high ph

Question
QUESTION: hi christy,
the ph of my aquarium is 9. my clown laoch died just today, i have peat moss undermy gravel. kindly suggest.
regards
tarun

ANSWER: Hi Tarun
What was the ph normally like before?
What do you have in the tank-any rocks or sea shells?
What kind of substrate do you have in there?
Anything else you add to the tank-chemicals etc.?
Try testing your tap water, take a glass of water and test it.  Let the glass sit out for at least 12-24 hours and test it again.  What are both of those readings?

Christy


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: i have never tested ph ever before..lately i bought a ph test kit and i found that the ph of my aquarium is 9 and the ph of my tap water is 9 too. as asked by you i chked the ph of my water after 24hrs and it is still 9. i dont have any sea shells, corals in my tank..i have one holy rock and it did not give any bubbles after putting some vinegar on it. i am using polished gravel..perhaps it is epoxy coated. i had put some fe2so3 tabs in the substrate.
lately some one suggested to use some lemon juice in the aquarium andi happened to use half of lemon..i know it sounds ridiculous but i was totally lost.

ANSWER: Hi Tarun
Well, that's the source of your problem then, your tap water.  Your best bet is going to be to use another source of water, like bottled spring water or RO water.  If you use RO water, you need to get a treatment for it that adds the minerals back into it, since during the RO process, it removes everything from the water.

I've never heard of using lemon juice, but have heard of adding vinegar.  Same concept, they're both acidic, so that would help lower the ph and hardness.  Peat moss added is also supposed to help lower ph, but you've tried that and it's obviously not working.  Like I said, you're best bet is going to be to use a different water source.  Here's a link to read through, it explains about ph, kh, gh, etc. and ways to lower the ph.  

http://www.drhelm.com/aquarium/chemistry.html

As for the lemon juice/vinegar use, I've never tried that.  One thing you have to be careful of, like with using chemicals that raise/lower the ph, they may temporarily work, but if the water isn't buffered correctly, the ph will shoot back up or down which will stress the fish.  

Read that site, and let me know if you have any more questions.  Again, with a ph that high, really your best bet is to start using a different water source.....

Christy

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: hi christy,
you were so right..i checked my rock again more closely...and i noticed some bubbles coming out of it ...i am also using some clay pots for some of my plants....can these clay pots tamper with ph.i added almost half a litre of ch3cooh to my 90 gallon tank over a period of time...but cant find any significant change.i bought these clay pots from a local market and they are porous.

Answer
Hi Tarun
Didn't you say your tap water was coming out with a ph of 9.0?  If so, that's why the tank water is high as well.  Did you do the vinegar test on the rocks in the tank?  You can try to remove those rocks if they bubbled or foamed, not sure if that will help much though if your tap water is 9.0.  

The clay pots...not sure if you're from the US, but we have these orange colored terra cotta pots at the stores.  Those are safe to use in aquariums, adn they won't alter ph.  If you're from another country though, I'm not sure what the clay pots are made of.  

Is ch3cooh a chemical that lowers the ph?  I wouldn't recommend using it.  LIke you said, you didn't see a significant change.  Sometimes what will happen with those chemicals, they will lower it, but after awhile, it will shoot right back up(or crash real low if you're trying to raise it) which will kill the fish.  

Read through that link I provided before, it explains everything about ph, kh, gh, etc.  You can't alter one without altering the other.  Your best bet is going to be to use reverse osmosis water.  

Christy