Help! Crazy high pH after treating with water conditioner?

[captaincritical]

Hello all,

I filled my new aquarium with water last night and am beginning a fishless cycle. Straight out of the tap, my water has a nice pH of 7.4. I went out today to scope out my LFS and came home with a small marimo moss ball.

When I went to put it in the tank, I decided I'd test my water just to see if any parameters had changed since yesterday.

Much to my dismay, the pH is now reading 8.3! My gravel is not treated with anything and claims to be neutral on the package. I rinsed all of my decorations thoroughly in hot, hot water before adding them to the tank.

To the water, I've only added the following:
- Big Al's All-Purpose Water Conditioner (as a dechlor)
- Big Al's Bio-Support (which has the same formulation as API Stress Zyme).

Would either of those cause my pH to skyrocket like this? I repeated the test twice just to make sure I did it properly and the results were the same. I even went back and tested my tap water again.

For decorations, I have several artificial plants, a piece of driftwood, and some "lace rocks" I picked up at the LFS. Would any of these things cause a drastic change in pH? I've included pictures below.

Unfortunately, I added a bottle of Tetra SafeStart to speed up my cycle before considering the fact that I may now have to do a significant water change. What a waste of money that would be!

Help?

 

[Brookster123]

Your true ph can only be gauged after letting your tap gas off over 24 hrs. Looks like it's just 8.3.. Is that limestone?

 

[captaincritical]

I've tested my tap water after letting it sit for 24 hours and still got 7.4. I'll try it again and see if anything changes. It really seems to me as if it changed because I added conditioner, but I don't think that's really possible.

I'm not sure what type of rock it is, actually. It was simply labelled "lace rock" at the store. I'll remove it and see if anything changes after a while. One thing I do have is time, thankfully. I'm really glad there are no fish in there.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Brookster123]

It looks like limestone, anyways the limestone at my Lfs looks like that.. If it is than that much will def make your ph rise.

 

[newbie_dave]

Can you not test if it's limestone by pouring vinegar on it? I may have been reading about something else haha

 

[gilpi]

Don't worry about the 8.3 pH reading and no, your water conditioner will not raise pH. I have close to that pH in most of my tanks and fish have thrived for years. If it bothers you, you might want to take out the lace stone, some claim it slightly raises pH while others don't.

 

[captaincritical]

I've taken the rocks out just in case. I think I'll give the SafeStart a day or two to do its thing and then test again. If nothing's changed, I'll do a PWC and continue to monitor it. Thank God there are no fish in there!

Thanks again Brookster, you've been very friendly to me since my very first post.

Dave, I don't know if that's limestone or not, but it sounds like fun regardless.

 

[captaincritical]

Can you not test if it's limestone by pouring vinegar on it? I may have been reading about something else haha

It definitely fizzes when I put vinegar on it, so it's either limestone or some other type of rock that contains calcium carbonate. Looks like I found the culprit!

Ah, newbie mistakes... Thanks, everybody.

 

[newbie_dave]

Was it fun? Haha

 

[newbie_dave]

If you leave close to a beach go and get some rocks from there but test with vinegar and remember to boil them to get rid of unwanted stuff

 

[newbie_dave]

Live close*

 

[captaincritical]

Of course! Haha. I didn't have regular white vinegar so I spent a moment with the fridge door open, wondering if rice wine vinegar would do the same thing. It did, and now I want Asian food.

I'll have to go rock-hunting sometime this week. My partner already thinks I'm a little nuts with this aquarium business. Wait until he sees me come home with a bag of rocks with my hands all filthy.

 

[newbie_dave]

I have recently finished cycling my tank I have fish in and I know I should really go and get some rocks as they need somewhere more to hide but is so cold it's that cold my dog refuses to go and he loves the ocean haha

 

[Brookster123]

Of course! Haha. I didn't have regular white vinegar so I spent a moment with the fridge door open, wondering if rice wine vinegar would do the same thing. It did, and now I want Asian food. I'll have to go rock-hunting sometime this week. My partner already thinks I'm a little nuts with this aquarium business. Wait until he sees me come home with a bag of rocks with my hands all filthy.

I'm in the middle of my construction site sifting through mounds of freshly unearthed material looking for the reddish rocks "hey guys! If you find red or green rocks put them in my truck!!" Define nuts!

 

[newbie_dave]

And I thought standing on a freezing cold beach was a nuts idea haha

 

[captaincritical]

Poor puppy! If I go hunting for rocks, it'll be in a scarf and mittens. It only just broke 0 Celcius here the other day. At least things are finally starting to melt.

Brookster, tell your guys to send any of the drab grey ones my way!

 

[newbie_dave]

Oh it's a but warmer here it's atleast 6c over here still cold but not as cold where you are I guess

 

[captaincritical]

Just thought I'd update and confirm that it was most definitely the limestone causing my pH to rise. I removed it yesterday and already my water is showing improvement. It went from 8.3-8.4 to 8.0 overnight, after the addition of some Prime.

 

[newbie_dave]

You should take the rock back where you bought them from and educate the shop owner ( take a bottle of white vinegar haha)