pH+page

**All you want to know about pH**

Why use the pH meter? Depending on what the acidity is of each body of water, we can discover what levels of acidity are ideal or not ideal for the fish at Flat Rock Brook. If we could see the molecules of water, the products would be H+ and OH-. Look at the diagram below. A pH scale goes from 0 to 14. 0 is the most acidic, 7 is neutral, and lastly 14 is most basic. Lower pH levels have more hydrogen ions (H+). Since 7 is neutral, this means that the water has an equal amount of hydrogen ions and hydroxide ions (OH-). This chart should help one to visualize which levels are more acidic/basic.

 Now, fish happen to be sensitive to the pH of where they are living. This chart below shows how certain fish cannot tolerate pH levels. 6.5 Walleye spawning inhibited
 * Water pH Effects (Olszyk, 1980)**

5.8 Lake trout spawning inhibited

5.5 Smallmouth bass disappear

5.2 Walleye, burbot, lake trout disappear

5.0 Spawning inhibited in many fish

4.7 Northern pike, white sucker, brown bullhead, pumpkinseed, sunfish and rock bass disappear

4.5 Perch spawning inhibited

3.5 Perch disappear

3.0 Toxic to all fish

Luckily, in our data we did not find any water with a pH of 3. Even in the area of water that had no fish, the pH was 7.92 so the shallowness of the water (Location 2, look at observations link) or the speed probably explained why there was no fish, and not the pH. In the other locations we researched at, the pHs were between 8 to 6.3. Location 4 had a pH of 6.3, and looking from the table above, Walleye spawning would not be able to live there because of the pH level. However, since the pH of Location 4, or Quarry Pond, was greater than 4.7, we were lucky enought to spot a sunfish.

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