Super High Ph In Cycling Tank

attibones

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As some of you know, I'm getting a new tank ready for a magnificent betta. I'm also getting a ten gallon ready for, I dunno, guppies I guess (sister's project but she doesn't understand the whole "cycling" thing). Anyway, today we tested the latter of the tanks to see if there has been any progress in the cycling. For three weeks we have had the same results: Ammonia at 3, no nitrite or nitrate. We tested pH and it is at about 8.4-8,8. It's my guess that this pH problem has caused the issue with forming bacteria. The pH in my cycling tank is only at 7.8, but I expect it to go down once I have done my water change before I stock the tank. Our tap water is 7.4. So how do I safely lower the pH to the 7 range? It's driving us both crazy that one tank is doing a magnificent job of cycling and the other is not. Any suggestions, friends?
 
Personally I would change all of the water (to get it to the same pH as your tap water) and re-add the ammonia to 4 or 5ppm. 
Make sure you dechlorinate the water incase you do have some good bacteria which you would want to survive.
Apart from the above I'm not really sure what else you could do.
Hope this helps! :)
 
To the best of my knowledge, a pH that high should not inhibit bacteria.

My pH is 8.2 and the ammonia in my latest tank took 20 days to drop, so yours may still drop soon.

Rather than replace the water I would ask what is in the tank that is driving the ph up so high?
 
Also the above ^.
Do you have any stones or wood that could be affecting your water?
 
Might be worth checking the pH again attibones in case it's a spurious result. In my cycle I had a very high pH reading of at least 8.8 (as high as it went on the chart!) and I panicked but when I rechecked it was only 7.8 and has been that more or less all the time apart from a spectacular pH drop when I let the nitrAtes go off the top end of the chart and I think they'd converted to nitric acid.
 
Maybe the gravel affected it. In an attempt to start the tank over, we checked the pH before (8.8) a water change and about three times after a water change (still something like 8.4-8.8).

We have some used stones in the tank, my sister's new gravel, and a handful of my own gravel from a mature tank. We added the latter to see if we couldn't encourage some sort of bacterial growth as I didn't have any mature media to add which would fit her filter at the time. The used stones were in the tank when we got it. There were reports from the precious owner that she could get nothing to survive. I had assumed it was because this person had no idea what she was doing.
 
I'd be suspicious of those stones.  I bought a used tank recently and it came with a piece of marine rock - needless to say I didn't keep that in the tank!
 
Try putting the stones in a bucket with some tap water and see if they affect the pH.
 
Yeah, I think we will try that next. Hopefully it will help.
 
I would definitely put the stones in a bucket to see if they raise the pH.
Most likely the cause is the stones and thats also possible why the person you bought it off couldn't get anything to survive - too high of a pH.
Keep us updated! :)
 
I had a rather large rock in the bottom of my 75 gal tank and little to my knowledge ( still new to fish keeping ) rocks raise ph. Over night my ph went from 7.3 to 8.8 today I lost 3 fish because of this.

My bet would be that the rocks are effecting your ph level.
 
Just about an hour ago, we put some of the rocks in an empty bucket, filled it with tap, and tested the pH. It was off the charts. Upon closer inspection, the donated stones were glittery, like they were decorative stones from Wal-Mart. We asked the original owner, only to find out that they were indeed purchased from the same section where one buys candle holders and silk flowers. We went ahead and drained all the water, dumped all the stones which were mixed with gravel, and replaced it all with sand. It's full of water now, and I'm testing the pH now. I have a very strong suspicion that my pH is about to drop.
 

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