pH Question

[DavidK]

Hi Folks

My cycle seems to be really kicking in now. My amonias went up between .25 and .50 yesterday and I had to do my first partial water change. I'm watching it closely now and expect to be doing significant daily water changes. Nitrates look like they are starting to develop but the color change in the water test is not significant enough to register an amount yet.

Here is my question. While I expected to see a significant change in ammonia, what I did not expect was a "spike" in my pH reading. I have been registering around 7.0 on pH and yesterday it jumped, in 24 hrs, to 7.6 and maybe a little higher than that. I tested 3 times so I know it is right.

Is this to be expected? If not, help!

 

[SolarityBengals]

You should not see a pH spike. If you are seeing changes then it could be the water changes. It takes 24 hours after you put new water in to get a real pH reading as direct tap water will change wants it sits for a while. I wouldn't worry about your pH unless it starts going drastically in the downward direction (crash).

What you are interested in is:
ammonia
nitrite
nitrate

When your ammonia rises your bacteria converts it to nitrites and then you grow a seperate bacteria colony to convert the nitrites to nitrates. Nitrites can be even more harmful than ammonia so if it spikes water changes are needed. Nitrates are not harmful to fish but in a high quantity it can be. That is why routine water changes are needed to get rid of the excess nitrates.

 

[DavidK]

Thanks. The thing that concerned me was this pH spike occurred prior to any water changes. After the first water change the pH is back down to 7.2 which I'm more confortable with. I'm going to assume that maybe I somehow messed up my test yesterday.

 

[rich311k]

Sounds like it. What kind of rocks and gravel do you have?

 

[tropicfishman]

as long as the Ph is consistent you'll be fine, don't use chemicals to alter the ph, I was scolded nicely for doing this, it apperently stress's the fish, you could lower your PH by adding peat to your filter but it turns the water a brownish color, or rasie it by adding limestone ( i think thats what it was at least ) I had a couple PH spikes myself, one from adding two new fish and one for unknown reasons, but our water supply is kinda weird around here, sometimes after a water change it will bea perfect 7.0 for weeks then do another change and its all over the scales

 

[DavidK]

Thought I would share what I think caused this. I keep a 5 gallon bucket of water on the side to top off my tank due to evaporation and water changes. I also have two gallon jugs that I keep for that purpose as well. I realized that I filled those two jugs from a filtered tap rather than the normal tap water of the rest of the tank. The day before my shock I had topped off the tank using the two gallon jugs.

I did a test last night of my tap water and the filtered water and sure enough the pH was drastically different. Sticking with straight tap water now that I let sit for a few days before using.