Quick question about my parameters

What's up fishlore peeps,

I have a cycled 5 gallon tank that usually runs a pH between neutral and 7.2, but now is showing at a solid 8.0. All I have in the tank is one betta and shrimp. The last time I did a water change was on 7/3/2016 (7 days ago) and I plan on not doing one for as long as I can get away with because my shrimp just laid its fry a couple days ago and I don't want to suck them up in the siphon (they are so small!). All of my other parameters are great (ammonia 0ppm, nitrite 0ppm, nitrate 0-10ppm). So I'm wondering what caused my pH level to go up? The only new things to the tank are the baby shrimp and a little bit of green algae on the glass. I also dosed very minimal amounts of Flourish Comprehensive and flourish excel. Any ideas would be great! Thanks.

 

What decor do you have in the tank? What's the pH of the tap water? (Let it sit out in a container with an air stone and check it 24 hours later for a true reading.)

You can still do a water change - just skip the gravel vac if you're really worried about sucking up shrimp.

 

What decor do you have in the tank? What's the pH of the tap water? (Let it sit out in a container with an air stone and check it 24 hours later for a true reading.)

You can still do a water change - just skip the gravel vac if you're really worried about sucking up shrimp.

I have an assorted mix of plants that I got from my LFS and two large pieces of driftwood. I also have a large ceramic temple looking thing. I don't think any of the decor caused the spike though because they've all been in there for months.

Yeah I might just siphon one of the top corners of my fish tank and hope none of them get sucked in. This would probably lower my pH back to normal because I've never been this long without a PWC. Still very curious about it though.

EDIT: I use RO water that usually comes in at 6.6.

 

You use straight RO water? Or do you add anything? I would still check it just to be sure.

I have no idea. From your description, nothing stands out.

 

You use straight RO water? Or do you add anything? I would still check it just to be sure.

I have no idea. From your description, nothing stands out.

I dose equilibrium with it for the minerals. I tested my RO water a long time ago and wrote the results on a paper I keep in a binder. I get it from one of those machines outside the local grocery store so hopefully those results stay constant as it's meant for human consumption lol.

But yeah, it's super weird unless the small amount of algae spiked it up a bit because I've never had algae before. That's really the only thing I can think of except maybe the other seachem products raising pH, but they do say on the bottles that it shouldn't.

 

Doesn't mean it'll stay perfectly constant! RO water may differ between 5 and 7, depending on where you get it. Maybe it changed and you didn't realize it, and the normal amount of Equilibrium raised it to 8 since the starting pH was higher.

I wonder if you accidentally overdosed on Equilibrium?

I'm not sure if the small amount of algae could raise it that much. It's also a possibility that the algae bloomed after the pH increase.

 

Doesn't mean it'll stay perfectly constant! RO water may differ between 5 and 7, depending on where you get it. Maybe it changed and you didn't realize it, and the normal amount of Equilibrium raised it to 8 since the starting pH was higher.

I wonder if you accidentally overdosed on Equilibrium?

I'm not sure if the small amount of algae could raise it that much. It's also a possibility that the algae bloomed after the pH increase.

I wish I did a test after my last water change about a week ago to now for sure. Time to test my RO water once again!