My Ph keeps climbing....

[Dennis Peacock]

Greetings,
I finally have a fully established tank and my plants are doing well too.
I have a 55 gallon FW tank. I have 6 Zebra Danio's, 6 Neon Tetra's, 2 Red Tux Platties, 2 Clown Loaches, and one Pleco. I have a very lite planting in the tank and the plants seem to be growing slowly.

My problem:
I change out 10 gallons of water twice each week. The tap water tests to be around 6.6 for Ph. For some strange reason, the tank Ph is at 7.6+ and I've had to use Ph Down to settle the Ph at around 6.8.
My thoughts was that the tank Ph would settle to a more natural setting of around 7.0....

Is my thinking wrong or am I just not managing the tank chemistry close enough.?? Please advise.

[tate8]

Stop using pH adjusters.

[Lady Hobbs]

Why? There is nothing wrong with a pH of 7.6 and where mine has been for 9 years.

For a 55 gallon, you need to do a lot more of a water change than 10% I do 50-60% ever week without fail. If you do not increase water changes, your nitrates will began to get high.

pH is not supposed to be moved more than .4 in a days time.

[kross]

Aragonite sand or crushed coral substrates will raise the pH. So will some rocks, such as limestone. What do you have in your tank, other than fish and water?

[Goes to 11!]

+1 to far bigger WC & nix the Ph adjuster.

I do 40% minimum weekly and my Ph is a rock solid 7.6 also [For four years].

[bethyMT]

Yep. Up your water changes....even though ten gallons twice a week sounds borderline ok. Stop trying to change the ph and go with the flow. Let it be what it is. Fiddling with it increases the chances of something going very wrong.

Remember to dechlorinate your water, most importantly. If you are doing enough wc's, you will not need to test you ph...it will match the tap. At least thats how it is here.

[Dennis Peacock]

Ok. I hear you on the water changes.

I have 2 pieces of driftwood in the tank as well as a 1 piece of coral that came with a used tank I got a long time back. Tank substrate is small aquarium gravel and flourite. No other decorations.

[jeffs99dime]

Get the piece of coral out of the tank as that will naturally leach calcium carbonate and elevate your ph. Do larger water changes so that your water has the ability to buffer. I also agree with the other posters about not using ph adjusters. You want the levels to maintain a constant and not fluctuate.

[Dennis Peacock]

Gotcha on the coral piece. I'll take it out tonight when I get in from work.

I'll also do a water change tonight as well.

[jeffs99dime]

A sizeable water change 40-50%
Let us know how it works out.