how should I treat my fish columnaris??

Chasing PH goes under the "doing too much" rule. If you want a high PH, use a substrate which will support that. Ive seen fish adapt and thrive in a PH which isnt "perfect" for them. Trying to tweak the PH will almost always end in disaster, the constant up and down will take its toll on your fish.

What kind of fish are these @ 11:34 Really like their color & size

I have never chased a ph... lol

Lol. Its really amazing how much YT and social sites in general have blown up fish keeping. The amount of these rudimentary videos i see ona daily basis is crazy

you forgot to mention that if you put wood, rocks, substrate, gravel and a bunch of plants after awhile the ph changes....lol,

101 nice at least it wasn't 170 checkout.

I thought the PH was more important for breeding.

Can anyone tell me the fish at 6:47, and long shot I know, but that gravel at 8:46. I’m OBSESSED with both 😭😭

@robertjohnston25

4 ай бұрын

Congo Tetra, can’t help with the gravel

@axelleaa

4 ай бұрын

@@robertjohnston25 thank you!

My ph is 8-8.2, I’m not chasing it. I thought about it and decided not to. Most fish do just fine, I avoid fish that need super soft and low ph.

I’ve never worried about my ph

chasing perameters will do your head in .....

like 128

I found this Chanel like 2 months ago but do they run saltwater tanks? Every video I seen seems to be freshwater

@mryes413

4 ай бұрын

They have 1 or 2 saltwater videos.

Shows how hardy fish are.

I never payed attention to Ph or anything else I don’t have issues

Two words: Carbonate Hardness(KH)

The only reason people who would chase the ph are people that keep reef tanks.

What kind of plants could I use in my Oscar tank that she won't destroy

@WhiteSandsMbuna

4 ай бұрын

I have coontail and duckweed in with mine. Both are nitrate sponges

Im 21 years older than you and I (obviously) know what KZread is. We're not all living in the Dark Ages.

I only listen because you and Jason have the same hairline as me.

Who checks PH lol