ph always rising

[Hyrules]

Hi everybody, long time no see.

I`ve been having some questions lately about my aquarium.
Since a while. I`ve been having problem with my ph. It's always rising. Even when i change water it still goes up eventually. I have in my tank plastic plants , gravel for my substrate ( bought at the aquarium shop ) , 2 lava rocks and some rocks i took and cleaned from my neighbour landscape ( about 5 small.

A reminder that i have a 75 Gallon freshwater ( duh i wouldn't post here )
and gouramis as my fishes + 1 pleco . My water temp is at 78ºC. ph rise around 8.0 , 8.2.

thank you.

 

[tropicalfish]

My bet is on the neighbor's rocks

 

[Devilishturtles]

Mine too. Find out what kind of rocks they are, or post a picture if you can. Some have slight buffering properties that may be the culprit.

 

[Hyrules]

great ! I had some doubt about them... lemme see if i can find a picture of them on my pc. Here what i was able to find on my pc.



i'll post more if needed.

 

[Devilishturtles]

Hard to tell from the picture. One test you could do is to pull each rock out and drop a few drops of Vinegar on it and wait a few minutes. If it fizzes, it's bad. No reaction, and it's good.

 

[JDogg]

not 100% sure for the picture, but look like limestone to me :? that would raise you ph nicly. still as suggested take then and do the vinagar test, in fact take a nail and scratch the area you are going to test to make sure you have a fresh surface. but i am think it is limestone.

 

[SparKy697]

Sure looks like it's limestone.

 

[Jman17H]

I would agree also. I looks almost exactly like the Ohio found limestone I once had in my tank!

 

[Hyrules]

Ok i`ll do the test later today as i`m at work. I was mistaken also with the name of a rock i had in the name of my aquarium. It wasn't lavarock it was coral so this is another reason my ph was roofing always. So i replace those with zebra rock which is not affecting the ph. thanks for your input !

EDIT: Well those stones are not the problem. I`ve tried the vinegar trick to see and nothing happened. So I`ll do a water change tonight 75% and see if my ph rerise. thanks to all.

 

[ThaBone]

Hyrules I have the same issue on my tank and believe me, the vinegar test it's true but not always the right test to do.

I have a PH problem on my tank due to my sustrate and the vinegar didnot showed me the sustrate was buffered. Take out whatever you think is affecting the water and wait until next day. You'll see the difference.

 

[Hyrules]

OK i`ve made a 70% water change yesterday and did a ph test right after. The PH was around 7.4 since there was still water @ 8.2. I`ll do more test today and see if the PH is stable or not. If it rises again i`ll remove those rocks. I also have treated wood in my aquarium ( bought at the fish store made for aquarium ) so it should'nt affect the ph.

 

[Toirtis]

I also have treated wood in my aquarium ( bought at the fish store made for aquarium ) so it should'nt affect the ph.

If it is real wood, it will actually drop your pH, although the rate at which it does so will depend on what wood it is...Malayan bogwood will do so more quickly than Mopani wood, for instance.

 

[Hyrules]

It is real wood but which one i dont know. Anyway i will compensate eventually with crushed coral if my problem reverse completely but it should raise too fast between wc.

 

[ThaBone]

The Wood is not miraculous. It will lower it a little bit but it won't lower the PH from 8 to 7. It is going to lower the PH few points under. Test the PH 48 hours after the water change and there you'll notice if whatever you take from the water stopped the PH from raising.

 

[Toirtis]

The Wood is not miraculous. It will lower it a little bit but it won't lower the PH from 8 to 7. It is going to lower the PH few points under.

Perhaps in under 36 hours, but a decent-sized piece of bogwood will drop pH (depending on the water's buffering capacity) as much as a full number within a week....add plants, especially fast-growing ones, and I have seen tanks go from 8-5.8 in 10 days.

 

[Hyrules]

Here is what i have in my aquarium :



the first one is the talked about unknown stone.
Second one is my drift wood.
third is my new zebra stone.

EDIT @ 15:08 30/12/2006 : PH seem stable now. I`ll see later tonight

 

[Hyrules]

Well i think i`ve pinned down the problem. My ph seem stable now. It's been 7.4 for the last couples of days. Otherwise it would ha gone back to 8.2 by now. Those coral rocks where the problem.