what raises the PH value of my aquarium

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C

cpm6t

Gambusia
MFK Member
Nov 8, 2011
577
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18
Sri Lanka
I recently discovered that the PH value of my tank (220g 6'X2.5'X2 with 65g sump) is around 7.6 - 8.0. I am not sure how it gets this much high.
I fill my tank with tap water (ph 7.0) or collected rain water (ph 6.6 - 7.0). The water change is 40% once a week and 5% on the other 6 days. The tank has sand substrate that I collected from beach (it has been there for about 10 months now) and a big piece of wood.
Can the piece of wood increase the PH value. Form what I heard they usually lower the ph and not increase. Are there varieties of wood that increase the ph instead of decrease?
What are the negative effects of having his ph in my tank. My tank has south american fish in it (2 pBass, 1 flag tail and 4 silver dollars). It is a planted tank too with amazon swords and they grow well without a problem.
 
Test your hardness. If you are using rain water it will have virtually no mineral hardness, therefore the pH is easily influenced by things like wood [down] and crushed shell [up].

The fish you are keeping generally prefer softer water (not to be confused with acidic water), so as long as the beach sand isn't pushing the hardness up too high I would say don't worry about the pH if it stays under 8. Check your hardness and TDS, they are far more important factors for soft water fish. You could either remove some of the sand and replace it with sand that is inert, or add some more wood or some peat in the filter if you want to avoid the pH going too high.
 
beach sand increases the pH, for example my sand bed in my saltwater tank helps maintains a healthy pH of 8.2
 
Beach sand could very well be the source. In different parts of the world, beach sand is composed of large amounts of coral, mollusk shells, etc.

Shells and coral are often (possibly always, but I'm not a biologist) composed of calcium carbonate. The carbonate will help raise ph.
 
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