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davebote
04-06-2011, 03:50 PM
Hello everyone

I am having some problems with a high PH creeping over 8 -8.3
with in a few days. back ground on the water, well water PH out of the hose
is usually 7.2 - 7.4 fish tank is about 50gal sump tank 25 gal
the only thing I have added to the water 3 cap fulls of stress zyeme
for water clarity. any advise would be help full

badflash
04-07-2011, 04:05 PM
Are you using any other stone in your system besides the hydroton?

davebote
04-07-2011, 08:52 PM
no rocks are added in the tanks,

rfeiller
04-07-2011, 09:23 PM
what happens with just plain well water with aeration? you may find the pH will rise particullary if the water is oxygen depleted out of the well.

keith_r
04-08-2011, 05:37 AM
do you mean that no rocks were added, or none to the growbeds, but some in the tank?

i'd remove it, unless you have an undergravel filter - if the gravel is in the tank, what kind of gravel is it? limestone will cause your ph to rise as will other types of "gravel"
don't add any more stress zyme, the ph will drop on it's own through the nitrification process

davebote
04-08-2011, 06:37 AM
sorry for not making myself clear last post, There are no rocks in the fish tank. I am only using hydroton
for my grow media. As far as aeration, I'm running a 4 line air pump 3 lines going to the fish tank, 1 to
the sump. I have 2 algae eater fish in the sump tank. I also have a small pump in the sump cycling water through
PCV with small holes drilled in it running into the fish tank (see picture) So I'm pretty sure oxygen levels are good. The fish are
extremely active and seem to like higher PH levels. I have added organic PH lowering fluid. Not sure of the name off hand. the
PH will drop but by the next day it's back over 8.0
Should I consider doing a water swap and cycling without fish for a few days?

Just think I should probably explain how the system works. my main pump is in the fish tank running on a timer.
It cycles on for 30min every hour (during the day). timer cycles the pumps at night 30min every 3 hours.
when the pump is running it cycles water into 2 grow beds shown in the pictures
and a 4in pcv line shown in picture above. The water then cycles back into the sump tank. I also have a small pump located in the sump
it cycles on the same 30min cycle as the fish tank pump. The sump pump runs water through 2 vertical towers located outside of the green hose
see picture below, from there the water runs into the fish tank to a 1in pcv line with the holes drilled in. I have equalization line connecting
the 2 tanks to keep water levels even. The air pump runs 24/7 and the light for fish shuts of during the night.

keith_r
04-08-2011, 08:06 AM
your ph will drop.. don't add anything besides food for the fish
some of those aquarium chemicals aren't made to be used for fish you plan on eating

davebote
04-11-2011, 04:35 PM
It has been over 7 days and the PH is still 8.2 - 8.4 not sure if I should change the water out.
I also wanted to note that the ammonia levels .25ppm and have been at that level for weeks.
Also I'm am not getting any readings on nitrite & nitrates

rfeiller
04-11-2011, 09:13 PM
personally i would change out the water and if the problem persists you can either deionize the water through resins or reverse osmosis.
on the other side of the issue if you are going to raise fish such as tilapia they love hard alkiline water, nitrifying bacteria love it, you will just need to find the crops that have been developed for your type of water. from an economic standpoint that is what i would do.
i had a similiar situation in central texas, water soft pH in the sevens after a day or two the pH would be in the mid 8's. i could not break the buffers using natural means such as acid peat. (peat will soften and acidify water) with acids such as pH down it required way too much for the safety of the fish.
bass, catfish and perch native to the area did just fine. the soil had a hardpan of calichie (sp) a limestone. :)

keith_r
04-12-2011, 05:35 AM
what's the temp? it took my small system at least 3 weeks to start cycling using aged humonia in our northeast ohio cool spring (may and june last year).. i was getting ammo readings, stopped adding amonia when it hit 2 and stayed there, for what seemed like forever, then it finally started and i got rites.. a few days later the rates finally showed up..

urbanfarmer
04-13-2011, 08:36 PM
WHAT are you using to read the pH?!?!? Perhaps your instrument is FLAWED?

As far as "pH down" you can use hydrochloric acid or sulfuric acid. HCl is not harmful to fish as the Chlorine it will leave behind volatilizes into the air. H2SO4 leaves behind nutrients for the plants. My local Lowes sells 2 gallons of 31% HCl for $9 or so. Compare that to your $20 8 ounce bottle of pH down, and you will appreciate the savings!