pH problem

[Fishalicious]

I DONT know what happened but today I checked my pH and it was at a whopping 7.6 I know it's not that bad as long as it's stable but for the last 3 months I've had my tank it's been very steady at 6.6-6.8. I know most freshwater fish would rather have acidic than alkaline water and this is why I'm worried. I've done nothing to the tank but add on another filter about 5 days ago and add carbon to both of my filters.

Is carbon known for raising pH???!!
If so, I never knew this.
I already have a nice piece of driftwood in there that kept my pH a little below 7 anyway and kept it very stable. I really dont know what to do!

Should I buy some Seachem 7.0 stabilizer? I'd rather not add anything to the tank because I'm a firm believer in the less additives in your water, the better. Seachem is a very reputable company, though.

Any ideas/suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated as always!

Thanks
-Dan

 

[krap101]

what i think might have done it is evaporization/just topping it off. you should always to water changes when the water have enough time to evaporate enough that yopu'd need a topoff. when you topoff the calcium deposits etc are still in the water and the calcium floating around in the water combine and that causes a raise in ph... aww shoot. i thought u meant hardness.

that does sound wierd. carbon shouldnt raise your ph. just add some crushed coral or something to your filter... im not sure but your fish will adapt to the 7.6 eventually. 7.6 is actually pretty decent for ph. because it might raise your ph a tad but will raise the kh which will stabilize your ph...

i think thats right.

also you might try testing your tap, testing your tank, then do a water change and see if it affects it any

 

[Fishalicious]

I'm a little confused by your reply.

Are you saying that topping off the aquarium will cause a raise in pH? If that is the case then that might be the problem. I filled my aquarium a little bit more than usual the last time I did a water change. The reason I did it is because I have massive filtration going through and it was pushing all of my fish around; so I figured if I top it off then there wouldn't be as much current...

What else can topping off an aquarium cause?

From what I understand, crushed coral would only increase my pH even more; even if it did keep it stable the pH would just be too high.

I tested my tap and it showed around the same (7.6ish) but it's always been that way. Usually my driftwood would alter the pH and it would stay at a steady 6.8. Plus it's better to test it after its been sitting out for 12 or so hours from what i've read.

Anyone else ?!

Dan

 

[Menagerie]

Disregard krap's reply for the time being--until he straightens it out.

In the meantime, leave tap water out over night and test the pH in the morning. This will allow the gases to equilibrate and you will get an accurate pH value.

How long have you had the driftwood?

 

[Fishalicious]

As long as i've had the tank. Since about Jul 3rd of this year.

 

[hashbaz]

Krap101, can I take a guess at what you were saying?

When water evaporates it leaves the minerals behind. When you top off the tank with tap water, you add more minerals which are never removed. Over time the minerals build up, the hardness increases and so does the PH. One solution to this is when you do water changes (or top off the tank) add enough distilled (or RO+DI) water to replace the water that evaporated.

BUT, I'm going to guess that this is not your problem. Have you also tracked the hardness of your aquarium water? If what I have written above was the problem, the hardness and the ph would have slowly increased over time. I got the impression that your ph jumped quickly. If this is the case I have no idea what is wrong.

My advice is to sit back, relax and see what happens. 7.6 is kind of high for your fish but is less harmful than a fluctuating ph which might result from artificial ph modifiers. Adding a filter (or making any change to an aquarium) is like kicking a well balanced system. And after a while it will settle down. After your tank has had some time to stabilize, reevaluate it. You may want to add more driftwood or add peat to your filter.

This makes sense to me, but I might be way out in left field. If someone knows better please say so. Good luck Fishalicious.

 

[chrism]

could it just be that the driftwood has stopped effecting the water? whatever was reacting with the water to lower the ph has been used up so now your ph has risen to that of your tap water

 

[TankGirl]

I would not get any kind of product to adjust your pH. I would, in fact, put the pH in the back of your mind for the time being, as a stable pH is far more important than a "low" pH. It is good that you have extra filtration, and perhaps more water changes lately than you used to? This alone will cause your tank water to be more like your tap water, a bit on the alkaline side. When we cut back on water changes for whatever reason, the tank will acidify - to paraphrase some of the comments above.

Definitely do as Menagerie suggested and get a better idea about your tap water after it has sat for a bit, and test your KH and GH in both tap water and tank to see what you are dealing with, but take no action for now.