ph far too high

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DANthirtyold

ph far too high

Post by DANthirtyold »

Hi Everybody :D

I have recently set up a30 gallon breeding tank for zebras , but i cant seem to get my ph right, its been running for about 4 weeks now and the ph is still around 7.8 my tap water is 7.5 but i am using ro water which from source is 6 but when its been in my water butt aerating it raises to around 7 ???? (any ideas why this is ). I then reconstruct the ro with kent ro right , i have even put in a couple off bottles off ph lowerer in the tank but this only seems to lowerer it over night and then its back to 7.8.
All i have in the tank at the moment is silica sand , and i have been cycleing the tank using bottled bacteria and also puting a few food flakes in too.

So i havent a clue why the ph is so high , would zebras tolerate such high ph,or do you think its a case off leaving it and hoping it will come down on its own.
Its driving me mad i realy want to buy some zebbys to put in there A.S.A.P

Thanks for any comments
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Rob
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Post by Rob »

Hi Dan

The zebras will tollerate the high pH, but it will be difficuly for you to "manage the tank", until youhave some fish in it. DO you have another tank, with some neons etc, that you could put in to help the cycling. If you have been doing fishless cycling for a while it should be safe enough for them.

What I wouldn't do is put the zebras straight in.

If you are getting the zebr's froma reliable source, it would be recommened to get get some water from the source and mix it with what you already have. Put the fish in a bucket with their original water, and then syphon, using some air tube, some water out of your tank into the bucket over a period of 2 or 3 hours.

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pH

Post by clint8 »

Hi Danthirty,

Have u tried using peat to help soften your water and hence lower pH??
Just a thought.... :)

Cheers,
Clint
urchysj

Your pH

Post by urchysj »

I'll trade you pH...mine is 8.5!

When I got my Zebras, their bag water was about 7.8. I dripped them for about 4 hours and when the water in the bucket was very close to my tank water, I released them. They are all alive and seem to be doing fine. AND...I have the same problem you do. Out of the tap, my water is pH 7.6. Isn't that great...I only wish it would stay there. But after awhile, it rises to 8.5...same problem you have. What I was told, was that well water (I'm on an acreage) has very little O2. When it is exposed to lots of air (out of ground) the CO2 leaves, O2 enters, and causes the pH to rise. I notice if I do too big of a partial water change, my fish gasp at the surface...not enough O2 in my well water.
AND....I hope to breed my Zebras in my pH. So if I do, and it has already been done by the way, I will let all of you know. If anyone want's to see proof it has been done in high pH, email me and I can show you what I found.
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Post by Pete »

Pure RO water doesn't have a ph that you can actually measure with any of the usual test kits that us hobbyists can get. This is because there's zero kh (carbonate hardness) in pure RO so as soon as you drop something into it to try to take a measurement, you're actually changing the ph and really just reading the ph of your test kit's chemical drops.

The actual ph for pure RO water would be right on 7.0 but since fish can't live in pure RO water you mix the RO with tap water (or a product that reconstitutes the water). The RO water will take on the ph of the tap water (or whatever you added) but the overall kh will be lower. This makes it easier for the ph to drop (with the action of the biological filter) and also makes it easier for us to manually adjust the ph using chemical additives.

In addition, it's possible for your tap water ph reading to be inaccurate - a good way to get a good reading on it is to leave some water out overnight in a glass and take the ph reading the next day. This way any excess dissolved co2 will have had a chance to gas off (the dissolved co2 would've led to a lower ph reading).

I'd assume it's the RO Right product that's buffering the RO back up to a ph of 7.8, perhaps adding less is the answer. Taking a kh reading should help with the diagnosis though - it's kh that keeps the ph from dropping and if you've been adding products to drop the ph without success it would seem likely that the kh reading will be pretty high.
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Post by Tristan »

Another idea may be to add bogwood as this can release natural tanins & acids into the water that mimic the natural environment of the fish. It worked wekk in my discus tanks and any water discolouration can be removed by adding carbon to the filter for a short while.
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Your pH

Post by Wee Campbell »

try adding some (african?) bogwood to your tank. I added medium sized pieces and my ph fell from 7.0 to 6.2 over a few days.
(this was an unwanted side effect!) I had to filter over coral chips to raise the pH back to a stable 6.8 !

try it, but boil the wood for a few minutes first to get out a lot of the red tannin which would otherwise discolour your water slightly.
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Your pH

Post by Wee Campbell »

try adding some (african?) bogwood to your tank. I added medium sized pieces and my ph fell from 7.0 to 6.2 over a few days.
(this was an unwanted side effect!) I had to filter over coral chips to raise the pH back to a stable 6.8 !

try it, but boil the wood for a few minutes first to get out a lot of the red tannin which would otherwise discolour your water slightly.
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Post by Dr. P »

Boiling the wood is a good idea, but not really needed.... its more of a visual thing. The tannin that leaks from the wood is not harmful.... some folks just don't like the stained water. Even if you were to boil the wood, over time there would still be some tannin leaking into the water.

IMO & IME, a good soak in water will remove the majority of tannins without the need to boil. Most wood baught from shops will need to be water logged anyways so soaking in a bucket for a few days will help this too.
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Post by Guest »

Thanks guys for your replys been very helpfull THANKS :D
urchysj

Driftwood

Post by urchysj »

Mopani driftwood sinks from the get-go. Awesome....no need to wrestle it down!
But, I put some new Mopani in my Zebra tank while it was cycling, and at 85F. After a week or so, it was covered in an opaque, snotty looking slime! It was all over the wood...not a bare spot anywhere...and on both pieces. It looked like snail slime. You people who have big snails will know what I mean. Very weird. I have this driftwood in my other tanks and it did not happen to them...just the new, cycling tank. So maybe it was a huge layer of bacteria? Yuck. I scrubbed them off and put them back. It has not reoccured. Knock on wood! hyuk hyuk I'm so funny! :lol:
So I will be trying the peat and more driftwood myself soon. I just did not want to add too much driftwood yet because I need to be able to see how my new Zebras are doing.
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Post by Des »

DANthirty,
I to used to have a problem with high ph appro 7.8 with water from the tap. However i solved this by mixing 50/50, tap water with standard R/O water and with the bacterial action in the filter keeps the ph below 7. I dont use any R/O right or buffers.
The shop where I bought some zebras recently, had them in Standard London tapwater which has a PH of around 7.5 -7.9.I do believe that keeping them warmer at 82 to 84 F is more important than the ph.
Des :lol:
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Post by Guest »

My experience on them is that they breed under stable conditions. no matter the chemistry of the water but the quality. So You better use the type of water You have on hand. I clean my tank each 3 ~ 4 weeks !, Nitrates close to 40 ppm ! Yeap and You know what ? They spawn so far 6 times !
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Post by Rob »

Hi DanThirty

If you see this I take it you are still having problems loggin in . If so send me an e-mail.

cheers
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Post by DANthirty »

i have just bought some EHFITORF peat made by eheim i wanted to use this to lower my ph which it claims to do, but it also says it lowers the hardness off the water also , but the gh and kh off my water is fine would this mean if i used this peat that it would make my water too soft????
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