pH rising ... I am puzzled

Good evening all,

I purchased a 25l aquarium to use as a quarantine tank, with a small filter and heater.

In order to gain a little time to get it up and running, I filled it with water from my Rio180 which reads a constant pH of 8.00.

The following day, the small tank was reading a pH of 8.6 :shock:
There is nothing in the tank only water (no substrate, no decor, no fish) and the other parameters are ok. I assumed it would stay at around 8.0... :?

No need to say I am postponing the addition of community fish until I collect enough rain water to drop this pH (it should not take me too long these days !) :?

Thanks.

Valerie

What affects pH?

Many compounds added or dissolved in water will affect the pH by adding or creating additional hydrogen or hydroxyl ions. Typically cement or concrete will make water more alkaline. By far the biggest influences are plant and animal respiration and plant photosynthesis.

All submerged plants and animals, including algae, are constantly removing dissolved oxygen from the water and excreting carbon dioxide during normal respiration. The release of carbon dioxide has an acidifying effect. In addition to respiration, during daylight hours all plants, which include all algal forms, actively photosynthesis. They absorb carbon dioxide from the water and use the sun’s energy to convert it to simple organic carbon compounds – clever!

As we have already said, carbon dioxide in solution is slightly acidic, so as the plants remove it, the water becomes more alkaline. The more sunshine and algae – the more alkaline the water will become.

These two processes, respiration and photosynthesis, carry on alongside each other, with photosynthesis being the dominant during the day. Thus during daylight hours plants have a net alkalising affect. However, during the night plants stop photosynthesis but normal respiration continues, so now they only remove oxygen from the water and excrete carbon dioxide as part of normal respiration (so much for ‘oxygenating plants’), with a net acidifying affect. In poorly buffered water this can cause significant diurnal swings (over a period of 24-hours) in pH.

Even reasonably well buffered water may have a moderate variation in pH during the day - being more alkaline in the evening. Therefore the time of day that you take you reading is important. It is also advisable to check the degree of fluctuation on a typical hot, sunny day.

The other significant factor affecting pH is nitrification, which tends to have a slight tendency to acidify water as well as removing the ‘buffering’ capacity or hardness of water.

www.fishdoc.co.uk/water/pH.htm

What affects pH?

Many compounds .........................................................................................removing the ‘buffering’ capacity or hardness of water.

www.fishdoc.co.uk/water/pH.htm

That very well written I wish my English was half that good, you should be in the publishing business!!!!

Just for the record,I didnt write that,I just posted it!

Just for the record,I didnt write that,I just posted it!

Chris let your feelings free, the dark side of the force is always stronger, write free hand search your feelings, the light side of the force is all about using the right hand button of the mouse, the dark side is your destiny.

Getting back to this guy, who neither has the light side of the force or the dark side, he has to look at the problem in 3D and not in 2D, its a bt like being a blood donor within minute of the blood been drawn, its propriety change, the same happens to NATURAL SEAWATER the plankton die and the pH changes, even if its in a bucket 5 metres form the sea.

The water that left his tank had carbon dioxide which was produced by the fish, it left solution and as there was no fish to replace it the pH, rose if he was to add some fish it would go back to normal, also the filter media was producing acid as one of the by product of Ammonmia changing to Nitrite and nitrite changing to nitrate.

The bottom line is if he adds some fish and filter wool from the main tank even just in a simple box filter things will become clearer to him and he is one the right path to be turn over to the dark side.

To get a true pH reading, I have to leave my water sitting for at least 24 hours. At present, it's 7.0 out of the tank, but 7.4 after 24 hours. This is most likely caused by the chlorine. I recored this change with water sitting in a plastic jug so there was nothing else impacting hte pH.

A couple of months ago, it was 8.0 out of the tap, rising to 8.2 after 48 hours.

Good evening all,

I purchased a 25l aquarium to use as a quarantine tank, with a small filter and heater.

In order to gain a little time to get it up and running, I filled it with water from my Rio180 which reads a constant pH of 8.00.

The following day, the small tank was reading a pH of 8.6 :shock:
There is nothing in the tank only water (no substrate, no decor, no fish) and the other parameters are ok. I assumed it would stay at around 8.0... :?

No need to say I am postponing the addition of community fish until I collect enough rain water to drop this pH (it should not take me too long these days !) :?

Thanks.

Valerie

Is the filther on. Oxygen will raise your ph. Is the filther breaking the water suface.