Cheesejawa Posted February 7, 2008 Report Share Posted February 7, 2008 Last night I was just casually checking the PH in my new tank so it's ready for fish on monday. Well it showed up as 8.4!!! I imedietly went and test the tap water 6.8. I thought it must be the gravel so got a sample of the gravel and did the viniger test, No bubbles not one. This tank is going to be a angels, tetras, corys tank so I dont really want it to be that high. The tank has been sitting empty for about a week. Does anyone know what could have caused this? How do I lower it with out adding chemicals or putting a hell of alot of driftwood in it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpidersWeb Posted February 7, 2008 Report Share Posted February 7, 2008 Chemicals/driftwood probably wouldn't help. If pH is above 8 it means the water is quite hard, making dropping the pH very difficult. You'd need to change the water bit by bit to slowly drop it, but first you need to find why its going so high. There would have to be something increasing the hardness/pH. Coral, shells, bird grit, lime etc will all do this. Also recommend doing your tests again, and making sure the containers are 100% clean before taking the next sample (I've made that mistake a few times, got some crazy results). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheesejawa Posted February 7, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2008 the tank is emty apart from gravel the heater, a few rocks (tested) and the gravel (tested) I will go do the tests again right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted February 7, 2008 Report Share Posted February 7, 2008 Add some driftwood and some peat in the filter will help stop it rising. As spider suggested you'll need to do daily water changes for a while to help bring it back down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheesejawa Posted February 7, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2008 I retested the PH and It came up 7.8 so thats good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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