I have a small 250 gl pond that kinda fades off from a set of brick stairs into stone surrounded preformed pond. I believe that the run off from this is very small if any would this keep my PH around 8.4 I hear bricks have lime??? or cement
All levels are at zero amonia, nitrate and nitrite....... tap water (that i fill the pond with and top off) is at the lowest PH barely even calculated in the test my PH has always been around 8.4 since the 5 months I have had the pond
Should I consider this my normal PH and test to that level or is this to high. All fishy's are happy and healthy

thanks christi

What was the lowest level of your test kit (or rather the pH of your tap water)? A pH of 8.4 is fine for a pond. Some koi keepers would say it's perfect! I try to stay below a pH of 8. The pH tends to go up even in ponds that don't have things that leach to increase the pH and hardness. Those things include cement, mortar, cinder blocks, some bricks, limestone, etc. You can test the bricks and stones by putting one in a bucket with tap water. Aerate the water and measure the pH before you add the brick. Then, measure the pH at the same time each day until you see either no change or a pattern that the pH is going up. Small amounts of leaching may buffer the water at a pH of 8.4 like you have but larger amounts raise the pH sometimes above 9 which is then dangerous for sure for the fish.