Ph Has Jumped From 6.2 To 8.4 Over Night

[scotslasszoe]

I have been having ammonia problems cause of chaging tanks. i done 3 15% water changes yest.

I have done a water test and my results are

Ph yest 6.2

And today 8.4

Any reason why this might have happened, have not done anything to tank apart from WC

Zoe

 

[Tolak]

Are you using the test strips or liquid tests? Do you have any driftwood or bogwood in the tank? What is the pH of your tap water? Often a tank that is cycling, or having cycling problems will have pH fluctuations.

 

[scotslasszoe]

Using api. liquid.

Have 2 large vits of bogwood in tank and tap ph is 7.4

 

[Spooky76]

If your tap water is 7 ish and your tank is 8 ish somethings wrong.

Tolak bogwood wouldnt cause a rise, it would cause a fall, as bogwood secretes Humic/tanic acid I believe, hence the fall.

Again plants usually cause a fall not a raise.

Have you added Shells, or something with LIME in it ? Raising PH is bad, as the PH rises the toxicity of ammonia etc also rises, it also usually becomes harder, which isnt good.

To lower it I would make sure youve not added anything yourself, put some peat in your filter, that usually helps, will also help your GH or KH I think....cant remember which.

You could try some API PH7.0 which will lower it, just watch it doesnt cause a spike.

Sorry cant be of more help really, but its not natural for your PH to rise.

Have you just changed tanks / filters ?

 

[scotslasszoe]

Wow. have done a 15 % water change and Ph now 6, not sure whats going on. if reading from earlier was wrong?

I swear i used the right amount of drops etc

Zoe

 

[Spooky76]

Wow. have done a 15 % water change and Ph now 6, not sure whats going on. if reading from earlier was wrong?

I swear i used the right amount of drops etc

Zoe

lol Zoe, PH can bounce depending on your buffering. Dont worry too much about that.
PH also changes with TEMP.

Check your tap water again, check tank water again too in an hour or so.

If your PH is bouncing around thats not too good either. Is it still the same ?

 

[backtotropical]

Hi Zoe,

Thats a huge PH jump for apparently no reason. As said, various things including ammonia can vary your PH but i wouldn't have expected that big a jump. Are you sure you tested properly?

If a 15% water change brought it back to 6, i would say you almost definitely made a mistake with your test.

I would strongly advise against using PH adjusting chemicals like API PH7.0, as these can cause huge PH fluctuations and will almost certainly make things worse. At best, they mask a problem, rather than curing it.

Are all your fish ok?

Keep testing and let us know how you get on.

BTT

Just a thought: Did you buy sand yesterday? If so, what kind of sand was it and did you add it to the tank?

 

[CFC]

If i remember rightly most parts of Scotland have very soft water with almost no buffering capacity so ANYTHING you add to the tank will have some kind of effect on the pH.

You need to find out the KH (carbonate hardness) value of your water, a decent fish store will test this for you if you take a sample of water to them. Once you know what the KH is we can work on what is causing the problem and how to rectify it

 

[dcfeeiv]

certain municipalities change the chemicals they add to the water which can change pH, not sure if it would change it 2.2 units tho

 

[Tolak]

If your tap water is 7 ish and your tank is 8 ish somethings wrong.

Tolak bogwood wouldnt cause a rise, it would cause a fall, as bogwood secretes Humic/tanic acid I believe, hence the fall.

Yes it generally will, but with very soft water it will increase your TDS, tending to stabilize pH by actually adding to the hardness. This, along with the ammonia levels in a cycling tank could cause some strange pH readings.

If i remember rightly most parts of Scotland have very soft water with almost no buffering capacity so ANYTHING you add to the tank will have some kind of effect on the pH.

You need to find out the KH (carbonate hardness) value of your water, a decent fish store will test this for you if you take a sample of water to them. Once you know what the KH is we can work on what is causing the problem and how to rectify it

This is a perfect example of why you should find out everything possible about your water supply, your water company, the point of origin of your water, everything you can. Any water supplier's main concern is the health of humans, they really don't care if your fish go belly up because they had to increase chlorination and/or buffers for whatever reason. Many times these variations are weather related or seasonal, and are specific to certain areas or suppliers.