PH Levels

I have two Gal & a 55 up and running, for a long time. The two 29's have aquarium gravel, and the 55 has more of just a pea gravel. basically just small rocks. All the tanks have guppies. and I know they are way over stocked. my question is how come I cant maintain a decent Ph level? t best if I change five gallon twice a week I can get to 6.2 -6.4 . in the 29's The 55 is up over 7.0. All the fish seem healthy, I lose one once and a while. any thought's

What are people in This fine city of Bloomington able to maintain for a Ph level ?

I cant answer for Bloomington as I live in Normal, but its not that hard to maintain a high 6 - low 7 PH. I change about 10-15 gallons in my 55 at least once a week, and a few times a week in the fishroom.

Hi Steve.  I researched Bloomington and Normal pH levels a while back.  Please see this thread for the info I found:  Bloomington -vs- Normal Water Supply pH Parameters

My water (Bloomington) usually comes out of the tap at around 8.  For some reason (settling?) it seems to go down some after it's in the tank a bit.  Previously, I was actively trying to manage and adjust pH; but it constantly stressed me (and the fish) out, and made water changes a daunting task trying to get and keep a neutral pH.  Never could really keep it there.  I also would go into panic mode and then have incidents of multiple deaths, I think due to my screwing around causing ups and downs of it.  

Things wore on, and I became less and less excited to check the pH.  In fact, I dreaded it.  Then I became lazy about it - and things seemed to become more stable.  I finally decided to just let it go and be whatever it wanted to be... without adding any chemicals or doing anything to try to adjust it.  I purposely haven't checked the pH of my fresh tap water, or any of the water in any of my tanks, at all in about the past year.  I actually have no idea what the pH is in any of my tanks now.  And it's been working for me.  I haven't had any mass death events since I started doing this, no matter what the species (or their different "requirements").  It seems counter-intuitive to good fish keeping to not know what your pH is.  I'm curious what it is, but I'm afraid actually seeing/knowing might spur me to panic if it's on either the low or high end, and try adjusting it again.  For me at least, it seems the less I know (about that) the better - for me, and my fish.

Now that's how I got by for years ! Then Some very nice person gave me some Snails . Now the wife is really concerned about ph. lol Thanks again .

     lol      Please advise her she probably shouldn't worry.  Seems the little boogers aren't really fussy about the pH.  

The only time I worry is if I see them ALL at the top edge of the water, lined up.  Some up there is normal.  But if they're ALL up there at the same time there's an issue with the water and they're considering jumping ship.    (Panic, water change!)  I've run into this in my little 5 gallon where I grow out the babies.  But I'm pretty sure it's more an issue with the water quality in terms of ammonia spike or nitrates when there are lots of growing snails requiring and eating lots of food in a relatively small volume of water.  When this happens I know the snail population and size has reached maximum density for that tank and I graduate all the bigger ones over to the 20 gallon "teenager" tank.  And the resident larger teenagers in the 29 get shifted to one of the bigger "adult" tanks.  I do big and frequent water changes of my 5 gallon... a lot, lol.