high pH, new tank

[Lisa]

Hello all. I tested my water parameters today and all was normal, but my pH is now 8. I know this is OK, but should I take steps to lower it eg driftwood in case it gets any higher? Not sure why it is this high; usually pH is around 7.4-7.6. Have put my two axies in together now and they are getting along fine, no incidents so far. They're even choosing to occupy the same hide and seem to play a bit at night. I had put a couple of small lumps of concrete in the tank from our yard/building site, so I've removed those as I think I read somewhere on here that could raise pH?

 

[digger]

HI,
dont know if your sand is coral sand, it looks very similar to it, but if it is that can also raise ph.

 

[Lisa]

Thanks Digger. Mmmm it's a mix of play sand and coral sand, probably 60/40 percentage-wise. What do you recommend?

 

[digger]

If you are unable to remove it without to much disturbance you could always try putting more play sand over the top.
Im not sure what they reccomend you use here to reduce the Ph.
I dont even know if the ph is harmful on its own, i seem to remember being told it only becomes a problem if the ammonia/nitrites are high.
It might be an idea just to monitor things and see how they go, if a problem developes i would just siphon some out and replace with the sand.

 

[Kal El]

Hi Lisa,

The first option: Remove the sand.

As long as you have that percentage of coral sand, it will constantly leak out carbonates and raise your pH.

Adding more play sand won't really solve the problem because this doesn't dilute the concentration of carbonates in the coral sand. The carbonates will still leak out and raise your pH.

I'm afraid you have to put in the elbow grease. I wouldn't reccommend adding the new sand directly into the tank because the particles will become suspended in the water and create a huge mess. You can test the outcome for this by adding a handful of sand to a bucket of water.

You could try this approach:

1. Remove all the tank water and place into buckets
2. Remove the sand
3. Add new sand that has been washed thoroughly and is free of carbonates (in particular magnesium and calcium carbonate)
4. Create a circular dome (dome should not contain sand) at the base of the tank, and pour/siphon the buckets of water into the dome. This should reduce any mess.

Or alternatively, you could wait to see if your pH stabilises. That is, you can wait to see if the amount of organic waste ("bioload") balances things out and prevents your pH from increasing.

But that's all I can think of, so yes best of luck with it all!

Jay.

 

[benw]

concrete ornaments if they are proper concrete will increase the pH and as already discussed so will the coral sand, especially as its used in marine tanks where the pH needs to be high.

I used silver sand in my axy tanks, its very fine, doesnt seem to worry the axyies too much, and i seem to remember had a zero effect on the pH.

Any mess could be syphoned off the top, i used to put my hand in amd move my fingers through if so it didnt build up any gas pockets.

hope this helps too

Ben

 

[Lisa]

Thanks everybody. I think I'll monitor it for now and if it goes no higher, just try to gradually siphon it off with water changes. If it goes higher, then I'll have to make a huge mess .

 

[Lisa]

Well to update, when I did my water change last week, the pH was only 7.6, which I (and more to the point my axies) can definately live with. So I will continue to test it weekly before a water change and am thinking the lump of concrete I removed from the tank must have been contributing a lot to the pH. And will gradually aim to siphon off the sand anyway and replace with play sand from time to time.

 

[Jennewt]

I think your approach is good, Lisa, as it's non-disruptive to the axies. Keep monitoring the pH and gradually decrease the amount of coral sand.