What's wrong?

[jczinger]

OK. I have my ten and twenty gallon tanks set up and going. I tested the water from the tap for ph, 6.5 +/-. After one week, I added three swordtails, I have fed the three times now, (just a small pinch of flake food) trying not to over feed. checked the tank water after two weeks, the ph is @ 8.0 +/- and the ammonia level is at .25 +/-.

What could be causing this increase in the ph, and should I be concerned?

[jczinger]

By the way, I set up both tanks the same day. the ten gallon has fish and the twenty has none. the ph is the same in both, however, the ammonia in the twenty is 0.

[jeffs99dime]

what kind of test kit are you using?

[Cichlid_Man]

First thing that comes to mind is what kind of substrate (gravel) are you using, and what kind of rocks for decoration?
Also, what's in your filter?

Crushed coral can raise PH to 8.0 and so can rocks made of limestone or tuffa.

One other thing. High PH with ammonia is very harmful if not fatal to fish.

Get on top of a 30 - 50% water change and continue that daily until you get the ammonia down. That may even help the PH issues.

With ammonia in the tank it is probably not fully cycled.

You also need to test for nitrite and nitrate and let us know those numbers, so Jeffs question about what kind of test kit are you using is a great question.

You need to ba able to test for nitrite and nitrate along with ammonia.

[Lady Hobbs]

Sounds to me your tanks were never cycled. If possibly, get extra bacteria like Stress Zyme or bio-spira to get it to cycle faster? The reason you have 0 ammonia in the 20 gallon is because that one contains no fish to put it there. On the other hand, your 10 gallon has fish and this is why it's showing ammonia.