Super high pH, don't know why

[banditpowdercoat]

I was gonna say to much Caffeine, but then remembered were talking about the TANK, not Tony

[Delphinus]

I talked to a buddy at work who's into planted FW and getting into SW (I really need to get him onto here, so I'm not the only one putting canreef.com onto the firewall logs a million times per day), and anyhow, he told me his tank tests out at 8.3 before CO2 as well, and drops to around 7.5 when he runs CO2. He says now he's thinking of filtering through peat as well on account of that. I picked up some peat pellets yesterday and was thinking of running them in a phosban reactor in the sump (yeah I run a sumped FW tank .. I can't get out of the "this is how we do it in reef tanks" mentality when it comes to running my FW tank. Anyone else tempted to run 40x water turnover in their planted tanks????)

Sooo.. guess it's normal for tapwater to jump like this (well, "normal" for a data sample size of "2 whole tanks").. Weird, I wonder what's doing it, must be the accumulation of the salts after evap maybe..

[Myka]

I haven't tested pH since I moved to Saskatoon, but my plants, shrimp, and fish (Cardinals, Espei, and BN Pleco) are all fine, so I doubt I will bother testing. Try to get some Cardinals instead, they seem to be a bit hardier provided they live 48 hours. Seems once they make it past that they are indestructible.

[Skimmerking]

you could always add some peat moss Tony to lower it

[midgetwaiter]

Heh, I'll never have a FW tank without a sump again. Once you go sump...

Tony you're in the South aren't you? The water coming out of the Glenmore res is always pretty hard, my FW tanks ran above 8 most of the time. I'm actually surprised your tap water is testing that low, could be CO2 in the water that out gasses after it's been sitting a bit. Fill up a glass and leave it overnight, see if the pH rises.

[Delphinus]

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Yeah I bet that's it. I'll try it, thanks!

[Delphinus]

Yep .. You totally called it midgetwaiter. Tested pH of some tapwater from yesterday and it was 8.3.

[Blom]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Anyone else tempted to run 40x water turnover in their planted tanks????

HAHAHA Freaking awesome! And no my planted tank is around 8x, It would be chaos in there any higher.

[BlueAbyss]

My planted tank is around 15x.

That said, I tested my tank today (for the first time, my J & L order came in [yay!]) and it was much higher than expected, around 7.4. I thought this was strange, since this tank is filled with distilled water... any ideas anyone?

[Brent Shaver]

your substrate and aquascape could also be part of the problem for your high pH. Limestone, coral rock and coral sand will jump your pH and fast. Wood will also absorb pH if you are still having problems.