Ph Issue

[KittyKat]

I've just redosed ammonia - there's definitely a big rise in pH after I redose.

The substrate looks fine. What are the ingredients which are written on the ammonia?

 

[CezzaXV]

I'm using the Kleen Off ammonia. I can't see an instruction list on the bottle, but it seems to be what many people use on this forum.

 

[Essjay]

I'm using the Kleen Off ammonia. I can't see an instruction list on the bottle, but it seems to be what many people use on this forum.

I emailed the company to ask. They said "Our Kleenoff Ammonia is 9.5% Ammonia & the rest is water"

 

[KittyKat]

I'm using the Kleen Off ammonia. I can't see an instruction list on the bottle, but it seems to be what many people use on this forum.

So, I spent some time reading about ammonia and given that you live is a softwater area, it actually makes sense that your pH rises after every dose Basically, the ammonia reacts with the acid in your water to form salts which raise the pH. This wouldn't be seen in any tanks which do not have *extremely* acidic water without any KH, which is why I didn't know about it.
I don't think that the filter can actually process ammonium *** salts, so it could be that your filter is not as cycled as the readings indicate it to be.
If it really is a problem (and I'm not 100% sure if it is), then in theory, buffering the water with a lot of baking soda would solve the problem because it would use up the acid to produce salts, after which time, the ammonia should not have any affect on the pH.

 

[raptorrex]

Hi Everyone,

I have had my tank up and running now with fish for 2 weeks (after a lonnnnng 6 weeks cycle) everything seems to be going fine, fish are happy, I took a water sample yesterday and my PH reading was 8.4

It started off as 7.6, what can the rise be due too? and can it be harmful to my fish?

would a big water change help?


Cheers

depending where you are, that sounds about right. water companies use CO2 to lower the PH of water (in high PH areas), through their pipes. when not under pressure, the CO2 is released, and PH goes up (roughly) 1 PH.

I'm not suggesting KIT is wrong, in her analysis. just pointing out water company actions in high PH areas.

 

[CezzaXV]

Good to know my tank isn't a freak of nature then lol.

I'm guessing once I've finished cycling and add fish it won't be a problem, as the fish will be releasing ammonia in tiny frequent doses rather than daily massive ones as I am now. My pH at the moment does seem to rise and fall with the ammonia, but if the ammonia is rising and falling very little once I have fish, then the pH should rise and fall vey little also.

 

[KittyKat]

I'm guessing once I've finished cycling and add fish it won't be a problem, as the fish will be releasing ammonia in tiny frequent doses rather than daily massive ones as I am now. My pH at the moment does seem to rise and fall with the ammonia, but if the ammonia is rising and falling very little once I have fish, then the pH should rise and fall vey little also.

Fish release ammonia from their gills, which is happening all the time, so the pH should remain stable. If you want it to actually stay the same, then you would need to add a carbonate buffer to increase the KH (the stuff that causes lime scale).. it's something worth investigating, depending on which species you want to keep. Softwater fish in hardwater work well, but not the other way around (which is what you may be wanting to do) does not and anyone who says that water hardness does not matter probably doesn't know about osmoregulation (how fish maintain salt levels inside their body).

There are also other things which affect pH, for example, respiration (down), surface movement (up), photosynthesis (up), denitrification (up), bacteria levels (down), etc.