PH Testing for Fish Tanks

"CHRISTIE OWNES: Hi. My name is Christie and I'm with Expert Village and I'm teaching you proper care of fish today and a little bit about the different types of fish. Now we're going to talk about the pH level which is also something you do need to keep a weekly check on inside your tank. If the pH level drops too low, it itself can also kill the fish. So, I'm going to demonstrate to you on how to do a proper pH test. There again as we did with the ammonia and nitrite test, we're going to use a glass vial with a white line on it. We're going to get some water out of the tank then put it on the vial up to the white line. And if you get a little more water above the lines such as I did here, just take the bottle, hold it on the end and just flick it a little bit, just like I did, to get that excess water out. This puts it at the proper line point. If you sit and try to pour the water out, you'll end up pouring too much, you end up keep--redipping and pour and redipping it--and dipping it. If you just tip it a little bit, it puts out just enough water. Set the vial down on the tank, get your pH bottle, which shows a little teardrop and it says add three drops. We'll add three drops of this into our vial of water and show you how that's done. We'll put the cap back on the bottle, set it down, grab our vial and put the top on it. We're going to give this a nice shake to mix the color up. Here, it shows a nice pretty blue color. This is the color of my pH that I want to do. If this goes any lower or any shader light than a blue, it can go all the way down to yellow, this is bad pH on the fish and can kill the fish in a very low pH. So, you want to monitor and keep a track on your pH as well as the ammonia and the nitrites, do the same. On pH, check it about once a week. That way you truly kinda know what your tank is doing."