pH complications

[juanitoman]

ive been keeping fish for about 8 years or so, but ive never really considered checking pH till now that im resetting up my larger aquarium. So i bought the "API pH test kit" and it gave me a reading of 7.6 or greater, so i went back to the petstore and bought the "Seachem pH Alert" that goes from 5.8-8.2 and its giving me a reading of 6.2.
i changed the location of the Seachem and tried the API test kit again but both keep giving me the same different levels as before.
so i was wondering why this is so??

[MatsP]

If you live anywhere within several stonesthrows of Austin (that is, your water comes from the Edwards Aquifer), I'd expect the API testkit is reading a bit low and the Seachem kit is reading WAY low - pH 8.0 or slightly higher is what you'd get from the tap.

I don't know the pH for EVERYWHERE in Texas, so it's entirely possible that either of your readings are correct, if you are outside of the Edwards Aqufer area. But I believe around San Antonio and Dallas are both similar to Austin.

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Mats

[juanitoman]

yea i live in San Antonio,
and so what can i do to get more accurate readings?
i want to get my pH around 7.8-8.2
My tanks been up and running for 2 weeks.
i already added chemicals for the chlorine, ammonia, nitrate, and nitrites.
now i just wanna get the pH right.

[MatsP]

Scrolling down this page:
http://www.saws.org/our_water/waterqual ... arts.shtml

shows that typical value is 7.7, and ranges from 7.3 - 8.1. So you may want to add some calciferous rock if you want to up the pH.

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Mats