Its that darn pH thingy again!!

So, I have noticed for the last few days that I have had a couple of fish in one tank with clamped fins (stress, obviously), so I took a test strip which tests for NO3, NO2, GH, KH, and pH. When I checked Sunday, the NO3. NO2 and pH was all high, so I did a vaccuum of all the gravel (normally I only do half since this was in the 125g) and a 1/4 water change. the NO3 and NO2 came down a little, and the pH was still alkaline. I let it sit because the fish were looking better. Today (two days later) I noticed one of my fish with clamped fins again, so I tested again and everything except pH is in normal range...... pH is still alkaline, and at the moment I cannot go get some pH reducer which brings me to my question...... anyone know of how I might be able to bring it down without spending much money??

How high is your pH? personally i dont like using chemicals for pH at all, i always bring it down with water changes weekly it should normalize with no problems, how long have you had that tank setup??

Get some old dead wood and boil it some and toss it in the tank. Or peat moss in your filter.
You need to get a liquid test kit, the strips are very very inaccurate.

I don't use chemicals either. I would do water changes but if you don't know why it is high it will tend to go back up.

You do need to find the cause. Any shell or coral in the tank?

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how long have you had that tank setup??

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Any shell or coral in the tank?

no shells or coral (fw tank, and the huge tank has old shells in it and there is no problems in that one *knocking on wood as I say that*). The tank with thie high pH (according to the strip) has been set up for at least a year, so it is an established tank (its actually been set up longer than the 275). My other halfs payday is in the 15th, so I will see if maybe I can snag some of his check to get a newer liquid testing kit (the one I have is about 9 yrs old) unless y'all think it is still good for testing.

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How high is your pH?

for the scale on the strip, it is at the max.... itdoes not give me a number

Get the tetra laborette, great kit and it tends to be cheaper then the API master kit.
There is something in there causing the PH to rise.....

I just tried my old kit (it is a ardley mid range test kit up to 7.4 pH) just to see if maybe I could get a number, and it is higher than 7.4, if I had to guess, it is about 7.6 to 8.2. But again, that is an old test (best by sticker I just found on it said 11/97, lol). I will try to get another test before payday as I know the sooner the better.

I just realized I am missing the jewel cichlid, but when I did the water change I moved things around and never saw anything (or a dead body).

and wouldnt you know it... as soon as I post that I havent seen her, she shows up!! So I am not missing any fish.

Sounds like you need to do a body check again.
wow 97 I am impressed

hehehe, yea, guess that shows how often I use it (or think to use it for that matter!). I tend to watch the fish to clue me in something is up... its kinda hard to miss them showing signs of something as I sit right next to the tanks all day long <g>

lol i check mine and i do my testinf sometimes wen my fish r having a hard time. i did it more often wen i had the balloon belly rams. mine is missing the viles tho lol so i hav a hard time doing the testing and im to poor or want fish more than gettin a set again lol.

driftwood works excellent

Here's what I've had to do with three very different tanks. Maybe one of these ideas will work for you depending on what pH your particular tank needs.

(Pssst, I'm starting with a local city water supply that's very high in hardness, buffering capacity/alkalinity and runs 8 pH.... What can I say, LOT of limestone here!)

First tank: Malawi cichlids. Filled up tank, let it cycle to remove chlorine for a week. Added tbs salt per 5G, Added tbs Epsom salt per 5G. Set it up with plenty of rock, incuding barnicles and limestone..... pH stabilized at 8.3.. Now I just change 5G with treated tap water add the salt/epsom

Second tank: Tropical Wetland Planted. Filled up tank with half bottled spring water and half distilled water. No shellls or rocks. Added some '7 buffer'. Now it tests at medium-soft (unless I test right after fertilizing plants), low alkalinity (but still showing a level. Zero is NOT good here!) and pH stays at 7... When changing 5G I rotate between bottled spring water and distilled. Also added a touch of peat pellets and salt.

Third tank: Native fish/crayfish. Tested the surface stream next to my farm and try to match. This means half distilled and half tap. (Water district pulls from a lot of underground sources. Highly pH than surface waters). I did put actual creek rock in this tank. Hardness in medium-hard, buffering capicity/alkalinity is medium, added a 7.6 buffer in it so pH stays relatively stable.

You might check your tap. The water district may have added a new source pull and this may have changed the pH. People don't often realize how different the tap pH can be! (At my old school in the city - it was always in the neutral range.)

BTW - if I'm just 'topping' a tank to replace evaporation, I always use distilled so that I'm not causing minerals to further concentrate. That jump in concentration can also affect pH.

Wow, thank you Crazed!
The tank that is being effected is mostly lake malawi cichlids; it has 1 yellow lab, 1 acei(sp?), 1 crimson tide, a few rusties (they have bred a few times so there are more than when I started), and one I cannot remember what its name is but it is black with horizontal blue lines (and is also the one with the clamped fins right now) as well as some fish I had before going cichlid (1 albino tiger bard, 1 jewel cichlid, a chinese algea eater, a pictus cat and a pleco.

Dave (from DRAF) helped me set it up with cichlids (at that time I had 2 jewels, 3 tiger barbs, 1 convict (the other supposed convict turned out to be a jaguar and I gave it to Dave) 1 chinese algea eater and the 1 pleco.

Fern wrote:

Get the tetra laborette, great kit and it tends to be cheaper then the API master kit.
There is something in there causing the PH to rise.....

thats a good one..