What would cause my ph to be 8.4 and my alklalinity to run 240 in several well established tanks?

Question

These are tropical tanks that have been up for 5-6 years. All are well below the established rate of 1'' of fish per gallon of water. Nitrates, nitrites and ammonia are all at zero. I use seachem alkaline and acid buffers at every water change at the rate of 25% every two weeks. One tank is an african knife tank w/ raphaels and one clown. One is an angel tank, one is a parrot tanl w/ albino cats, then I have a 40 gallon w/ 4 silver dollars and lace cats. All tanks test the same.

Additional info:
Up until a month ago we had purchased spring water as our replacement water, 6.5ph 3gh and 2 kh, then due to monetary restaraints we took our tap water into our local fish supply store and had it tested. It tests at 7.5ph 3dgh and 14dkh. The tap water comes from our well but is filtered through our water softener. The local expert said we could use our tap water providing that during the 25%water changes we used the acid and alkaline buffers in the recommended dosages. Hope this provides a better insight.

Answer 1

The Seachem buffers are designed to adjust pH and hardness and are most likely the cause of any pH and hardness changes. I would suggest you discontinue their use for a time and see where the tanks naturally balance. After all, the angels would prefer softer, more acidic water. Adjusting pH and hardness is tricky and shouldn't be done except in the more extreme situations of very sensitive and demanding fish and none of your fish fit that description.

Oh, and do yourself one other favor. Forget the 1" per gallon "rule". It's totally and completely bogus and honestly has no place in fish keeping. Who ever is responsible for starting that should be hung by the toe nails.

MM

Answer 2

the only element that would desire to be inflicting the pH to run so intense provided that above tips is the buffers you're employing. finding at your faucet water I see no reason in any respect to be bothering your pH and hardness. maximum any fish will do exactly high-quality in those water parameters. If by twist of destiny you attempt to maintain Discus, Chocolate Gourami, specific killifish or issues like that or in all risk attempting to reproduce diverse the touchier tetras, then confident you may desire to regulate your water situations. whether, for familiar aquarium conserving and the common aquarium fishes, your faucet water is high-quality without adjustment in any respect. i might propose you initiate a popular recurring of water transformations to hold the tank to faucet water situations. initiate slowly with a 10% exchange, wait some days and make yet another, then 15% for some transformations some days aside then a 25% for some transformations each and each some days aside. this would desire to slowly flush the buffer from the tank and return the water to a stability at or very close to the faucet water situations. no longer purely will this keep you time, issues and funds, whether it will be lots greater reliable and healthful for the fish. it quite is a win, win undertaking. MM

Answer 3

Have you checked the pH of your water source? If you aren't doing anything differently in your tanks than you've always done, it possible that the source of the change is in your water supply.

I agree that the chemical buffers aren't necessary.

Have you made any changes that are common to all your tanks lately (added plants, changed substrates)? Plants can raise pH when they are actively undergoing photosynthesis (it drops again at night as they respire). Some cichlid and marine substrates contain calcium carbonate to raise the ph - if there's anything you suspect, test by adding a few drops of vinegar on the surface (outside your tank, of course!) - if it fizzes, it contains carbonate and should be removed)

Answer 4

I would guess it's either hard alkaline tap water or some of your ornaments are leeching. Volcanic rock (holey rock, orange and white swirley aquarium rock, sandstone, lime stone or any rock that crumbles when you scratch it) may do this. Are your fish fine? If so don't worry too much. If the fish are not I'd check the tap water's perameters and see if its coming from there, sometimes they dump stuff into the water system. Get a water report from the city and see just whats in the water. You may be surprized.

Answer 5

check your tap water, maybe there is something in there that is causing this change. Also, are you sure that your nitrates are at 0... in an established tank they are normally between 10 and 20 ppm

Answer 6

Have you added anything else to the tank recently? woods, rocks etc? These can alter teh PH as well.

Unfortunately adding chemicals to your tank to control PH is never a good thing. Stop using them slowly. A large drop in your ph will do more damage to your fish if you totally stop using them.

Test the water you are using to fill the tanks. If it is tap water, thre could be a change starting there leading to part of your problem.

Here is more about PH, what changes it and how to control it.

The property of water to resist changes in pH is known as buffering capacity. You can determine the capacity of your buffering system by measuring total hardness. A reading of 4-6 dH or higher is usually adequate to keep the buffering system in place and maintain a stable pH. A reading under 4 dH means there isn't enough of a buffering system and the pH is likely to drop. For higher pH levels, you will probably want to aim for 6-12 dH. Many hobbyists choose to measure only Carbonate Hardness (KH), which is a measure of the calcium carbonates in your water. This test is also effective in maintaining a proper buffer system. When testing for Carbonate Hardness, a reading of 75-100 mg/L is adequate for most aquariums, while a reading of 100-200 mg/L would be desired for higher pH levels. For the purpose of freshwater aquariums, measuring either total hardness or carbonate hardness is necessary, but measuring both independently would not be needed.

You need to know that anywhere in your aquarium where detritus (a fancy term for dirt) accumulates is a source of Phosphate production. As detritus accumulates in your gravel bed and on your filter pads, the Phosphate levels in your aquarium rise. Free Phosphate ions may bond with calcareous buffering material, precipitating calcium from your aquarium, and reducing your aquariums ability to keep pH stable. This is why it is so very important to clean your filter pads regularly and vacuum the aquarium gravel with each water change. In addition, your tap water contains buffering ions. Doing regular partial water changes will help to replenish the buffers which have been lost. This is important in all aquariums, because fish respiration and organic wastes alone will cause a gradual drop in the ability of your aquarium to buffer against pH swings.

Now the question becomes what to do if the fish you want to keep have very special pH requirements. If your fish prefer a pH level which is reasonably close to the pH your aquarium water is naturally buffered to, then I do not recommend you make any changes at all. Unless you are keeping an extremely specialized fish your fish will be fine. On the other hand, if your fish have pH requirements which are far from the values in your tank, then you have work to do.

Let us consider methods of raising the pH of your tap water. There are many additives on the market today which claim to raise your pH. Most of the liquid products on the market today are a 50/50 success at best when used alone only to find the ph will soon return to the normal level of 6. You also need to use a product to increase the buffering ability of your aquarium. To maintain a stable pH in the upper levels of the pH scale for fishkeeping, I would recommend using a buffering substrate such as crushed coral. You can add crushed coral to your existing aquarium. You can place larger amounts of shells or chrushed coral beneath the substraight in the tank. I personally place the crushed coral in a mesh bag and place the bag in my filter. You will want about 1 kg of crushed coral per 40 liters of water to buffer the water to hold a pH around 7.6. This method does not allow for the use of large quantities of crushed coral, but can be effective if you only need to make small adjustments to your aquariums buffering ability. This is why ocean items such as shells and ocean sand should not be used in a fresh water aquarium. It does raise the PH level.

Be assured that attempting to control pH is the most frustrating experience for a fish hobbyist. I would guess that 50% of the problems encountered in new aquariums are a result of the aquarist attempting to change the pH level. Few fish keepers actually need to adjust their pH. For the majority of aquarists your tap water pH will be adequate. The dangers of adjusting the pH incorrectly far outweigh any benefit you may receive by moving your pH a few points on the scale.

Remember, when it comes to adjusting your pH, less is more! Stability is most important. Routine maintenance is the key to keeping your pH stable and your fish healthy!

Hope this helps