Water Ph

[Adam - Sydney]

How is everyone? good i hope.
Anyways my problem is that my Ph in my tank with borelli in has suddenly had a jump in ph. I was wondering if anyone had any idea why?

The full story... my tank is a standard two foot. It has one pair of borelli in it, 3 harliquin rasbora. It has lots of plants and drift wood (well for a 2 foot anyways). I have recently had a lot of algea growth, green. I havent changed anything that i do with them. The ph is usually down around 6.3. I do not add anything to drop the ph. I have never needed to. The filters are an undergravel with a power head, and a hang on filter with purigen as its medium. My tank is usually crystal clear nice ph about 6 hardness. My other tank is 3 foot, same type of set up and its ph is exactly the same as normal.

So my question is what can raise ph and also what can i do to keep lower ph's without making the water brown (i dislike that). I have heard that purigen can keep out tanin colour whilst leaving ph low. Can anyone back that up?

Thanks for the help, quick response would be apprieciated as im sure youve guessed im a bit worried.

oh last ph check was approx. two weeks ago.

Thanks Adam

[farm41]

what is the Ph now? You said a jump in PH, but how much?

[Randall]

Hello Matt,

Concerning the higher pH, are there any carbonate rich rocks, shells, or substrate in your tank that could be leeching into the water? If so, remove them. As for the water's brownish coloration, many rainforest fishes love it. To control it, you can either step up the water changes and/or add activated carbon to the power filter.

In the wild, Apistogramma borellii live in slightly alkaline water, so a slightly higher pH should not be a problem for your fish.

Good luck!

Randall Kohn