Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

while doing some changes to my system I ended adding some water to my FT, not too much, but PH raised from 7.8 to 8.3 instantly. Since then my 6 tilapias stay very quiet, and unless I try to touch them they don't move. If I put my hand in the tank close to them they swim very fast escaping and go to the other side of the tank and stay again there still. Can this be due to the PH change? Is there anything I can do or I just wait to see if They get used to that Ph?

Add crushed lime stone to lower ph

Actually pH will rise if limestone or shellgrit is added to an acid system eg pH below 7.
If the pH is about 7.4 or thereabouts it will do nothing. pH comes down naturally during the nitrification process although this may take some time.

I really don't know if the fishes behaviour is due to the ph change, in fact I have read that a daily change of 0,3 in PH would be normal for a correct fish adaptation so the change in my tank of 0.5 wouldn't be so much. What it's clear is that they started becoming letargic when I added the water.

What also worries me is that I don't know if they eat because they are always at the bottom and when I throw the food they don't even seem to see it. I wonder if they eat it later when the food precipitates to the bottom.

Faye, as you say I'd like to avoid adding anything to my water and let the Ph drop naturally but I really don't know what to do. Maybe I'm just worrying too much