General Care Discussion :: Ph?

[alkaiser]

Just wanted to know the ideal Ph levels for a turtle tank. I just tested mine with this kind of cheap freshwater pH kit and it says it could be between 7.2-7.6?

edit: The kit is by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals and it is a testube and solution kind of deal. With a small card telling you ph levels by color. It was about $5. I never really thought of doing it until now but I should probably start doing a bit.

(If this seems unreasonable, could I use 'pH up/down' [the product] or is that harmful for turts?)

[Andrew7769]

i wouldent use ph down or up they are pretty strong stuff just look at the warning labels lol i dont PH is all that critical with turts unless it very acidic which is rare because tap water has 2 be safe so as long as the water does not have high amounts of chlorine or other chemicals the water should b fine i kno alot about ph because of my fish and i have the test kit you are talking about and personally i dont trust those ph up and down things just more chemicals 7.1 is pretty average and it is a fine level for your turt like i said its not all that critical

[marisa]

I second not using those chemicals if at all possible. RES are tolerant of a wider range of ph than some other species, and if it's around 7 it's fine. I have AP's ph kit as well, but I don't use it that much. It's more important to pay attention to the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels. AP makes testing kits for this purpose, as do some other companies.

[cam722]

I use the same kit but found out that it was rather a waste of time with the turtles as they never seemed to have a problem. I do believe I've read some where on the forum that turtles like a bit of acidic water, not overly so though. But neutral is best of course..

[steve]

For me, its almost summer so I will be doing very frequent water changes. Last summer, it was 50% water changes a day just to keep the water temps at 80F. I did buy a test kit as well - which also tested for other things but i mainly used it over the winter to try and figure out when to do a water change.