Hello all, I'm wondering if someone out there might give me some insight as to why my pH seems to steadily increase over time. I'm using RODI water and mixing in seachem's equalibrium and alkaline/acid buffers to reach a pH of ~7, kH ~6dH, and GH ~8dH. I thought it might be the chemicals settling, but I let a bucket of mixed water sit for 48 hours and the pH was still the same. Putting the water in my tank lowered the pH from almost 8 to 7.8, but I have a feeling over the next few days it will continue to creep up. Here's what I have in the tank:
I've noticed a lot of brown stuff in the aquarium, it grew in the sand, got in the filters (mostly the fluval, see this post). I have no idea if that could have anything to do with it, it just looks like what people refer to as Diatoms in the sand but more slime-like on the plants. Whatever it is, my endler's and endler fry peck at it constantly, all the time. It stained my purigen a little as well as my bio media in the fluval.
- 4 silk plants, all soaked for a bit and pre washed before adding them
- 2 old rocks I used in the aquarium years and years ago, back before I ever really tested for anything ever. They're bought from a fish store, and kind of a brown/white mix with swirling similar to a marble sheet cake
- Driftwood, small thoroughly boiled
- Rock, very small, very new, with a little java fern strapped to it
- PFS, bought from the local pool supply store. Rinsed pretty well (though probably not well enough) and I only put in about 1.5 inches
- marineland emperor 280 with the regular filter pad and a big bag of month-old purigen, along with a brand new biowheel.
- Fluval C4, with stock white foam, stock drip tray material, and a bunch of the flival bio media in the basket.
- A hydro pro 3 sponge filter
I've noticed a lot of brown stuff in the aquarium, it grew in the sand, got in the filters (mostly the fluval, see this post). I have no idea if that could have anything to do with it, it just looks like what people refer to as Diatoms in the sand but more slime-like on the plants. Whatever it is, my endler's and endler fry peck at it constantly, all the time. It stained my purigen a little as well as my bio media in the fluval.