My PH is too high, how can I lower it?

[Marcellina]

I just tested my tank and everything is great 0 everything and SG is 1.025

I tested the PH and its 8.8 on my API test (thats the highest on that test)!!

I just did a 10% water change on Sunday night.

How can I safely lower this? ANother water change?

My PH is usually normal to a little low what could have caused this?

Help!

 

[ZANYMASTER]

Dosing Kalkwasser maybe?Keep doing the water changes to get it down to about 8.4

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Very important, no quick fixes. Whatever you do, do it slowly.

 

[Marcellina]

I dont want to put the fish and livestock into shock. So should I just do another 10% water change now? Then another tonight or tomorrow? How slow should slow be?

 

[Avi]

That would be fine. But, try to make sure that you're test kit is still working right. If you hadn't made any changes in the tank and suddenly the pH goes up so much it might be a bad test kit that's giving inaccurate results. But, the water changes as you've described would be a good idea in the meanwhile. You could even do 20% each day without any harm to the livestock in the tank.

 

[KathyC]

Is it the high range API kit?
Are you holding the test tube against the card, or in front of it to read it?
Did you get the reading in normal daylight or did it at night?

If tonight - redo the test in the morning under natural light.
I'd do nothing past a 10 or 20% water change...if even that.

 

[Marcellina]

Hi Kathy,

I tested this morning about 11am. I just watched the tank and everything seemed fine. I thought that the fish might be gasping at one point but I think I was imagining it from staring at them so long. LOL

The only strange thing was that one of my blue/purple mushrooms looks wilted. All my other mushrooms are fine and spread out large.

Anyway I went out and bought RO water and prepared it. at around 4pm I was getting ready to do the water change and I tested once more b4 removing water and it read normal??? It was 8.4. It was nowhere near that deep purple from this morning. I hadnt done anything up until that point, no water changes no dosing anything no feeding no cleaning nothing.

Anyway I decided to do a 4 G water change. I tested and everything seems to be fine now. What would make the PH go up? I am thinking that maybe I put more drops in it than needed so it read really high?

 

[Marcellina]

and yes its the High Range PH test kit

 

[KathyC]

Could be so many different reasons though none of them probably mean that your PH was that high...not rinsing the test tube enough before use, an extra drop (always good to test twice ), not shaking the dropper bottle, temporary insanity (as in when the fish look like they are doing something odd...and they really aren't)...lol

This thread is a great example of when it's best to do nothing quickly..as you mentioned, it was odd that it had increased so much, but it really didn't. You would have had issues had you lowered your fine reading!

The best reaction to a bad situation is to test again and if you are fairly sure something is wrong anyway..a water change won't make anything worse

 

[Marcellina]

I'm leaning towards temporary insanity LOL

I learned that we shouldnt do anything quickly from reading posts on this board. When something seems off your first instinct is to fix it asap but in this case its best towait and observe for a bit.

 

[KathyC]

I'm leaning towards temporary insanity LOL

I learned that we shouldnt do anything quickly from reading posts on this board. When something seems off your first instinct is to fix it asap but in this case its best towait and observe for a bit.

You've got that sooo right!