My Ph is Spiked HELP

[prcdslnc13]

so I tested my water yesterday at the lfs on my 125 that Im waiting to cycle and my Ph was so high it was off the chart!! the little pad almost turned purple. It freaked me out but I thought something was weird in that tank anyway, because I have been getting black algea in my plumping for my sump and my over flow and my over flow has been foaming like a protein skimmer.

but I bought a test kit to test my other tanks and my other 2 tanks that have been established for months now are both reading like 8.2. I tested the water from my faucet that I have been filling them with and it tests at 7.2ish.

the 125 has drift wood in it mounted to slate. with "red flint" water filtration gravel. my other two tanks have the same gravel with just fake decorations in them. what could be making my tanks raise like this?

 

[oniondip]

Driftwood normally drops pH, where live plants bring it up. I had this problem not too long ago, except I had 15 fish in the tank. Went away for a little while, had 2 fish left, and pH was like 9... I just slowly started dropping it, put in a piece of driftwood and it has been doing good so far. I normally check once a day, if it is a little high, I put in some pH down, welcome to the world of monitoring pH.. lol.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, if you have fish in the tank, and want to add more put pH is too high, you can only change pH by roughly +/- 0.5 or you will stress your fish.

 

[prcdslnc13]

I have like 2 live plants in my 55 I wouldnt think that would be enough to make it jump like that. some one has to have some ideas.

 

[Merbeast]

I have never seen a plant raise pH. Here is what I would do:
1) test your tap water. There may have been a spike in it. Also, age some tap water in a glass or plastic container over night and re-test. Sometimes the pH of tap water changes after it is exposed to air (gasses leave it).
2) Remove the "slate". Put it in your water that you aged over night and tested. Let it sit over night and re-test it.
3) Don't panic. High pH is not bad, especially if your fish are used to it. High pH reduces the toxicity of ammonia. Yay!

 

[tcarswell]

I have never seen a plant raise pH. Here is what I would do:
1) test your tap water. There may have been a spike in it. Also, age some tap water in a glass or plastic container over night and re-test. Sometimes the pH of tap water changes after it is exposed to air (gasses leave it).
2) Remove the "slate". Put it in your water that you aged over night and tested. Let it sit over night and re-test it.
3) Don't panic. High pH is not bad, especially if your fish are used to it. High pH reduces the toxicity of ammonia. Yay!

Im not trying to contradict im curious. As my charts read the higher the PH the less ammonia is tolerable IE .5 Is the max tolerable at PH 8.0 whereas greater amounts are tolerable on the scale the lower the PH