Constant High pH

[B-rad]

I am relatively new at discus keeping, but I have done a lot of research and asked numerous pet shops, and am still stumped....I have a 65 gallon tank, a biological filter, sponge filter, a small savanna root and a small piece of driftwood with 4 live plants. My problem is that I cannot get my pH to stay down. It tests around 8.4 . I tried adding peat to my filter, I even tried adding products such as pH down(had no effect) discus buffer, and neutral regulator, which bring it down to around 7.0 for maybe a day and it shoots right back up. I know the rapid changes aren't good for my fish, but I don't know what else to do....I have well water which I tested at around 7.0 pH.

Thanks for your help

edit- my discus seem to be healthy, they are eating regularly, and come to the front of the tank when I come in the room

[DR.V]

Maybe your gravel rises the pH ?? did u check that u have natural gravel or coral gravel ??

[B-rad]

I'll have to check into that, I would think that its just natural gravel, besides I thought coral was supposed to lower and stabilize your pH much like peat??

[Dave76]

Nope coral raises KH & PH.

What is the KH of your well water & tank water? If there is a difference I'd say there is something in your tank buffering the water.

Regards

Dave

[B-rad]

the only kind of testing supplies I can find for hardness/alkalinity are Jungle brand test strips, which reads between 180 and 300 KH ppm.

[Merrilyn]

Hi Brad, and welcome to the forum. Your water is pretty hard, and that is helping to keep your pH reading high.

If your water out of the tap is 7, then something in your tank is increasing the hardness. It usually tends to be the gravel or rocks. It's only going to be a problem if you want to breed.

I would be staying well clear of chemicals to drop the pH. They can do more harm than good. Peat moss is a safe and gentle way to reduce pH, and removing some of your gravel and replacing it with washed river gravel will also help.

[B-rad]

I've had peat moss in the filter for about two weeks now, and it doesn't seem to be doing any good, do you think I should just keep at it??

A local pet shop told me that the pH in tap water can't be dropped because it is too hard, I was thinking of going to a grocery store and buy the filtered drinking water they have for sale.... what do you think of that?

I also have two small flat red rocks in there for decoration, (I don't know the name of it) could that have anything to do with it??

I will go to my LPS today and see what I can find out about the gravel...

Thanks for all of your help this pH thing is driving me crazy!!

[DiscusMad]

A local pet shop told me that the pH in tap water can't be dropped because it is too hard, I was thinking of going to a grocery store and buy the filtered drinking water they have for sale.... what do you think of that?

I also have two small flat red rocks in there for decoration, (I don't know the name of it) could that have anything to do with it??





take out the rocks they might be lava rocks which would raise your pH also I had trubles when I started keeping fish a few years back and found that having some drift wood helped

the bottled water is not good for your fish because it doesen't have any of the minerals vital for living creatures. Its not realy good for us if its the only thing we drink.

[Merrilyn]

Investing in a Reverse Osmosis unit will be the only solution if you want to start breeding. Otherwise, your fish will be just as happy in your water the way it is. Have you tested the water straight out of the tap, and after standing for for 48 hours, before adding it to the tank. If there is a big difference in the hardness reading, then it's got to be something in your tank.

[B-rad]

I haven't tested it yet.. I have water aging right now, I'll re-post 24 hrs from tomorrow afternoon.. also I have a question about the hardness reading...the test bottle says my KH is between 180 and 300 ppm, and total hardness (GH) is around 25 ppm... I dont understand how some people have numbers between 7 and 12 for KH and I have around 300

[leanne31]

Are you sure you havent got them round the wrong way cause if your KH was 25ppm and your GH was 180 ppm that would sound a lot better.

Leanne

[B-rad]

well I'm looking at the bottle right now, and according to this it says"Total Alkalinity/Buffering(KH) ppm-Freshwater" the color of the test strip matches between 180 and 300

I'm going to try to find testing supplies tomorrow that aren't strips to get a more accurate reading... I'm still stumped on the pH thing

Thanks everyone...you all are great

[DR.V]

By putting lots of drift wood maybe it will helps to hold the pH down, coz drift wood will lower water pH