So this is my first tank, 36 gallon bowfront.
It has been up and running for about a week now, heater, filter, air pump, etc... I have no fish in it, but I have added the bacteria starter.
So I just checked all my levels for the first time. All the levels are nill, with the exception of the PH it is 8.4. After testing, I did a 10% water change.
The water out of my faucet is 7.4, it is softened.
I want to add plants in a few days, but I don't want to hurt them with this really high ph water.
I know that I can add chemicals to stabilize my ph, but is this a good idea? Or is there an underlying issue causing this high ph.
I have looked into driftwood, peat balls, and a bi-monthly ph stabilizer... any thoughts? warnings? Am I jumping the gun? Will it staiblize on it's own?

I also had trouble with high pH in my tank. My pH would run 8.4-8.6 on a good day. I just found the solution in adding a DIY carbon dioxide bubbler behind my tank. It was really easy to do, and now my pH is stable between 7.0 and 7.3. Because of the bubbler, I've been able to add a bunch of live plants, and it is happy tank times all around.

I can also keep the low pH while keeping the water hardness up. Soft water can be not so good for some fish, because there isn't enough calcium. If you have a faucet that doesn't go through the softener, I'd add some of the straight hard water in on changes.

I drove myself crazy trying to deal with high pH for a year, and this solution FINALLY works without adding crazy chemicals and has the bonus advantage of making the tank extra good for plants.

Chessie

Also, if you are trying to cycle your tank, you need some sort of source of ammonia to give your bacteria something to eat. They won't move in to an ammonia free tank.

I saw one site suggest using a piece of shrimp in the cut off toe of some pantyhose. It rots, gives you ammonia, and when your bacteria cycle kicks in, you just need to yank out the one piece of shrimp, and voila, perfectly clean/cycled tank with no harmed fish.

Chessie

It might stable it self out, it might not. I went through the same exact problem with my tank, and mine did not stabelize by itself. So, I decided to go out and get Ph Down, and I put it in my tank, and a few days later my tank became perfect. So it's really up to you what you end up doing. I think your best bet would be to get a treatment. Even if your tank stabilizes by itself, the stuff is still good to have just in case

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29 Gallon Tank
1 Betta
2 Peppered Cory Catfish
3 Glow Light Tetras
3 Jumbo Neon Tetras
3 Rasboras

As far as I know most fish will adapt to any ph level. I will admit though 8.4 does seem a bit high. I know that tannins from driftwood will help lower ph. Also if you use rocks (like me) it can cause your ph to rise (I have a lot of rocks and my ph is in the range of 7.6 - 8.0).

Hope this helps and good luck.

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Hello ben...

Don't worry about the water chemistry. Plants prefer more acidic water, but will adapt to whatever comes from your tap. When I cycled my first tank, I planted it heavily from the beginning. Just match the plants to your lighting and get as many into the tank as possible.

If you'd like, get a few hardy fish into the tank too. Danios and Platys are real tough and can easily survive the cycling process. Just test your tank water every day and do your water changes and the tank will be ready to go in about six weeks, maybe less.

Just PM me if you need help!

B

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Low Tech Water Building Keeper

I am starting a fishless cycling on this tank. I don't know if it will effect ph, but i'm hoping that it gets the on the right path for the fish. I put in some flakes last night, has anyone used ammonia straight, or chopped up shrimp? I'm thinking of adding the ammonia tonight, per instructions on fishless cycling that I found online.

Oh, yeah, and I am planning to put in some plants, later this week.
That's not going to interfere with the cycling, is it?

Hello again ben...

The plants will actually benefit from the more acidic water. The plants use the waste products in the tank (CO2) as food and replace that with oxygen (O2) for the fish. Get as many plants into the tank as you can, the more, the better. The cycling process may even be speeded up a bit.

B

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Low Tech Water Building Keeper

The plants won't be hurt by having ammonia or nitrite in the water, so you can put them in pre-cycled. I tried doing a fishless cycle by "feeding" the tank food, and I couldn't get it to cycle because the bacteria just wouldn't come in. Plants from a LFS will probably have bacteria on them and help the cycle kick start.

Platys are good fish for high pH. Mine did just fine in it, but watch out for babies. If you do have babies, they need harder water to develop correctly. Too soft of water and you can have skeletal deformations in the fry.

I've got to say, I'm a convert for the CO2 system. It is awesome, and I have great pH now.

Chessie

Thanks for all the great advise.
What about the weekly 10% water change? Should I forego this during the fishless cycling?

Water changes are not needed during the cycle, if going fishless. Your ph sounds stable to me. It is very common for the ph of your water to change after a period. This is just the CO2 gassing out of the water as jc mentioned above. NEVER use ph up/down products, despite what you may read. They are just too unsafe for your fish and if your water has a high enough kh (buffers), it will be back to the original ph within hours. Not good for your fish.

Hello ben...

If you have no fish in the tank, then IMO the water change is pointless. The purpose of the water change is to remove waste from the water, so the fish don't get sick. Just top off the tank with pure, treated tap water to replace the water lost to evaporation.

Once the tank is cycled, and you add the fish, then you'll get plenty of practice doing the water changes.

Please keep me posted if you like.

B

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Low Tech Water Building Keeper

The fact that your ph goes up after you add water to your tank means that you have Seashells, Coral or Limestone Rocks in your tank. This high ph water is perfect for Rift Valley Cichlids , Livebearers, many Rainbow Fishes and Brackish water fishes. Many plants can also tolerate this high ph water, Val, Sag and probably Java Fern are some of them. A safe and slow way to lower your ph is to use Distilled Water as your replacement water. Replace 10-20% of your water every few days until your ph is where you want it.

You may also want to see if you're able to by-pass your softener. Softener systems are usually not good to be used for aquarium water.

Not easy to bypass at all. It wasn't installed with a bypass, not even for the outside spicket. If stability is key, and I won't be adding fish for about a month, then I will try to chill. I'm getting some plants tomorrow, my biggest concern is that I don't want to hurt them in this high ammonia (5 ppm) environment. It's high because I am at the early stages of fishless cycling.
The three plants are dwarf baby tears, red foxtail and green foxtail.
Anything I should be concerned with?