pH question

[dsscingular]

Sorry if this has already been asked but I can't search for "pH" since it is less than four characters.

I know you are not supposed to mess with pH but my waters pH shows 7.6 or above (can't tell how far above since that's the highest my tester reads). I have been using pH down to try to get it closer to 7.0 the past few days - but it always seems to bounce back.

During "cycling" isn't the pH going to rise no matter what since the fish secrete ammonia (which is a somewhat strong base)? Just curious...I know water hardness can cause the pH to bounce back as well.

Thanks in advance for help

 

[fish_r_great]

Yep thats usually why people don't use pH increasers/decreasers

 

[Bol]

I have been using pH down to try to get it closer to 7.0 the past few days - but it always seems to bounce back.

As you mentioned later, this is most probably because of other buffers in the water; specifically carbonates, which are what KH measures.

During "cycling" isn't the pH going to rise no matter what since the fish secrete ammonia (which is a somewhat strong base)?

To the best of my knowledge, no. I could very possibly be wrong. At the least, I've never seen a rise in pH when I cycled my three tanks.

I'm not sure why. It could be that the concentration of ammonia is low enough to be insignificant to pH. Or, the fact that usually most of the ammonia in water is converted to ammonium (at typical aquarium pH). Or, it could also have to do with be the fact that nitrates in water form nitric acid, which will counteract the pH rise.

Good question.