Rising PH

[Jimr]

Hi guys
Just moved to new area and have well water. Wondering if anybody has idea what would cause my PH to rise after a few days in the tank.
It’s a stingray tank. PH out of faucet around 7. Few days later it’s almost 8. Is there something that I can add to keep it around neutral?
Thanks Jim

 

[TwoHedWlf]

Hi guys
Just moved to new area and have well water. Wondering if anybody has idea what would cause my PH to rise after a few days in the tank.
It’s a stingray tank. PH out of faucet around 7. Few days later it’s almost 8. Is there something that I can add to keep it around neutral?
Thanks Jim

Two likely candidates,
Limestone or calcium based rock/substrate in the tank.
Or high dissolved CO2 and gasses in the water off gassing.

First is fairly easy to check seems obvious enough I'm sure you have already? Second, take a bucket of water measure the PH then put an airstone in it and run it for a day or so and retest the PH.

 

[Jimr]

No substrate in tank. There is an air stone in tank. What would it mean if the PH is 7, then with air stone it goes up to 8? Don’t run an air stone?
Is there a fix for that?

 

[duanes]

It could be that carbon dioxide is trapped in the water underground, and in the pipes, but is released when in the tank with aeration or water pumps moving the water, that carbon dioxide (related to carbonic acid), dissociates, causing the pH to rise.
If you are in an area where rain is common, as pH starts to rise, doing water changes with collected rain water would help knock it down, in a gentle way.
Perhaps an experiment doing small daily water changes using rain water would help determine if that is the case.

 

[Jimr]

So maybe not run air stone for a day or two after water change to help rays acclimate so the PH won’t rise too fast??

 

[duanes]

Under ground, and in the pipes, C02 is trapped, and has no where to go.
Once in your tank, the air stone or pumping will make it dissipate faster, but the tank waters surface also exposed to air ,so it will also allow CO2 and other trapped gases to escape, albeit a bit slower.
If the water in the well is cooler this allows trapped gases to stay trapped, until exposed to air.
If the tank tank water is warmer than the well water, this will also accelerate gas exchange.
Where I lived in the US the distribution systems water was always colder than the air inside the house(often high 30s F directly from Lake Michigan), so when a glass of water was drawn, you could easily see gases escape, as the water would go from milky white, to clear, clearing from the bottom of a glass first.

 

[Jimr]

Okay. So is there a remedy for this??

 

[TwoHedWlf]

Okay. So is there a remedy for this??

The problem is your water has a natural PH that's fairly high. Not a lot of good convenient ways to deal with that. Lots of driftwood, filter your water through a lot of peat.

Your best bet is probably to start collecting rainwater, replace all your fish with african cichlids or just maybe age your well water a bit before water changes so it doesn't shock your current fish.

 

[Jimr]

Thanks for all your advice and comments

 

[twentyleagues]

Ro/di unit will help immensely. What's your gh and kh? If those are high then when the co2 dissipates your ph will rise. Only sure way to remove the issue is to drop those two numbers either chemically or via filtration. Rain water like said above will help. Rain water should be lacking in those numbers and will "absorb" some of it as would ro/di. It's going to take some testing and tinkering to get it right and stable. Filtering water through peat and adding drift wood can help but depending on your numbers could be like putting a bandaid on a gaping neck wound. If kh and gh are high enough in time the acidic nature of those items will be negated.