Question: Weird PH levels?

I came across a discovery today with my axolotl's tank today involving PH levels. The PH where I live is a bit acidic (around 6.0 PH) so Every times I add new water to the tank I add a tiny tiny amount of baking soda. I read on here that that is a good way to slowly increase the PH levels. Today though I noticed that the surface-mid level PH is around 6.0-6.4 but at the bottom it is a lot higher. The bottom of my tank is showing a PH of 7.4. Is this something to be alarmed about and if so what should I do? I have a silica sand substrate, a few plastic plants and a fake half log hide. Would these be the cause of this?




Edit: Sorry all this was a false alarm. The PH levels are perfectly normal and it was my fault for not cleaning out the tubes used for water testing properly. To anyone concerned that I may have gotten the test liquids in the tank from the unclean tubes, I use a syringe to draw water from the tank to put in the tubes. I find it easier to get the correct volume this way

Glad to see your edit, I had no idea what to say hahaha!
A small bag of crushed coral is also really good at raising and maintaining pH, and you don't have to add it every water change

Hayleyy said:

Glad to see your edit, I had no idea what to say hahaha!
A small bag of crushed coral is also really good at raising and maintaining pH, and you don't have to add it every water change

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I have heard this a lot too. I'm not sure if there are any small bags of it sold near me and don't particularly want to buy a large bag and only use a tiny amount. Is there anywhere online that I can buy a small bag?

I just went to my local fish store (that have marine fish too) and asked for a small bag of it. They had it loose in a box and you can buy as much as you want. I then used a clean stocking/sock thing and tied it closed. You can buy small filter mesh bags which would work as well!