pH jumps sky-high in a blink of an eye! Advice Please..

On Saturday, 25 March 2000 08:00:00 UTC, manofmilk77 wrote:
If you don't know my fishs' story please refer to recent
posts...

Last night's parameters... Ammonia, 0. Nitrite, 0.
Nitrate, 0. Temp 73. pH 7.8. (both tanks)

Two Black Moor in one 29 gallon tank.

Oranda and Veiled Ryukin in another 29 gallon tank.

No meds currently.

Recently had two shots of Baytril.

Currently being fed MediGold (antibiotic) food.

Seem to be recuperating from Columnaris (fin rot & internal)

Tanks' only about 1 week old. Filtration on each is 170
GPH biowheel.

Salt is a little less than 1 tbs per 5 gallons (aquarium
salt)

Ok, HERE IS THE SITUATION

Woke up this morning and the parameters were same as last
night (see above) except there was about .20 ppm ammonia in
the water. pH was still 7.8.

Had bought some plastic plants a couple days before, ripped
off the little gravel holding cup things on the bottom, and
attached suction cups with '''''Aquarium Sealant'''' on
which the tube said 100% pure silicone rubber. Directions
said to leave for 48 hours before putting in water. We did
so, and after checking this morning's parameters like said
above, we installed the plants into each tank. No more
than several hours later, I started a routine partial water
change on the first tank. I tested the pH once more on
both tanks and was STARTLED!! a little under 9.0..........
What the heck?????? And this is before I put any of the
new water in. 1.2 pH change in under 4 hours?!? I
proceeded to complete a 50% water change on both tanks
which made them 7.8 again. It's been fine since (about 10
hours so far)

My QUESTIONS:

1) What could this half day pH ROLLER COSTER do to my
goldfish assuming it doesn't happen again??? What signs do
I look for if they do or are suffering from some kind of pH
shock? (upon reading on PureGold.com, I realized that the
pH shouldn't change more than .2 every 12 hours, but this
was after this afternoon's incident)

2) What could have caused this? The plants? (just plastic
from LFS) I soaked them in hot water.. The Aquarium
Sealant?? (isn't this stuff made for the insides of
aquariums?) NOTHING else was changed or added to the water
between when it read 7.8 at about 12 noon till it read 9.0
at about 3 pm.

3) How can I prevent this from happening again? I
understand that buffers help stabilize pH, but that would
require changing the pH somewhat.

Any advice, knowledge, or suggestions would be appreciated..

Thanks in advance,
David





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hi and id just like to say...i would also like to know if fake aquarium plants can effect the ph that much...i put in lots of fake plants with a stone like base...every new fish i put in the tank after that would die within 24 hours...i think its ph shock..so just wondering...do fake plants effect ph?