Yet Another PH question

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Malachite

AC Members
Jan 10, 2005
103
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Ok. I have learned alot from the different PH threads and have a few questions. Here is my setup to the question:

I am on a well and my well water is PH'd between 7 and 7.2. It also has 0 Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates. My tank has three Amazon sword clumps and two Caboomba clumps for plants. I am using a simple gravel substrate with UGF and powerheads. I have a simple overtank filter with Bio-Wheel, charcoal and I think Zeolite (Ammonia remover). I hae a 75G tank with three Otto's and 6 danio's and a lot of snails that snuck in on the plants. My tank has been setup for a couple months now and the cycle appears to be complete. At the current moment and for the past week my Ammonia, Nitrite and nitrates have all been hanging very near to 0.

Question 1: I don't have many plants. I was expecting a nitrate spike but it has never occurred. Are my few plants absorbing all my nitrates? I have not done many water changes. Probably only 1 in the past month.

Question 2: My PH seems destined to rise. It rose to about 7.8 and that is when I performed about a 15% water change. That dropped it to about 7.5 and the next day it was back up to 7.8. Any idea what is causing this rise? Is it the normal biological process?

Question 3: Assuming this is normal what is the best thing to naturally lower my PH from the 7.8 back to near the 7 range?
 
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