i am soo frustrated with my water

[SnakeIce]

I had good water, happy disease free fish and growing plants early this spring. tap was ph 7.2-3 and normal for that range

this summer when the water switched to another source the water is very hard, ph as high or higher than 9.0

a month or so into this change I started carrying water from the good source(the 7.2 water) to my house to do water changes cause the fish were getting sick and the plants were/are dieing

now I have been using the good water for a month now and stilll can't get the ph to near nutrall it stays about 8.0 NO MATER WHAT I DO!!!!! I just want to get it back to what worked before and I freekin can't

the water I am doing changes with is ph 7.2 and all that has done is stop the ph from continuing to go up in the tank

nothing I do works all i get is more algea and not plant growth

and nothing but the water has really changed about the tank well and of course it looks like sh#@$!

i am at the end of my rope if you can't tell

[Hebdizzle]

what kind of substrate and rocks do you have in the tank? these commonly can raise the hardness of water

[SnakeIce]

the same as I had this spring that did't seem to affect the hardness at all.. there were a couple I had to remove two years ago when I set the tank up but that should be long gone

to answer your question better small natural gravel I got at lfs, 'river rocks' that I checked befor I put them in and most recently(9 months) peices of broken common pottery



one other possibility is that it has been so hot that I have kept the lid open to cool the tank and it looses at least a gal and a half a week recently. but would that consentrate the hardness that much?