10+ Ph???

[Bleeding]

My brother works for the city water department as a water tester. He took a sample of water from my tap and tested the ph on a 50,000 dollar machine, and it said the ph was 10.4?????

I dont think ive ever heard of such a thing?! I purchased crushed coral for my african tank because I figured I would have to raise the ph to over 8....

Am I way off track here? And how is 10 ph going to affect my africans???

 

[ziggy2]

Have they been it that water from the start?

 

[ikevi]

Are you sure it didn't somehow get messed up on transport? A ph of 10 is higher than baking soda, and well on its way towards ammonia.

I would suggest you just pick up a quick test kit, it will cost like 5 bucks. Then test the water right out of the faucet. After that put some in a cup and test it the next day, and then the next. Just to see, plus you will need to be able to test your own ph anyways. Sometimes people have to soak there water in bins of oak leaves and such to get the ph down.

 

[Bleeding]

The water was not messed up during transport. The sample came straight from the tap, and is used in a special kit the city uses to test water samples for many many things, so I tend to accept the validity of this test (plus its done on a very expensive machine, more than my 20 dollar test kit).

The fish are not in the water, I am in the process of my "fishless" cycle, but I also did not test the water from the tank, yet.

I am going to test both sources (tank and tap) with my home test kit, and I will post the results (although, like i said, we did a pretty good test already)

I still am curious about the crushed coral base, and its ability to change the ph. It was my understanding that coral would raise the ph to adequate levels for africans (8-8.6 or so)....is this information accurate...and what would happen if i put crushed coral in water with 10+ ph.

Also, is it possible that the tank will lower the levels of ph once it is established?

 

[ikevi]

Sounds good, post what you get for both day old water and out of tap. And as you said I would agree with a machine designed for this, assuming that it was operated by someone that fully knows how to work the machine. (Which I assume you brother does or had someone do for him.) Like I said the only thing I could think of that would cause it to be wrong would be how it got to him, but you already ruled that out.

My water tends to drop by itself (very soft). My parents if anything raises as time goes by (but theirs is hard well water).

 

[thatonegirl]

I would test the sample after it has time to sit for a day or two. I know the water straight out of the tap at my old apartment was around 10, but the KH was only 2, so it leveled out around 7.0-6.8 over the course of about 48 hours. I would judge the long-term pH on what the KH is.

 

[Bleeding]

Can anyone explain what the crushed coral does to the ph levels once it is in the tank?

 

[ikevi]

Can anyone explain what the crushed coral does to the ph levels once it is in the tank?

Well seeing as you have high ph, I don't think it will do much of anything.

IE really what crushed coral does is increase the KH and GH, which in turn means the ph will rise. But if you already have a high ph, you likely have fairly high kh/gh. Which means you wont really be affected. IE traditionally a person with lower ph ~6.0 will see much more of a raise than say someone with a ph ~7.5. Now yours being so high it might even be less. Of course we still need to find out if your ph is steady or if it drops quickly before we will know if the crushed coral will do much. The key thing is that it introduces stability, ie by adding KH and GH the water will not want to change ph as much since the KH and GH support the PH.

Hopefully that helps some.

Here is a little on what some people have seen when using crushed coral. Though I don't think any of them have a ph of 10...
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1904