lilfish

I am not sure what to do anymore. I set my tank up 4days ago. I tested the pH after a 24 hrs it is extremely high, over 8.2. I had put some laterite in with the store bought tank gravel, included 5 store bought plants. a large tree trunk like deco from petsmart, 2 pink quartz that I had and then about 3 large rocks that were mine(collected at some time in my life). Also 4 live small sword plants. So first I figured it was one or alll of the 3 large rocks.( I did a test on each rock that was suppose to decide whether they could be in the tank or not, they seemed okay) I put them in individual buckets for 24 hrs. 2 tested very high and one tested high about 8. I emptied 1/5 of tank water and refilled and then retested it seemed a little better. I tested water from sink which tests at 7.4 and then my 1 gallon tank that I have 2 fish in and that was 7.6. I did 24 hr test on petsmart deco and it tested about 8. I emptied 1/2 the tank and retested 3 hrs later it is still testing at 8, I did put the petsmart deco back in. I am upset that half my deco has been taken out and its still not right. Should I just leave it the way it is or take the petsmart deco back? I dont want to, I lost half my deco taking out 3 large rocks.
Thanks for any help,
Lilfish

Lucy

Hi lilfish, welcome to Fish Lore

I moved your thread to a more appropriate secrion of the forum.

Have you tested your tap water?

Edit: Never mind, I see that you did.
If it was the decoration, I'd advise taking them back and getting new ones.
I'm sure other members will be able to help you further.

Good luck

agabr123

is the deco from pestmart real or fake? if it's real then it could be contributing to it, but my best guess would be the rocks, not the wood.

lilfish

The decoration is a fake tree like root tower thing. I already took the three rocks out and relplaced half the tank water.

Lilfish

agabr123

that's strange that it would change pH like that.....i know that i've heard before that pH will change if you let your water sit for a day, so that might be the more likely culprit.


this is a bit off topic, but what fish do you have in the 1 gallon tank?

lilfish

They are 2 orange colored mollies.

Lilfish

tinah

add some peat to your filter. . . or you could go with live plants and run CO2! Collect some natural driftwood for decoration. All will lower your pH.

cerianthus

If ran all the test with sink water and each rock/deco indivisually, use whatever piece that did not change the pH of sink(tap) water.
Piece of wood looking thing, is it real or fake. If real but attached to slate, it may not be true driftwood. True driftwood will sink all by itself (have not seen one floats yet) and will changes the color of water to brownish tint(tea).

Laterite. Laterite by Dupla did not cause this pH upswing but depending who and how it is made, maybe?
Do another pH test of tap water then add little bit of your laterite into test tube and let it sit to see if pH changed next morning (color will be purplish as pH goes up if memory serves on API H/R pH test kit).

Dont know what kind of fish you are planning? Since your tap water seems alkaline and hard, how about going with fish which prefers such water!!
OR invest in RO/DI which will soften ,lowers pH of water.
Problem is RO/DI is not cheapt to buy/ run/maintain.

lilfish

The tree like trunk thing is fake.

The laterite is from First Layer Pure Laterite.

In my small tank the Ph is 7.6 but no filter or oxygen system is in place, like in the big tank. Would that change ph?
I will test laterite and see what happens.

My area does have hard water but we use a water softner so wouldnt mean the water I added to the tank wouldnt be hard?

Lilfish