What causes ph to rise?

[kevfiz]

What would cause ph to rise in water ? Rocks are fine plants are artificial ? Can the fish food cause this to happen? Nitrate nitrite and ammonia are all prefect

 

[Tyler_Fishman]

In this case it's either on out of two things:
Your water
Your substrate
Water of course is a very big factor it's the most important factor in your aquarium and generally, if your looking for soft water you either A: Live somewhere were soft water comes out of tap, or B: Get an RO DI system set up. soft water generally has a low PH due to the dissolved minerals being very low and hard water, which comes with a very High PH, usually. Hard water is usually the most common thing to come out of Your tap, if you live in the city or Suburbs you likely have PH that is above Alkaline (7) I'm on a well water system with my waters PH being about 7.5 it's a chore really. I also made the bad decision of purchasing NatGeo sand, which leads to the second factor: substrate Substrates Rich in metals will obviously leach into your water causing a high PH. This with water changes with a water value that reads 7 or above can cause a very high PH. You can lower PH naturally, but I'd reccomend changing substrates if that's the issue, that's what I'm attempting to do currently. Play sand works fine. Do not use chemicals to lower PH, they work fine short term, but long term it's costly and unrealiable, use Peat moss, to lower your water values, Oak and almond leaves are a second to Peat. But from what I've heard peat moss is great at lowering water values so that's what I'm going with.
Hope this helped

 

[StevenF]

We need to know what your tap water PH is and what the PH is in the tank. Also how fast does it change. One common cause of PH changing from the tap to the tank is CO2 outgassing. Some tap water is high in CO2 and has a low PH. However after being placed in the tank the CO2 bubbles out to the air. When the CO2 is gone the minerals in the tank will then have a effect on PH. Typically it goes up. You can test for this by putting tap water in a glass and then monitoring the PH once to twice per day. If you have CO2 it will start low and then increase. If you have CO2 simply put water in a bucket and let it outgas for a couple of days before doing the water change. Note do not use the new water in a water change if the PH is 6 or less. That can harm your fish. Ideally you want a PH between 6.5 and 8.

Rocks can leach metals into the water and cause PH to rise. Generally sedimentery rocks do this. You can test for this by putting a rock in a bucket of water any by monitoring the PH, KH (alkalinity), and GH (general hardness. If the numbers bo up after adding the rock it could be the cause of the problem.

Fish waist can also cause PH change but you would have to have a very dirty tank or detect ammonia with a water test kit. If you have growing plants they can cause PH to change by absorbing minerals from the water and CO2.

Do not use chemicals to lower PH, they work fine short term, but long term it's costly and unrealiable, use Peat moss, to lower your water values, Oak and almond leaves are a second to Peat. But from what I've heard peat moss is great at lowering water values so that's what I'm going with.

Peat, oak and leaves will lower PH by releasing tannins into the water, Tannins are typically acids and will lower PH. Tannis will only have a sort term effect on PH. They will eventually run out of tannin and the PH will then start going back up. The only long term solution to high PH is to reduce the hardness of your water. That means using RO or Distilled water instead of tap water. However when using RO or distilled water you will need to add some minerals back because it is too soft for most plants and some fish.