Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

No, water from an external source like a stream or a local well. Looking for water at 7 ph. Where you get your fish, what is the Ph. bring your ph test kit along. Moving fish from 7 to 8.6 is instant death for them. a few points are Ok but not 1.6. You might need to truck in water like I did for years in 30 liter containers. Looks like your tap water is no good for fish. Can you get bottled water? Check it also. You need better water.

My media is raising the pH I took some bottled water and tested the pH it was under 6 then dropped my media in and tested the pH and waited about 30 minutes and the pH was over 7.6

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Wow, that is a fast rise. What are you using as media? It is good to see you took the time to do some testing. Do that same water test at where ever you get fish next time and compare it to their new home. Don't want to kill the next lot also. I am surprised it passer the vinegar test with no bubbles. Try it again with dry media. Maybe it was too wet and you got a false reading. Maybe what you have will never bubble. Test what you can. Maybe you have a mix in the media and can just remove the bad stuff by hand. Any yellowish stones?

There is some yellow and white stones I ditched the pea gravel. today I went out and bought some hydroton. I'm hoping that was the problem and this fixes it tomorrow I can set it back up and get it cycling!

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Run the same water test again with the new rinsed off media. If it stays constant you got it figured out. Hey a 30 minute wait is worth it. just do a glass full to be sure.

Yea defiantly thanks for the help deuem

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Hey its all good. Everyone here is working to keep things alive. We all have our failures. That is how people learn. Good luck with the new media and post the PH as you find it.

hi this is a very common question for all new aquaponics starter. Normally calculate one fish for five gallon water depending on tank size.Gold fish are very good for aquaponics.You can add 10 gold fishes in your system.

How is your new media and Ph doing?

The water in my system is at 8.4 right now I did a complete water change washed everything out and set it back up. The water in my area has a pretty high ph.

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Wow, your water seems like it has no buffers in it and goes where it want to go. Your tap is 8 and it climbed 0.4 with media. If you used tap 8ph water to rinse the clay then it will take up a lot of water from the tap @ 8. If you have some of the original dry media, don't tap water it, just toss it in a glass of bottled water and test. If the bottled water test remains around the 6 level then I would guess your tap water is worthless for fish. No buffers in it and you will need to bring water in that does. What ever water you get, test it, dump in the media and test again. If you can, wait 24 hours. Let it soak for awhile.
Have you ever kept fish in this water before? If so, things have changed on you. Maybe a new source for the water. I would also call the water company and ask them what PH they are giving you and if anything has changed recently. Your area is being hit with a drought and maybe they bought water from else where. 8 is fine for humans, 8.+ will kill fish. I used to use the tap water straight up to the tank until one day it changed and a water change killed my fish also. Testing everything with test kits can get expensive so we were able to get packs of PH paper strips. The pharmacy sells them. They look like office yellow note pads the stickies. Much cheaper. Like a hundred for 1 buck.
Are you using the new media on the last report you posted of 8.4 ? I would try to boil a glass of water and test it also. Maybe be there is something alive in it that is growing very fast. Some germs or single cells. The surface area would help it grow very fast. More testing by you is needed for sure. Forget the fish till the Ph is sorted out.

Forget the fish till the Ph is sorted out.[/quote]
Is there anything I can use to lower or should I just wait it out

Normally the pH will come down over time but it may take a long time. It's possible to use Hydrochloric acid (HCl) (aka muriatic acid) to bring the pH down faster. It's best not to adjust the system water directly because it's easy to overdo it. The best way to do this is to adjust your top up water to a pH of 6.5 using HCl, let it sit for at least a few hours, test the pH and adjust if it's drifted. Continue this until it's pH is relatively stable after sitting, at this point you can add it to your system. Make sure you know what you are doing and follow the precautions on the container. Do this every time your system needs some water added and the pH will come down gradually.

The method above is for if you have any fish. You can go faster without fish - just take a bucket of system water and adjust that then add it back into the system (after waiting to make sure the pH has stabilized). You could probably do this all at once but try to adjust it to around 6.8 to 7.2 over a period of 2 or 3 days. The bacteria and plants need time to adjust, just not as much as the fish. You may find the pH keeps going back up, that's what buffers in the water will do. Don't get discouraged and don't rush it. Over time the acid additions will use up the buffer and force the pH down

Either way I think it will work out OK. I'm not certain how you added the fish last time but next time I'd do a couple of things.

1. Salt the water to 1ppt (1g/L) using uniodized salt that doesn't have any anti-caking agents. You can probably find some of this in the bulk bins (seasalt with nothing added is fine). This helps the fish build a slime coat and helps them with stress. If your growing strawberries then you should know that this will likely kill them so you may want to skip this.

2. Gradually change the pH of the water the fish are in by adding a bit of your system water. This gives them time to adjust. You can put them in a bucket or appropriate container and aerate them while you do this. They might survive the initial shock of just being dumped in but it makes them susceptible to other problems because of the stress.

Thanks Scott that is some helpful info I'm gonna give this a shot over the weekend

+1 on what Scotty said. I would pass on the sea salt though. It is much stronger and easy to screw up. I use just old plain table salt with no additives.
Cam, I think what you need to do now is to list your tests. What water, what media, what results, before and after if possible. Your tap water is spiking very high and goes to death with the media you had. Try the old media with the #6 ph bottled water also. We need a list to evaluate better. Can you get any other water local to you? If so add it to your testing.