Why Has My Ph Has Gone High?

[maisy12345]

Hi , i`ve been doing a fish in cycle for about seven weeks now[due to being given wrong advice at lfs] and my ph has always stayed at between 7.2-7.6 [although my ammonia flutuates between 0.25-0.50,and my nitrate has gone from 0-5.0,and my higher ph has gone from 7.4-8.8]-and now it seems to be a darker colour in the test tube ,i`m still doing daily 60 percent water changes and also i can`t seem to get my ammonia down to 0,can anybody enlighten me as to what`s happening?

 

[maisy12345]

Also would it help my cycle along if i added liquid bacteria ,with each daily water change?

 

[Bignose]

my ph has always stayed at between 7.2-7.6 ... and my higher ph has gone from 7.4-8.8

I am confused about this part. Water only has 1 pH. Are you saying that you've done both the low pH and the high pH test?

 

[maisy12345]

Yes i`ve done both the ph and the high ph tests

 

[envious]

Also would it help my cycle along if i added liquid bacteria ,with each daily water change?

iv used a bactoenzyme before its a simular thing it comes in a capsule that you can but in your filter. it seemed to work well for me in a fishless cycle, its well worth a try. as to your ph i also had a rise in ph but because it was a fishless cycle i just waited and it eventually droped and stablised after maybe another week or so

 

[maisy12345]

Thanks envious

 

[Bignose]

Yes i`ve done both the ph and the high ph tests

you don't do both. you only do the pH high test if the regular pH test is maxed out. Or, you only do the regular pH test when the high pH test bottoms out.

When the pH is significantly outside the range of the tests, the results have no meaning. I.e. if the regular test goes to 7.5 ish (if I remember correctly), and your water's pH is 8.4, the value you get when you do the regular test has no meaning.

Think of it way as an analogy. If your ruler only measures 12 inches, you can't measure something 30 inches long as accurately as if you had a yardstick 36 inches long.

So, with that, I'd suggest 2 things:

1) do the regular test, if it is near the max, then and only then do the high pH test. Report the high pH test as your pH.

2) if you are on city/county water (i.e. not a well) take a glass of water and set it out 24 hours. Then, perform the pH test on it as well. This is your base pH. If the tank is significantly different from the pH in that glass, then you can start to look for reasons why it is different. You need to wait 24 hours, because municipal water companies will often add CO2 to the water to make it temporarily more acidic to minimize lime deposits in the lines.

 

[maisy12345]

Thanks ,but was confused as the other day ph test was normal ,but high ph was 8.8??

 

[Bignose]

Thanks ,but was confused as the other day ph test was normal ,but high ph was 8.8??

1) double check you are doing the tests per the instructions, including shaking the test bottles before dropping into the tube and

2) if the pH was really 8.8, the normal test was way out of range. And could have been giving a wrong result simply because it was so far out of range. The chemistry of the normal test is not valid outside of the given range. So the color of the solution could be way, way off since the chemistry is so far out of scope.