PH too high for fish?

[ikea y]

Hi all, I have had my 20 gallon tank for a week and half now, and I just added two zebra danios over the weekend. They seem to be happy but my ph is usually around 7.2 to 7.4. I am considering getting some black neon tetras and maybe some gourami later when the tank is established, and I just wonder if those fish will be ok with 7.4 PH. I have read that they need slightly acidic water, but people here seem to think that PH is less of a problem than every book makes it to be. Can someone help?

Also I wonder if CO2 is the only reason why the PH is high. I have used some ph neutralizer but the PH went back up a day later. I have two fake plant and a real plant in the tank and gravel, and I have washed everything before I put it in.

Thanks in advance.

 

[colesea]

Water hardness can also make water have a high pH, as well as make chemical pH adjusters virtually useless. So long as your LFS has the same pH (and if they're using the same tap water you are without chemicaly adjusting it, they will) as the pH in your fish tank, and the fish will already be acclimated to a pH of 7.4.  To have a fish tank at perfect 7.0 all the time isn't necessary for some fish if you do not intend to breed them. Breeding fish requires water chemistries to be at the level considered most optimum for that species of fish.
~~Colesea

 

[dattack]

Hey your pH is fine.  My pH is somewhere around 8 if I didn't add CO2.  Most of the LFS has there pH around 7.6 or so.  They actually just use their tap water.  Most of the freshwater fish are bred and tank raised to do well on higher pH.  
Only fish I might consider lowering the pH is for are discus and neon tetras.

 

[ikea y]

Cool, thanks so much for all your replies. I was so worried about my ph. I guess I will just monitor it and leave it alone as long as it is somewhere around 7.2. I haven't asked if LFS uses tap water with no chemicals in it, but I will tomorrow when I go there to get some more zebra danios. I think all the fish I want to get will be happy with something around 6.8 to 7.5. Neon tetras are pretty but I like the black neon tetras better. Has anyone had experience with them?

 

[colesea]

Trust me, it is way too expensive for most LFS's to use anything but tap water. The lucky ones have filters in the back rooms that remove chlorine and heavy metals (when the manager remembers to get me replacement filsters!), the unlucky ones use it right from the faucet. The only chemical I use at my place is Aqua Plus, and the occasional medication. If I had to pH adjust eight two hundred gallon sytems with high hardnesses to begin with, the shop would go broke paying me the overtime and buying me all the wonderful chemicals I'd need (although I'm still trying to convince my manager to let me peat filter one systems<G> He say's tea colored won't sell fish *pout*)! My pHs usually run 7.8 in the freshwater systems, and 8.2 in the marine.

Black neon tetras are cool fish, but nothing remarkable. They look really good in large groups, but beyond that, they kinda bore me IMO.
~~Colesea