earthworms affecting ph???

[esoxlucius]

I have a little 55 litre tank in the kitchen for the kids fish, siamese algae eaters, zebra danios and neon tetras. My maintainance and feeding regime on this tank are so regimented that i very very rarely check the parameters any more because they are always very good and never fluctuate. My ph has always been around 6.4 to 6.6. A couple of weeks ago however i was forced to put my little chalceus in this tank as it was being bullied in my big tank off my RTGG (the gourami is going in a tank of her own in the next couple of weeks so the chalceus can go back in the big tank). Whilst the chalceus is in the small tank i'm feeding it an earthworm a day, occasionally chopped prawn and bloodworm. I checked my parameters yesterday for the first time in ages and everything was fine except my ph had crept up to 7.6! I treble checked it. I'm thinking that if my soil in the garden is alkaline (i don't know if it is or not), would this affect the ph of my aquarium water by feeding worms that are living in it?

 

[Hendre]

A single worm a day probably would not do something so drastic and i would think it would drive PH down as worms consume organic matter that is acidic. On the other hand soil in general is more alkaline. Maybe the tap water PH is higher ?

 

[esoxlucius]

Tap water is 7.0, always has been, where i am in the uk the local water authorities are very good at not upsetting any of the parameters. I'm looking forward to taking the chalceus out now just to see what happens to my ph once i stop feeding earthworms, it's a bit puzzling but all will be revealed.

 

[kno4te]

Maybe the test kit has expired. Since u mentioned u rarely check. Just a thought.

 

[Hendre]

Tap water is 7.0, always has been, where i am in the uk the local water authorities are very good at not upsetting any of the parameters. I'm looking forward to taking the chalceus out now just to see what happens to my ph once i stop feeding earthworms, it's a bit puzzling but all will be revealed.

Wow tap water here is 8.0.

Could be alkaline soil or the kits as kno4te said

 

[predatorkeeper87]

my guess is test kit being bad.

lucky with the ph...I could pave my driveway with my water.

 

[esoxlucius]

Test kit expires in 2019. Although i rarely test my small tank i do test my big tank regularly so i know my test kit's ok. I'm gonna leave out the earthworm factor and just feed my chalceus other protein rich foods. I'll be amazed if my ph drops back down to the 6.4 / 6.6 mark, but then again i think i'll be equally amazed if it stays as high as 7.6 considering my tap water is 7.0. I always thought aquarium water naturally decreases in ph from water change to water change, unless you use crushed coral etc to help raise it.

 

[Hendre]

I just feed my pinky Tetra prima and he helps himself to the bloodworm and other stuff intended for the knives

 

[jwh]

I had something similar happen in one of my tanks, pH was also below 7, tap water at 7, tank went up to 8-8.5. I suspect cheap chinese ceramic noodles media in the filter being the culprit