[Pencil2Print]

my PH is through the roof. Insanely high. I so far put some driftwood in the tank, but I feel like I'll need more power and I want to avoid chemicals if possible.

I believe the cause of the increase is that it's leaching from the rocks. my water tested good.

So I got some peet moss, but I have no idea how much to use for a 20g tank? Some ideas how much to use? Do I need to replace it every so often?

 

[duanes]

What is the actual pH, that you consider insanely high?
Mine is 8.2 and perfect for the plants and fish I keep.

 

[mbucaro]

Have you tried putting vinegar on the surfaces of your rock? I was having a similar issue, I put vinegar onto a few of my rocks and they started bubbling, once they where removed the PH stopped increasing and my drift wood was able to keep my PH in the range I was looking for.

 

[Pencil2Print]

It was off the charts high. I have to get a high-range pH tester to see for sure. All my fish died, and I feel like that's the culprit and I want to get it down.

@mbucaro I never tried vinegar- what do I do, soak it in vingar?

 

[Le duke]

No. Vinegar is a mild acid that will react with any basic substance (pH >7). Just put a couple of drops on your rocks and if any bubbling happens, you now know that those rocks are releasing KH-increasing material into your water.

 

[duanes]

I had heard many rumors about Almond leaf ability to lower pH (along with sunken logs.
My 180 has a number of thick logs in the 4 ft range.

My 8.2 pH has never wavered.
So as an experiment, I started adding almond leaves, because almond trees are common here in Panama where I live

Adding about half dozen leaves per day, for about a month, it got to a point where the substrate was littered a couple inches thick with leaf litter, but pH of the tank never dropped even a tenth.
I believe if your waters alkalinity (buffering capacity) is strong, It won't matter, until the leaves, (or peat, for that matter) overwhelm that strong lakalinity, which may then create conditions for random pH crashes.
The benefits of the tannins as anti-bacterial agents may be worth the effort though, tinting the water the color of tea.

I have heard of people using Roeboos tea in tanks to attain that effect, although I have not tried it myself
My tank gets tea colored seasonally with lots leaves that fallen naturally.

 

[TriconTech]

Have you thought about an RODI pre-filter to your tap water as well as testing the rocks as already mentioned?