# Too high ph



## SingSangSung (Jul 14, 2013)

I just did 50% water change and tested my water parameters and... ph came out to be 8. I am so confused. I have driftwood. And itnstill makes the water brown. I also noticed smell of the water stinks when I leave it for 3 days without partial water change. I do 100% water change weekly. I do have java moss, amazone swords, anubias, anacharis, and java fern. It is 5 gallon with 2 inch gravel substrate. My tank do have some white web like algae and typical green algae on my rock caves. My question is ph is too high and why driftwood is not helping to bring the ph down?


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## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

Your pH isn't too high. Not unless you are keeping extremely sensitive wild-caught species of fish from softwater environments. I believe there are at least a few hobbyists on this forum who keep their bettas successfully at a similar pH. 

Your tap water may have a high KH (carbonate hardness), which makes your pH more resistant to change. This does have the benefit of preventing potentially dangerous pH crashes. 

With bettas, it's better to have a pH that is stable and slightly out of the 'recommended range', than a pH that is constantly fluctuating because you are attempting to alter it chemically. 

Driftwood will only do so much. If you really want to bring your pH down (which isn't necessary), you would need to use something like Reverse Osmosis water.


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## SingSangSung (Jul 14, 2013)

Oh my god. Ammonia is .25ppm. Nitrite and nitrate is 0ppm.


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## SingSangSung (Jul 14, 2013)

Oh lol. I will pass on that idea. Okay cool so as long as my ph is constant 8, it should be fine. Thx!


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## ThatFishThough (Jan 15, 2016)

SingSangSung said:


> Oh my god. Ammonia is .25ppm. Nitrite and nitrate is 0ppm.


As long as you do a partial water change you will be fine. Do you have a filter? Heater?


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## SingSangSung (Jul 14, 2013)

ThatFishThough said:


> SingSangSung said:
> 
> 
> > Oh my god. Ammonia is .25ppm. Nitrite and nitrate is 0ppm.
> ...


Yea. Have them. The fact I test water after partial change and ammonia didn't came out to be 0ppm... urggggggg


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

If you follow this tutorial everything should fall into place.

http://www.bettafish.com/30-betta-fish-care/507585-cycling-two-sentence-tutorial.html


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## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

Just wanted to mention that the one 'danger' of a high pH, is that ammonia converts to a more toxic form at a higher pH. So 0.25ppm of ammonia at a pH of 6.5 is less harmful than 0.25ppm of ammonia at a pH of 7.5. This is another reason where altering pH can have potentially fatal results, particularly in an uncycled tank. 

If you are still getting readings for ammonia following a water change (how long are you waiting after water changes to test the water?) means that you may need to either increase the frequency of water changes, or increase the amount of water you are removing with each water change.


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## SingSangSung (Jul 14, 2013)

LittleBettaFish said:


> Just wanted to mention that the one 'danger' of a high pH, is that ammonia converts to a more toxic form at a higher pH. So 0.25ppm of ammonia at a pH of 6.5 is less harmful than 0.25ppm of ammonia at a pH of 7.5. This is another reason where altering pH can have potentially fatal results, particularly in an uncycled tank.
> 
> If you are still getting readings for ammonia following a water change (how long are you waiting after water changes to test the water?) means that you may need to either increase the frequency of water changes, or increase the amount of water you are removing with each water change.


I checked ammonia and ph lvl again and I got ppm for ammonia and 7.8 for ph. Im trying to cycle my tank. It's been almost 2 month.


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