Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)
Hi,
John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.
I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.
With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.
I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.
If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.
I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.
I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.
Thank you
Darragh Sherwin
PH Increase
- KenS (Ken Simpson)
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However, I tested the PH on my new tank tonight and it's 8.2!! Not sure how that happened. I have two rocks in there. They look like red sandstone that I picked up in Blanchardstown. Could these be the cause? I also have some new pebble substrate. This could also be the cause.
Should I worry about it?
I currently have 7 Corys, 2 Honey Gouramis and 3 Keyhold Cichlids which all tollerate PH up to 8.0. I also got a Bristlenose Pleco today which can also tollerate into the high 7s.
Regards,
Ken.
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- Anthony (Anthony)
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- ChrisM (ChrisM)
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1 10 100 1000 10000 100000 etc etc as opposed to normal scales
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
so a jump of .4 is a fairly big jump!!Unless the pebbles were limestone pebbles or had alot of dust on them?Go with Antos method and let us know!
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- Didihno (Didihno)
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- KenS (Ken Simpson)
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I'm also leaving a sample of my tap water overnight to test the PH. I believe tap water straight out of the tap can give inaccurate PH readings.
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Ken.
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- serratus (Drew Latimer)
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check the KH carbonate hardness, low KH, low buffering capacity.your tapwater supply may have changed?
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- KenS (Ken Simpson)
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Regards,
Ken.
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- KenS (Ken Simpson)
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I also tested my PH after letting the water lie overnight and it's up to 7.8. I'll leave it for another 12 hours and test again.
That's almost €40 down the drain. Blanchardstown should check this stuff out before they sell it. I'm sure there are others that will experience similar problems.
Regards,
Ken.
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- Anthony (Anthony)
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hi ksimpson
check the KH carbonate hardness, low KH, low buffering capacity.your tapwater supply may have changed?
A kh of 1 can and will crash.
The rocks have to be raising the ph or you rtap water has changed as Serratus said.
Maybe all the rain washed tons of Limestone into the water supply. :roll:
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- KenS (Ken Simpson)
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I was out in Blanchardstown today and discussed it with them. They told me to bring it back and they'll change it.
It's intrestesting that my tap water when left sitting went up 0.2 from 7.6 to 7.8. I'll leave it sitting for a couple of days and keep testing it.
I read on another forum that you may need to leave your tap water sitting for up to 48 hours to get a true PH reading.
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Ken.
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- platty252 (Darren Dalton)
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Get a bucket of water, test the pH, add the rock and in a day or two test the pH again. this should tell you if it is causing the pH to increase.
I believe if you leave a bucket of water aerated at 25c(77f) for an hour you should get a proper pH reading.
I forget the In's and outs of it but it has to do with the lack of oxygen when it is coming from the tap and the Co2 in the atmosphere.
Personally if i taught i was going to have problems with the rock i would change it, regardless how nice it looks. Happy new year.
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- KenS (Ken Simpson)
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I also had some water lying in the bottom of my quarantine tank for about a week. I tested it and it's also 8.2. There is nothing in this tank only substrate which I'm pretty sure isn't causing it.
I doubled checked the test kit. I have a second API kit that I hadn't opened yet. I opened it tonight and tested the PH - confirmed at 8.0.
It's beginning to look as though my water has a PH of 8.2 at the moment, but needs to be left sitting for about 48 hours before this shows on a test kit. This hasn't always been the case as my pH was previously nailed at 7.8.
To be sure I will put the sandstone in a bucket of water and just water in another. I'll test both over the next couple of days to see if there is a difference in pH.
Should I be worried that I now have a pH of 8.2 and the maximum for my fish is 8.0 (7.5 or 7.7 for the bristlenose pleco)?
Regards,
Ken.
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- Anthony (Anthony)
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The rocks have increased your kh so your ph is rising. It hard to get a proper reading from tap water while it has Chlorine in it.
My mate is from Donabate and his was always 7.8-8.
Thats why he kept Malawi cichlids.
You might best buying ro water or an ro unit.
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- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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- platty252 (Darren Dalton)
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- KenS (Ken Simpson)
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Lemon juice works. I have just tried it on some tuffa rock and it sizzled.
Thanks, I'll give it a try.
Regards,
Ken.
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- Anthony (Anthony)
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- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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- KenS (Ken Simpson)
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I tested my GH and KH in the tank earlier in the week and it hasn't changed to that of my tap water. I'll check again tonight.
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Ken.
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- KenS (Ken Simpson)
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With rock: 7.6
Without rock 7.6
The sample of water that has been standing in a clean measuring jug for four days - 8.0. BTW, my tank is showing 7.9, but I did a 15% water change on Saturday night so it will probably take a few days before it hits 8.0 again.
It's really beginning to look as though it takes a few days for my water to show it's true pH and that this has nothing to do with the rock. However, I'll keep monitoring my two buckets for a few more days to be sure.
Regards,
Ken.
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- platty252 (Darren Dalton)
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Neither lemon juice nor vinegar are acidic enough. Both have a PH of around 2.5. Same as coke incidentially and nobody is suggesting to use coke. You will need an acid with a ph of below 1 to be able to assess if your rocks contain calcium.
I am curious now as to why the lemon juice sizzled/fizzled.
Is it because it is more acidic than the rock?
If you were to pour some thing with a ph of 9 on to the rock would it still sizzle? I don't think so, but would it?
If you were to pour hydrochloric acid ( i think that has a ph of 1 or less) would this sizzle?
Now i know this will sound stupid but how would you tell the difference between the sizzle from the lemon juice and the sizzle from the hydrochloric acid?
Would the hydrochloric acid leave some sort of residue on the rock?
Apisto please make these questions go away. My head hurts.
It's like one of those itches that wont go away, except it's on my brain and i cant scratch it.
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- Anthony (Anthony)
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I think it is a chemical reaction where both are equaling out or is the acid breaking down the calcium in the rock.
I also know that you know the answer and we are about to have a new Discus article debate.

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- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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- KenS (Ken Simpson)
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With sandstone - 8.1
Without sandstone - 8.1
I think I can safely conclude that the sandstone isn't impacting my PH.
I was out in Brittas yesterday and Drew suggested tyring the API water softening pillow to see if it would lower my KH slightly and bring the pH under 8.0.
I put it in my filter last night and checked my GH/KH this evening. GH was 80, down from 180, but KH didn't move at 100. I'm not sure it will have an impact on my KH.
Regards,
Ken.
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- Anthony (Anthony)
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Total rubbish.
Can you get your hands on some distilled or ro water.
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- KenS (Ken Simpson)
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Regards,
Ken.
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- Anthony (Anthony)
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- KenS (Ken Simpson)
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It's also tanning the water slightly. I thought I had all the tannins out of it. I heard that I can add carbon which will remove this? Will it also send the pH back up?
Thanks,
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Ken.
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- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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lloking at the fish you are keeping, the tanins will actually be benificial for them. You can take them out with carbon. If you have live plants I wouldn't use carbon since this also removes nutrients.
Holger
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- KenS (Ken Simpson)
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Regards,
Ken.
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