Ph.

[shaddai]

I've been watching my water in our tank and everything is going really well as far as the immediately critical stuff. Amonia's 0. Nitrites 0. Nitrates 5-10. However, I've also been watching the pH. The tank started at 7.6 and stayed there for a week or two. Then last week it was between 7.6 and 7.8...and now it's a little over 7.8. Having a tank of gourami's, tetras, barbs & swordtails, I think I'd rather see it go the other way.

So, trying to figure out why it's rising, I checked the tap a few minutes ago. 8.5! Tried again to be sure I didn't goof it up, and another 8.5. For whatever reason, our tap pH has shot off to the moon and it's driving the tank pH up through water changes.

Naturally I did some experimenting with pH Down to see if it would improve anything, and I'm thinking I have some stubborn water. 1 teaspoon in 5 gallons will bring the tap water down to 7.4-7.6 or so....but that's 10x the reccomended dosage of the stuff. Could be me, but I'm thinking that's probably not a good move...and would probably get expensive over time.

So..what do I do now? RO? Sterilize lake water? Bottled?

Todd

 

[clareriley]

Have yopu got bog wood? that brings it down... coral and some rocks take it up and I know my ph in my tap is lower when I have left it to stand over night

 

[wuvmybetta]

Small PH swings won't hurt your fish. The PH down is completely unnecessary so don't worry about it. It's best to adjust your fish to living with your tap water.

I've read an article somewhere that spoke of experiments with PH and CO2 in the room. Supposedly when more people were in a room the PH went down as the amount of CO2 in the room increased. When no one was in the room the PH stayed higher.

I'm no expert on the subject by any means. But again, I wouldn't even worry about such small swings. It's natural,especially if you have shells in the tank

 

[dwarfgourami]

I've read an article somewhere that spoke of experiments with PH and CO2 in the room. Supposedly when more people were in a room the PH went down as the amount of CO2 in the room increased. When no one was in the room the PH stayed higher.

Well, that's your solution then! Throw a party!!!

 

[Jules H-T]

pH is affected by temperature, so ensure you're testing your tap water at room temperature, not straight from the tap.