Tap pH is 8 but tank was 7

What all is in the tanks full system?

Decor, plants, substrate, filter media anything else? Could you let us know what is exactly in the tank?

Some anachris, dwarf chain sword, cryptocoryne wendetii, and some form of anubias. I have a sponge filter for 50 gallons and an aquaclear 50 but I use 1 a half of sponge foam instead of carbon. Caribsea Eco complete substrate. Around 10 bladder snails (came with plants), 2 nerite snails, 10 neon tetras, 3 guppies (2 females 1 male), and 3 guppy fry that have somehow survived 4+ days.

 

Rocks, wood, other decor?

 

Rocks, wood, other decor?

No not at the moment im gonna buy some later on.

 

No not at the moment im gonna buy some later on.

Okay I thought I figured out the problem but I do have some more information. Some batches of eco complete raise ph and kh a little like someone said and after the first 5-6 water changes it will alter (raise) kh and ph. My tank's ph was 8 for a while and my tap's ph was 7.8. So I know why my tank ph was 8 for the first month or so, but here's the problem. My tap's readings are 7.8 ph and 5-6 kh. My tank's readings are ph 6.8-7 with a kh of 2-3. Since I still haven't found the problem I have returned because I had a columnaris outbreak with one of the new fish I bought but Im treating it now with kanaplex and furan-2. I want to get my Parameters straight so I dont stress the fish leading to a second round. Im fine with my ph being low like this and it has been stable for a week or two so maybe its okay, but the kh is so low I feel a drastic ph shift may occur. I do weekly water changes and the ph goes up by .2 or so but after a day its back down. It's almost like there's an invisible buffer I don't know about. My theory is maybe since my tap water contains ammonia which raises ph its higher and the biological filtration in the tank removes the ammonia casuing a lower ph? The thing about this though is my kh is also decreasing as well. I know I keep coming back and being a pain, but I'm upset because I've done everything I know how and I'm still messing up.

 

You're going to have to look into your water source reports and find out what is in the water.

What is your tap water kH reading?
What is your tank kH reading?

What is your degassed tap water pH?
What is your degassed tank pH reading?

 

You're going to have to look into your water source reports and find out what is in the water.

What is your tap water kH reading?
What is your tank kH reading?

What is your degassed tap water pH?
What is your degassed tank pH reading?

"ADDITIONAL WATER QUALITY DATA Alkalinity (as CaCO3) - 58 mg/L pH - 8.8 (SU) Calcium (as Ca) - 25 mg/L Magnesium (as Mg) - 10 mg/L Sodium (as Na) - 19 mg/L Sulfate - 47 mg/L Bicarbonate (as CaCO3) - 57 mg/L Chloride - 25 mg/L Hardness (as CaCO3) - 102 mg/L (6.0 grains/gallon)" This is all I could find. I live in Kentucky so if you can find more information knock yourself out. I will have to do another experiment to find out about the degassed kh because last time I only measured ph after 24 hours and then waited another 12 hours and the ph was still the same. Degassed: 7.8 ph
Tap water: 7.8 ph
I don't know how I'm going to find degassed tank water ph unless you want me to take some out and let it sit for 24 hours. I have a HOB filter and a sponge filter with an airpump so there's enough oxygen in the tank water.

 

I’m having the same issue. Watching your thread for responses too. (For now I’ve been using Seachem Neutral Regulator to keep KH up & PH stable. It’s working but would like to use just water & Prime.)

 

I’m having the same issue. Watching your thread for responses too. (For now I’ve been using Seachem Neutral Regulator to keep KH up & PH stable. It’s working but would like to use just water & Prime.)

Did you find an answer? After countless water changes the problem remains.

 

Not yet. I thought I was just going to have to settle with adding Neutral Regulator & just having a lower PH than I would like because it at least kept the KH up enough to avoid so many water changes.

It didn’t prove to keep the PH stable though. I think my water naturally wants to go back to it’s higher PH. So instead of the KH being leached out of the water by acids now what I ended up with was the PH slowly creeping up. It was still more manageable than the daily or every other day water changes so I thought I could deal with it.

But... I think I have a brown algae issue starting & I’m wondering if the Neutral Regulator is the cause. It also often took extra buffer to bring the PH down to match the tank. I have a phosphate test kit coming.

I also keep guppies & my source water is PH 7.8-8 KH 1-3 GH 10. I read something about source water being treated by lime having a similar low KH & unstable PH issue that may be relevant. I haven’t had much time to look into it further yet. I think it was on the Seachem website.

My new experiment is just using an Alkaline buffer. I have a bottle of Malawi Victoria Buffer coming in a few days & I’m going to experiment & see if I can get it to raise the KH just enough to not skyrocket my PH & maintain it. From my understanding Malawi Buffer does’nt cause algae issues like Neutral Regulator is said to.

I’ve been reading a lot of articles on the UF IFAS website that have been pretty informative. I’ve found Seachem’s website/forum helpful too.

According to one you can add the Malawi Buffer little by little until you get the KH you want to maintain. Guppies have the added benefit, according to them, of not necessarily having to add an acid buffer alongside the alkaline buffer.

From what I understand there is no way to get around adding some sort of buffer to water like ours & constantly monitoring it. Luckily guppies can supposedly tolerate a higher ph & GH so buffers may raise the ph & GH a little but it should be ok for them as long as you can find a stable balance.