# Ph Extremely High



## Criley (Jun 2, 2010)

I set up my 75 gallon 3 days ago and have been waiting for the sand to settle. Yesterday I took an extra Top Fin 30 HOB filter and stuck it on the tank with just a bag of charcoal in it to hopefully help level out some of the dust that was still remaining from my lack of thorough rinsing of the sand. I just got back to work from lunch where I went to check on the water clarity and it seems the water is much much less murky. So I tested it with the API freshwater master kit from petsmart. Oddly enough with no fish my ammonia showed .5 ppm and my ph was off the charts. 
Im looking at my tester kit right this second and realizing that i had a high range ph tester that i could of used, which i will tonight. But it turned so blue that it was clearly above the 7.6 ph range on the kit. 
The sand in it is pool filter sand, straight out of the bag and rinsed. I also did NOT test my tap water







I know im hurting on a lot of necessary info for you guys to help me out. Just looking to find out what i need to be checking for and or doing when i get off work tonight? thanks in advance.


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## I Can Mate (Apr 8, 2010)

in my experience its most likely not your sand that bring the ph up because i got pool filter sand in my tank and i didnt even wash it. the water was never cloudy because the grain in my sand is a little course. my ph never skyrocket like yours.


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## Criley (Jun 2, 2010)

I Can Mate said:


> in my experience its most likely not your sand that bring the ph up because i got pool filter sand in my tank and i didnt even wash it. the water was never cloudy because the grain in my sand is a little course. my ph never skyrocket like yours.


upon investigation of my tap water when i got home its looking like my ph is ridiculously high straight out of the faucet. im talking about 8.4 ph from tap. i got some powder ph down stuff and brought it to a tad under 7. obviously 8.4 would not be an acceptable parm for p's, so i suppose now my question is what would be the best method of working around with this high ph from tap water problem that i have? i know you can drop crushed coral in a filter to bring the ph up, what can i do to bring it down?


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## Guest (Jun 24, 2010)

Wow - you have some alkaline water coming from your tap.
Granted, the water is only 3 days old and the aqurium hasn't even cycled yet.
Before you add any predators to that tank, you'll need to cycle that aquarium, or all you're going to make is ammonia soup.
Especially at that pH, ammonia and nitrite is extremely toxic to fish.

Add some cheap fish to begin the cycling process and we'll see how the water parameters settle out.
The pH may drop on its own. Even if it doesn't, piranha are adaptable to higher pH aquariums.


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## Criley (Jun 2, 2010)

Bullsnake said:


> Wow - you have some alkaline water coming from your tap.
> Granted, the water is only 3 days old and the aqurium hasn't even cycled yet.
> Before you add any predators to that tank, you'll need to cycle that aquarium, or all you're going to make is ammonia soup.
> Especially at that pH, ammonia and nitrite is extremely toxic to fish.
> ...


Well I got all water levels straightened out right now. .025 ammo 6.6 ph 0 nitrite and 10 ppm nitrate. I got an already cycled rena xp3 that im bringing home to hook up to the 75 gallon at lunch time. For that time the rbp's will sit in their 37 gallon with only a 60 top fin HOB for about 4 hours while the 75 gallon cycles off of that rena. Then when im done with work ill pack them all up and bring them home in an ice chest. Ill drip the 75 gallon into the ice chest for an hour (?) then net them into the tank. Does that plan of events sound acceptable?


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## Dr. Giggles (Oct 18, 2003)

Seems like you have things under your control. Just be careful when you do your weekly water changes with your tap water.


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## Piranha feeder (Jun 15, 2010)

Criley said:


> in my experience its most likely not your sand that bring the ph up because i got pool filter sand in my tank and i didnt even wash it. the water was never cloudy because the grain in my sand is a little course. my ph never skyrocket like yours.


upon investigation of my tap water when i got home its looking like my ph is ridiculously high straight out of the faucet. im talking about 8.4 ph from tap. i got some powder ph down stuff and brought it to a tad under 7. obviously 8.4 would not be an acceptable parm for p's, so i suppose now my question is what would be the best method of working around with this high ph from tap water problem that i have? i know you can drop crushed coral in a filter to bring the ph up, what can i do to bring it down?
[/quote]
I have the same problem as u! My tap water is rediculous! In the mid 8's I have brought it down to about 7.8 with some ph down and some ph 7.0 but it won't budge any lower! It has been at 7.8 for about 4 days now. Is there anything specific u used to lower it to atleast 7.4? Need help thanks!


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## Criley (Jun 2, 2010)

what they say is a stable ph is better than using buffers, so just keep with what you got.


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## rchan11 (May 6, 2004)

You can use RO water, which is neutral on PH.


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