# Alder Cones RAISED my pH?!



## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

I put in a couple of handfuls of alder cones into my 16 gallon last night, and my pH rose from 7.2 (measured right after putting the cones in) to 7.6 this morning!

The water is noticeably darker this morning, so there's a lot of tannin being leeched, so I don't understand why my pH rose. My kH is 1-2. I'm using tap water with Amazonia.


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## woopderson (Feb 12, 2014)

Now that is odd, if anything your PH should have dropped! How old is the amazonia?


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

woopderson said:


> Now that is odd, if anything your PH should have dropped! How old is the amazonia?


Only a couple of weeks old.


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## woopderson (Feb 12, 2014)

Weird for sure! I'm afraid I might not be able to help here, but I will definitely follow along to see what happens.


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

So I checked again today, and the pH has gone back to around 7.2. Strange, not sure what's going on here.


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## woopderson (Feb 12, 2014)

Glad to hear its back to normal. I was speaking to my GF yesterday, who is a biologiest, and we both agreed that alder cones shouldn't be enough to alter the ph by that much. 

I would almost wonder if you got a bad reading from your test kit, or if there was something else that went on. Do you have any rocks in your tank?


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

It could be a problem with the test kit, as I've had it for a long time, though I would think that if the test was expired, it would give the same wrong result all the time instead of fluctuating.

It's also possible that the cones temporarily changed water chemistry in some way. I was just wondering if anyone else had experienced this.

On a related note, my gH test refuses to turn green no matter how many drops I put in.

Oh, and I have lava rocks in the tank, but they've been there since the beginning.


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## woopderson (Feb 12, 2014)

I can attest to getting odd readings from the liquid test kits every once in a while. I found that as the bottle neared the bottom, it became more reactive and gave readings way higher than they should be. I picked up another kit and it read normally. This happened with API PH and Ammonia tests.


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## darkangel66n (May 15, 2013)

PH will always be higher in the morning then in the evening. Once the lights go out plants use oxygen and release CO2. This causes an upward PH swing. You need to test at the same time every day to get an accurate reading.


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## streeker02 (Apr 11, 2014)

darkangel66n said:


> PH will always be higher in the morning then in the evening. Once the lights go out plants use oxygen and release CO2. This causes an upward PH swing. You need to test at the same time every day to get an accurate reading.


Would this not cause a downward swing? On a low tech tank?


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

darkangel66n said:


> PH will always be higher in the morning then in the evening. Once the lights go out plants use oxygen and release CO2. This causes an upward PH swing. You need to test at the same time every day to get an accurate reading.


More CO2 would give lower pH, no?


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## darkangel66n (May 15, 2013)

It should, but there is no other effect I can think of to explain the difference. That is why I suggested measuring at the same time every day.


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