pH help

[YIACrazy]

I'm not great with water parameters. I'm trying to keep daphnia. I've got a little daphnia indoor daphnia tank going and it seems to be doing well. Some floating plants..... No nitrates... Ect. However, the pH ha climbed to crazy. Like off the chart crazy. It might be too high to actually measure. I may have some CC leftover in the substrate, but that would not cause such an increase. I treat it like my tanks. I've never had an issue with pH going high. Nitrates sure.... And yes, I'm confused how there are no nitrates.... Unless a handful of guppy grass is that good at cleaning up after a 10 gallon filled with daphnia. I've been doing daily water changes with distilled water. Gallon per day for two days  thus far. pH is still max on the test.

Help... But more important, please teach. Thanks.

[tolstoy21]

Try a different test kit? What are you usIng now? Could just be a false reading caused by a bad test or improper testing.

Water tested immediately after it comes out of a well can have a lower ph than it will have after it’s been just sitting or aerated/agitated for a day, but after that I don’t think the ph will rise unless you’re adding buffer.

Crushed coral acts slow and tends to top out around 7.4 ish in my experience, but It could probably could go a tad higher in some else’s water, but not into the 8’s.

Do you have any hardscape that could be contributing to this? Like Texas Holey Rock (but that should not go crazy high and act more like crushed coral).

What does your KH read? Distilled water should be zero. But maybe without buffers is could also trend high? My experience is that without buffers, Ph tends to go low or stay neutral if it’s clean and has no decaying waste to acidity it.

Edited April 10, 2021 by tolstoy21

[YIACrazy]

Thanks. I tried the new test strips and they said it was very low pH so I was reluctant to believe it....It has CC. (like as low as the strips would read), I tried the tetra test strips and it was as high as it would read. (8.4) the thing is purple.... And yes, I know that purple is usually a nitrate color....I double checked. I didn't make a mistake. So I grabbed the API. "PH Normal" was off the chart dark blue. "pH High" was off the chart purple....so I'm confident that whatever water chemistry thing is going on, the pH is really that high. Ammonia is O, Nitrate is O, Nitrite is O, kH appears to be about 40. I have about 8 guppy fry in there doing fine, but momma died.... Which is why I tested the water. Some guppy grass.... Not much.... Glass covered with algae of course... Heater and lights. I don't touch the bottom... Gravel vacuum and such. I know the guppies are picking off the young daphnia, but the cycle will go around and the guppies will be out of there. Hope to get nerites snails. This is the first time I don't have detritus worms so I'm liking it. They just got a 25 % fresh water rain (distilled water change) and the pH didn't budge. Not good at Math and I'm not sure about what caused the pH spike to begin with. I'm not even sure how high the pH actually is. I can do a 25% change every day, but it's kinda pointless if I don't know what caused it. Only thing in the tank is gravel with some CC in the substrate.

Thanks