What To Do With My Tank (High Ph Problem)?

[Gruffle]

Hi, I have a bit of a problem with my tank and would like some advice regarding what to do with it.
 
It's an old ish planted 155L tank, with one internal and one external filter, I've had it since 2009ish so it's well established.
 
My inhabitants were...
 
6 serpea tetra
1 RTBS
2 kribs
2 keyhole cichlids
1 BN plec
 
A couple of months ago I started to have some deaths but didn't test the water straight away. After a couple more deaths I tested the water and the Ph was 8.2

(Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate etc is 0)
 
I tested my ph out of the tap and it is 7, however after adding water conditioner it shoots up past 8. If I add literally a mililitre of conditioner to a 10L bucket of water it goes up to 7.6, anymore and i have to use a high PH range kit to detect it.
 
I've been checking the ph as I add it to the tank for a couple of months now but the tank PH isn't going down (I believe the water in my area is very hard however I don't have a hardness kit to confirm this)
 
I've used two brands of water conditioner, both with the same results, I've tried an API one and a nutrafin one (I think anyway, it looks like washing up liquid, in a bright yellow bottle?)
 
Presumably there is something in my water reacting to the conditioner, as I've always thought the stuff itself was ph neutral.
 
I've always thought that it's better to have a stable PH rather than adding crap to it to force it down to 7.
 
At the minute my survivors are a tetra, one of the keyholes and the BN plec (Which i'm pretty sure is invincible, it used to spends it's days bullying a Firemouth Cichlid in my old tank  )...I realised the other day i'm in danger of the cycle stalling due to lack of fish so need to due something about it or i'm going to lose all of them.
 
...so basically I want to make the best out of a bad situation.
 
Any ideas?
 
As stated above I don't really want to try forcing the ph to 7 chemically.
 
I'd like to get some fish that manage well in high ph water but something that's combatible with my remaining ones...an african cichlid setup would be the obvious solution but I really don't want to get rid of my existing fish, particularly the BN, which my kids love.
 
 

 

[CezzaXV]

8.2 isn't exceptionally high, and most fish would easily survive this. I would suggest mixing in RO water if it really bothered you, but with a pH of 7 from your tap water, it seems somewhat pointless.
 
EDIT: You could try buying a litre of RO water from your LFS (my LFS sells it for 10p a litre) and putting some water conditioner in. RO water is 100% pure water, so if the pH rises after that, you know it's the conditioner to blame because it can't be reacting to anything in the water.
 
There are usually dissolved gasses in water which can affect the pH. If you leave the water to stand for 24 hours then you will get a more "true" reading of the pH.
 
What water conditioner are you using?
 
You really don't need to worry about the cycle stopping due to the small amount of fish you have. The bacterial colony will always expand or shrink in line with the amount of fish you have. Until you have no fish (and therefore no food source) whatsoever, you really don't have to worry about it.

 

[Lunar Jetman]

Have you tried a different water conditioner? I've never noticed this with the ones I've used before.

 

[Gruffle]

I've tried Nutrafun aqua+ and tetra Aquasafe.
 
In all honesty i'd never had a problem with it before either :s

 

[Lunar Jetman]

Seems weird. I wonder if it's out of date or reacting to a change in the water from your supplier? Going to be a pain to have to keep using RO water all the time!

 

[the_lock_man]

If you've got hard water, then the chances are that the pH will naturally be quite high - it doesn't always follow, but generally what makes water hard is Calcium Carbonate (aka chalk), and that has a high pH.
 
I would suggest that what is happening is that there is something in the tap water (possibly one of the chloramine family) that has a very low pH, and that once the dechlor has worked its mystical ways, the pH bounces back up to what it should to be.

 

[MissLori]

I would do a few things if I were you.  First, I'd call the companies that make the water conditioners and ask them what they think is going on.  Maybe you could send them a water sample if they would accept one.
 
Then i'd probably call a local university or Extension Office and find a local water expert and ask them.  Again, offer to provide a water sample.
 
I would also consider buying a gh/kh test kit and see if hardness is the culprit.
 
Oh, and it wouldn't hurt to check with your water company for assistance in diagnosing what is going on.
 
In the meantime, I would try the usual to bring down the pH - R/O, peat/spagnum moss or chemicals.
 
Good luck!

 

[the_lock_man]

chemicals.

 
NoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNo
 
Don't use chemicals. Bad idea. Especially if you do have high carbonate hardness, the water will just bounce back high, and fishies don't like unstable pH.