Possible Reasons For Ph Shooting Up.

[sneezy]

Turned the light for my tank on tonight and the fish all looked terrible. My rummynoses especially are all sitting on the bottom gasping.

Tested my water and my ph has shot up off the chart. It is usually 8.0. I haven't added anything new. I did a 20% water change yesterday but my tap water is 7.6 riding to 8.2 overnight so it shouldn't have made much of a difference.

Am I going to wake up in the morning to a tank of dead fish and what an earth could have caused it to rocket so much.

I have done a 10% water change but was worried about doing anymore because I know a fluctuating ph can be more damaging that a high stable one and they are all highly stressed.

 

[fozziebear]

what is your tank decor, your tap waters ph, and any additives you have used on the tank?

 

[sneezy]

tank decor is a fake log, a couple of rocks (vinegar tested) and a few plants. The only chemical used is dechlorinator during water changes.

Tap water is 7.6 rising to 8.2 if left overnight. Water hardness is high (no exact figures)

Tank ph before water change was 8.0. I test regularly and it is always this.

Its a newly set up tank. It was fishless cycled then fish added on 20th June

 

[rocknurworld2006]

tank decor is a fake log, a couple of rocks (vinegar tested) and a few plants. The only chemical used is dechlorinator during water changes.

Tap water is 7.6 rising to 8.2 if left overnight. Water hardness is high (no exact figures)

Tank ph before water change was 8.0. I test regularly and it is always this.

Its a newly set up tank. It was fishless cycled then fish added on 20th June

the only thing u can do then is try to soften the water and lower the ph.

as the tap water is 8.2 then its nothing ur doing to it, if the hardness is quite high then this will make the ph go up probably

 

[fozziebear]

you can soften the water a few different ways, theres chemicals which i really wouldnt recommend, it makes your ph fluctuate wildly, then theres natural methods, bogwood, peat filtration, almond leaves, theres also co2 injection.

you could always switch to keeping rift valley cichlids they like high ph and hardness.

 

[backtotropical]

Are you sure pH is the problem? You say the tank pH is usually 8.0. What has it shot up to?

Have you tested all the other obvious parameters? Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, pH?

Have you added any ornaments, gravel etc recently?

 

[rocknurworld2006]

Are you sure pH is the problem? You say the tank pH is usually 8.0. What has it shot up to?

Have you tested all the other obvious parameters? Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, pH?

Have you added any ornaments, gravel etc recently?

the ph of tap water is 7.6 going to 8.2 overnight , so i dont think he is obviously doing anthing to raise it to this

 

[sneezy]

It has shot up to at least 8.8 prob more. The rummynoses have lost their red noses

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20

 

[backtotropical]

Are you sure pH is the problem? You say the tank pH is usually 8.0. What has it shot up to?

Have you tested all the other obvious parameters? Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, pH?

Have you added any ornaments, gravel etc recently?

the ph of tap water is 7.6 going to 8.2 overnight , so i dont think he is obviously doing anthing to raise it to this

This isn't uncommon Rocknurworld. Water tested straight from the tap will often have a different pH even an hour later. This is because of gases (mainly CO2) gassing off into the atmosphere which will raise the pH slightly. Once these gases have left the water, the pH will stabilise. The pH value of water straight from the tap is often misleading.

Sneezy, thanks for the stats. Have you added anything recently? Ornaments, substrate etc?

Also, have you tested the tap water recently? Maybe your water company are playing games. They do that sometimes.

 

[sneezy]

They seem a little more settled now although definitely nowhere near happy. Do you think I should do smaller water changes from now on. maybe 10% twice a week.

nothing at all. My fish just don't seem to cope with water changes.

 

[backtotropical]

They seem a little more settled now although definitely nowhere near happy. Do you think I should do smaller water changes from now on. maybe 10% twice a week.

Its very unlikely to have been the size of your water changes which have caused the pH to rise, unless as i mentioned above, the water company are fiddling with the water for some reason.

I'd test the tap water (after leaving it to stand overnight), and this might give you the answer.

 

[sneezy]

I'll test tap water but obviously won't get accurate result till the morning

Straight from the tap 7.4

 

[backtotropical]

It's really very unlikely that water changes are the problem. Let us know your tap water results tomorrow, and we'll take it from there?

 

[white-worms]

It's really very unlikely that water changes are the problem. Let us know your tap water results tomorrow, and we'll take it from there?

Well, this might be a case of the "water board" choosing that day to have a mains water pipe clean out. By vastly increasing the amount of chemicals they add into the water that day. They do this from time to time because soft water rots the pipework system. You might be unlucky that you did a water change that day they decided to do it.

I once read a story from a guy who breed Discus for years using normal tap water. Then one day he started to lose hundreds of discus. He couldn't understand what was wrong, first he though flukes and realised it was too fast. He phoned the water board and they told him they had increased the chemicals going into the water that day to clean the pipework system and to raise the PH of water still resting in the system that had become acidic. As they do this because like I said above, it rots the pipework system.

He never used water without it going through an RO unit after that.

 

[sneezy]

Ph has risen to 8.0 overnight so nothing unusual there.

Tank water today also back to 8.0

Fish seem fine today - rummynoses have their red back and are all swimming around happily.

Its all very very bizarre