PH readings don’t match

[Irksome]

Hiya. I just checked my water pH in my planted tank with my ntlab testing kit and it came up as over 8. I double checked it with universal indicator paper which came up at pH7. I usually get a reading of about 7.8 and my water provider states 7.59. should I assume that both readings are wrong?

 

[FishkeeperLinz]

Hi.

I'd redo the NT labs test.

I had a similar "problem" when checking a bucket of water which had my almond leaves soaking in it. I'm in a fairly softwater area, KH is 2, so I expected the pH in the bucket to nosedive. It skyrocketed instead - over 9 . At this point, I was thinking "thank goodness this is a bucket of tap water, and not in the tank!"

I retested it with a different pH test and it came out as 6. Redone with the original bottle and it also read 6.

Conclusion? Duff test.

 

[seangee]

Is there a reason why you are testing pH? I.e. have you done something that you are expecting it to change?
pH is not something I normally bother to check, and in my case its difficult because my pH is well below 6 so normal tests don't work. But it really doesn't matter, as long as the fish are healthy and you know nothing has changed.

 

[Irksome]

Is there a reason why you are testing pH? I.e. have you done something that you are expecting it to change?
pH is not something I normally bother to check, and in my case its difficult because my pH is well below 6 so normal tests don't work. But it really doesn't matter, as long as the fish are healthy and you know nothing has changed.

I don’t usually test it either but I have recently completed a blackout treatment for slime algae and I wasn’t sure if it would affect the water quality.