As I experiment with my pH meter, I'm discovering that my pH problem is more difficult than I thought.

The pH from my tap varies from day to day - from 9.0 down to 7.8 and that's just in one week. What I've discovered is that when the water sits in a bucket for about 24 hours the pH is 8.5, which is still too high. If I'm right, that means my fish have been tolerating a pH swing every time I do a water change. The KH of my tap water is around 18 or 19 - pretty stable. Is it the KH that is causing the pH swing? If so, it looks like I'll have to set out water overnight before I do anymore water changes. Am I correct?

This goes with the problems I'm having in the 911 section, but since it was a separate question on the water's pH, I thought I should ask it here.

Do you know the gh of your water?
The higher the kh then usually the ph is stable. Usually people with low kh have to worry about ph swings but i dont know if ph swings at your end of the table mean anything long term.
Ph does tend to swing a bit at different times of the day though.

My gh is almost 0 - it takes one drop to produce the end color. It's softened water. I thought the high KH made the ph stable, but the pH of my water is not stable. I've got 4 buckets of water drawn one each day for the last 4 days. They started out with pH readings of 9.0, 8.2, 7.8, and 7.6. The three that have been sitting for 24 hours or more are all reading 8.5 with my pH meter. I would like to find a way to treat the water to stablize the pH right away, and then, if I have to, I can add RO water to get it to the pH I want, or need. I have 3 tanks, and can't imagine having buckets and tubs all over my house waiting for the pH to stablize.

We've had a ton of rain in the past 2 days, following a fairly long dry spell. I'm wondering if the pH of well water changes during dry or rainy spells. Now that I have a pH meter, I might have to start a journal and experiment. Buttttt that still doesn't explain why my pH changes after standing.

As it is, I have a 55 gallon tub running for a hospital tank, although there are no fish in it right now. I'm adding ammonia to the water to complete a cycle in it, in case I need it. I'll be glad when I can take that down and go back to just a 20 gallon quarantine/hospital tank.

I need to add to my questions here.

Can the medication I have been using affect the pH?

Can salting the tank affect the pH?

I'm doing both.

I'm afraid to do a water change. The last one (50%) stressed out my fish in the 40 gallon, and they were the strong ones.

Three more fish are dieing. I don't know how to stabilize the pH in my water.

Have you had the time to test your TANK water on a daily basis - morning and nights? If you did, how was the pH there? Also up and down the road, or fairly stable?

The two tanks have stabilized at 83 and 82. I have tested them every day for the last 5 days.

The problem is the water from my tap - every day - even different times of the day, the pH of my water is different. Even 2 days later, when it stabilizes - or I think it is stabilized - each bucket of water is a different pH. For example - I have 3 buckets of water drawn on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Today their pHs are 8.2, 8.1, and 8.5. (This is tested with a new pH meter that was calibrated on Thursday.) When they were first drawn, their pHs were 7.7, 8.9, and 8.1.

Is this crazy or what!!!???? But it does explain why my fish don't like water changes and why they have been so sick.

I think I'm going to use the water I drew on Thursday and try a water change in the 20 gallon tank to see what happens. The pH in the 20 is 8.2 and the water in the bucket is 8.2. If nothing happens to the pH in the tank by tomorrow, I'll know that it was stable in the bucket.

Do you think that will work?

That'll work yes, but that pH issue sure is CRAZY! I would have thought that after sitting out for a day, that the water in the buckets should be stable. Weird, indeed. And pretty stressful on your fish, and you as well. Each water change is a nightmare.

Is your water being soften by you or the city?

We have our own well and softener, not city water.

I tested the KH and GH of the water that I have had standing for a few days - the KH dropped, but only from 18 to 15. The GH is 0 from the tap and in standing buckets. (Tetra KH and GH test)

I haven't done any water changes yet, because I wanted to test the KH and give you the information.

I think I should do a small 3 gallon water change in the tank that has the same pH as one of the buckets I have standing. Then I'll test the pH every couple of hours to see what happens. If it doesn't change by tomorrow night I'll know it's stable.

Keep your fingers crossed.

OK - I did a very small 3 1/2 gallon water change, fish tolerated it well and pH is at 8.2 in the 40 gal. tank.

I have a frustrating question. I hope someone reads and responds soon, because that little water change did very little to improve water params. Ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates are up and I must do a good sized water change soon!!!!!

I added an air stone to two buckets - each of which have 5 gallons of water. After a few hours, the pH was at 8.5 and stayed there overnight. Now my problem - I transfered some of the water to 2 more buckets and added RO water to each, to lower the pH to from 8.5 to 8.2. At 50% water that is 8.5 pH and 50% RO water there was no difference in the pH in the bucket - it's still 8.5.

soooo I'm thinking that the KH - 15-16 to start, before mixing - is too high to get the pH to go down. Now what do I do???????

I've run out of buckets - again!

I'm going to have to dump some of these so I have buckets for mixing. I think I'm going nuts!!!!!!!

I'm ready to give up!

Well, if the tank water is stable at 8.5, I'd leave it at that, not trying to lower it. My fish are constantly in high pH water around 8.4, and they are fine with it. The only problem you run into with high pH is when ammonia is present in the tank water, like when you are cycling, or the meds messed around with the filter bugs. Ammonia is more toxic at high pH, but additional water conditioner will combat that as well.

Is there a particular reason you wonna lower it down to 8.2? Sorry if I missed that somewhere.

I'm glad you told me about your 8.4pH water. It makes me feel better about my 8.5. I read in here that a pH of 8.5 causes excess slime coat and damages gills.

The pH of the water in the 40 gallon tank is presently at 8.2 - the pH of the fresh water in the buckets is 8.5
I was concerned about the difference. I was trying to do a water change without making the pH go up.

I went ahead and did a 50% water change anyway, before you replied. I had to do something. The ammonia had jumped to .5 and the nitrites were between .3 and .8. (Maracyn messed up the cycle) I knew I had to get the water changed quickly. I also used extra Prime. A strange thing is after doing a 50% water change with 8.5 pH water, the pH in the tank is still 8.2. (This is soooo confusing)

I'm going to do another water change in the morning - another 50%.

I guess I'm going to stop trying to lower the pH. I've lost soooo many fish, I thought it was the pH that was causing it. Even the vet that I talked to here in my city said that 8.5 was too high and that was what was killing my fish. (He is the vet for our zoo - gigantic aquariums there and he has a huge one at home too - tropicals)

I'm hoping to have my 55 gal. tank up and running by tomorrow evening. I picked up the biospira tonight. I'll have it filled tonight, and will add the biospira tomorrow morning. Should I do a fishless cycle, or should I go ahead a put 2 or 3 of my fish in tomorrow?

I have something new about my water chemistry that may be affecting the health of my fish and is associated with the problem I've discussed here. My fish have not reacted well to water changes for a couple of months now, and possibly the whole time I've had the fish in tanks here at home. (I started with the fish at school - with city water.)

I called the company that serviced our water softener - one of the techs happens to be a fish nut.
He asked me if we had changed our filter lately. It's a pre-filter - filters the water before it goes into the softener system. I checked with my hubby, who confessed that he had not changed the filter since the company did it in 2000. The tech said that that may be another thing causing trouble, because when the filter is clogged, it builds up bacteria and also keeps the softener from working correctly. Normally the filter is supposed to be replaced every year, but with fish, the tech says the filter should be changed every 6 months.

Sooooo - Not only is my water softener probably not working correctly, there could be bacteria in the filter that is getting to the fish.

Does this make sense?????

I'm off to the softener company to pick up a filter. I'm also going to bleach the filter casing and rinse it really well. If there are any bacteria in there, they will be gone today.

By the way, the secretary there has a 55 gallon tank with stand that she wants to get rid of.