Coffey5030

My tank cycled about 2 days ago and the pH has not gone down. There is driftwood in the tank and that doesn't seem to be helping. Should I worry about this? If so, how can I safely lower the Ph?

Butterfly

What is the ph of your water out of the tap? When you check the ph you need to let your water set for 24 hrs before testing. what are you using to test the water ?
Sorry for so many questions
Most fish will acclimate to your ph. a fluctuating ph is much more stressful and more likely to cause stress and then disease. Unless you are trying to keep something extremely sensitive to ph I wouldn't try to change it unless it was with more driftwood.
Carol

Coffey5030

Ph is 7.4 straight outta the tap. I am using the API master kit.

Butterfly

Excellent testing kit. The sample from the tap had set over night to out gas before testing? There really is a difference
What kind of substrate and decor do you have?
Carol

Coffey5030

Gravel substrate with live plants and some decor from petco. The tap water had not been left overnight because that is the first I have heard of that rule. More info in 24 hours.

jdhef

I wouldn't worry about the Ph. My tap water is about 7.0 and in the tank it is about 7.8 for some unknown reason. But my fish seem to be doing fine.

When I first set up my tank I was very concerned about the high Ph, and researched it allot. I read somewhere that in time the tanks Ph will lower. It was referred to as "old tank syndrome"

Lastly, I find the API Ph color card very difficult to read. The colors for the high Ph are way to close in color to each other to get a real good reading in my opinion. But then again I am color blind, but I don't have as much difficulty with the other cards in the test kit.

Butterfly

It's not necessarily a rule but the water straight from your tap will have more 02 and will read a little different. Prob not a lot but in some cases a difference .
The gravel shouldn't make any difference in PH. Any limestone rocks ?
Carol

Coffey5030

No limestone.

Butterfly

PH reading today? is it still going up?
Your no help at all LOL I'm running out of ideas.
Carol

Coffey5030

Ph is steady at 8.

Butterfly

If it will hold steady it should be fine. A stable ph is better than one that jumps around from using ph adjustors.
Carol

Scorpio_Girl

I just went through a similar situation. Have you tried using a different ph test kit? I also bought the API master test kit and was getting a reading of 7.8 (and climbing), as it turns out my ph test kit it wrong. I'm assuming the solution is bad, I took a water sample to the local fish store and when they tested it with their kit they got a ready of 6.8. I have since bought a new ph test kit and my level is holding at 6.8.

pepetj

Good point Scorpio_Girl! I usually use strip tests as screening and double check with liquid reagent test for accuracy (unless I'm doing fishless-cycle).

I've had bad readings in the past too. Like false negatives (0ppm) readings in Nitrates in a cycled tank -which is no way possible.

After reading some threads here, I learned about banging the bottles a bit and it worked fine (the info posted was for API test and I use MarineEnterprises nitrate test, probably the same reagents though since it solved the issue for me).

I read that unusually high levels of dissolved Oxygen might give false readings of elevations in pH, but I'm not sure about that. Hope an expert clarifies that for us.

Pepe
Santo Domingo

Ghostfish

Since you have a planted tank, if you aren't using a DIY CO2 injection system you can lower the pH by using one. I'm a running a dual bottle system. My pH has dropped from around 8.0 down to around 7.0 after installing the system. The bottles are made with a 2 week difference between them to give a steady CO2 output to keep CO2 levels and pH levels steady.

eaglescout316

One tip that i've discovered using the API pH test. The high pH and normal pH tests overlap. There's a sizable gap between the two highest levels on the normal scale, and a lot of color in between so it becomes guesswork. I had been using the normal test and the tint i got made me think i had 7.6 pH. I started to wonder if it had actually gone higher, so i used the high range. I tested in at 7.4 and stopped worrying. Normal range test doesn't have a color for 7.4, so i "rounded up" on the color when i shouldn't have.

In summary, if you're near the top of the normal pH scale, use the high range to follow up, it can actually help you fine-tune!

Christian Patti

My water out of the tap is 7.4 and after it ages the pH rises to 8.0 and stays there. So when I do waterchanges I use pre-aged water as to not shock the fish.

sirdarksol

My pH sits at a little higher than 8, and my fish are all fine. As was said, stable and high is better than moderate and fluctuating.

g-g

depends what fish u are planning to get but commonly if you have a mixed gravel substrate some of the types of stones could contribute to the ph level rising and some may not. considering that the ph is steady i'd suggest getting fish that require a high ph. for example, african rift lake cichlids. the wood will marginally contribute to decreasing the ph but it wont be able to compete with the gravel.