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I've wonder and wonder and wonder why my aquas ph is allways rising. My tap water is acid and it "becames" basic in a few days...

I got two aquas, one with air pump and the other without, i don't think that there is any other significant diference bettween then, but in the one with the air pump the ph is more or less stable witch dosen't happend in the other one.

I've tested the substrat and the water, what i've discover was really strange:

I've use two glasses one with gravel from my high ph aqua and other with just water. I've tested the water from the two glasses a few days after. Both waters had rise there ph value from 5 to 8.

People tell me that it is because of CO2 solved in the water, and that the air pump should even rise more the ph. Also tell me that something on the other aqua is keeping the ph low, but I can't figure out what could it be...

What should I do? I'me affraid that this ph flutuations will somehow damage my fishes, I change a few gallons of watter every week and so the ph will variate from 6,5 to 7,5 every week or so...

Smaug,

Tap water pH will generally rise as the water "degasses". You may accelerate the degassing by storing the water for a couple of days while you heat and aerate it. If you are doing a 20% water change each week, why not do a 10% water change every three days and age your water in a five gallon bucket or two.

__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

thanks man! you cut right to the point and i've asked a lot of persons and no one could tell me a tip!

I supose i can use my old aqua to fix the water, with heater, filtration and air pump I'll let the CO2 go away, afterwards i'll fix the ph and them it'll be ready to go to the aquarium. right?

Pretty much... aging, aerating and heating the water in your spare aquarium will do the trick.

__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright