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Hi. Little concerned about ph swing
My tap water is 6.4
My tank is 6.8
Is that to big change for fish when doing water change
I set some water aside to test tomorrow see what ph will be .
Any suggestions
I will be getting Discus in few weeks so want to make sure I got this under control
Just age your water overnight and you shouldn't have any swing. It's likely just something in the water that gases off. To be honest, I don't even own a PH test kit because I just don't think it makes a "tinker's dam" of difference. Use whatever water comes out of your tap, age it over night, and do lots of water changes=healthy discus.
I read on here somewhere the pH swings of greater than 0.4 can adversely affect your discus. With that being said if you're putting pH 6.4 water into a pH 6.8 tank the end result is going to be somewhere in between depending on how large your water changes are anyway so probably not a big deal.... but like Rick said if you can age you order overnight with an air stone and heater before you do your water changes everything should be dandy
Ok I will try that see how it works ,I have water ageing over night tonigh will test after 24 hours see what it reads .
Thanks I will be getting 2.5 discus so I don’t want to stress them .
I have a .4 pH swing. I learned found that over time the Discus got stressed if I didn't age.
Will i did water change yesterday and today found one of my angels died. Other two are fine .
It was not that big water change no more thab 30 percent .
Not sure why because i have done water. change befor with no problem
But now iam worried. Need to fix this before my discus arrive .
My ph is different after water change this is such a pain .
I put some coral i had in tanks. But plan to put some in filters as will do you think this will help .
Water from tap is 6.4
In tank today 7.0
I could not get a gh reading turned clear
At frist drop and just went to deeper orange untill i gave up trying
Kh is 3
The tank that i losted angel in is smaller tank 30 gallon not my main tank ph in that tank was bit higher. .
IAlso took rock i had i.in both tanks out of tank
Just in case .
Any sugestions ??
I take it that your on well water and not treated water.Seems you have some carbon dioxide and after aging the oxygen raises your ph to neutral and has very little Kh.The crushed coral will help.Here my PH is 7.2-7.4 from the tap and has barely a drop in ph after aging.But I need to age water for a large WC's due to micro bubbles,which is very stressful to any fish let alone discus.From the lake it is similar to yours but the city uses sodium hydroxide to bring the ph up so it won't corrode the pipes.It does not take long,maybe two days to deplete any of the bicarbonates with frequent heavy feedings and can in no time have a ph crash,depending on the feedings(more food=more ion exchange=more WC's.But since you'll be doing large WC's every day or two,the water should stay fairly stable enough by using the right amount of crushed coral.When going up in ph a bit does not adversely effect you fish as much as a sudden drop that can damage the gills.
I would not worry about any fluctuation if it's within the .3 mark. My PH slowly rises every night starting at 9pm by .2-.3 and slowly lowers every morning by 10am. My apex reading right now shows my ph, yesterday, at 9PM was 7.01, today 6am - 7.17, and 10am - 6.96. Also, if you put water that is 6.4 in a tank that has 6.8, nothing major would happen. By doing this, you will not lower the PH under the 6.4, and if you do a 30% change you'll probably only drop it to about a 6.7. My tap has a gh of 2 and KH of 3 and have not experienced any issues. My discus originally were in 7.8-8.0 ph water but my city did something to the water that its coming out much lower. Discus just like consistency.
Seems like your angel died of something else. I age my water and I use prime every water change.
I think I know what killed my angel I had three in a 30 gallon tank two pared of and layed eggs on filter intake .the tetras are fine the hill loach are fine . I need to house two more angels in there. Because my discus are comeing on Tuesday
I would set up my 55 but I can’t find a stand right now .
.my tank is steady at 7.2 I am happy with that so I will age water next. Water change and hope it stays same .
I would still try to age at least 50% of your tap water volume before I do waterchanges on 2 inch discus .
They will need a lot more than 30 % WC to grow to their potential . I would go with at least 1or 2 big 70-80% WC per week and that volume of unaged tap water can make them very uncomfortable after the WC even if the PH swing is not that significant .
I had issues when I didn't age the water even tho the ph was stable.The WC's are too big straight from the tap in most cases,nothing like good old oxygenated water;you will notice this with their breathing during and after a large volume WC.In a 30 gal.I would change 80%-90% daily on four 4" discus that were new and QT at the time.You really should set that 55 gal. up,it is the perfect size to grow out that many discus and if you miss a day or so it shouldn't become an issue.
big ph swings kill fish, i know from experience. age the water, p.s. they don't like temp dips either.
http://photosAttachment 122217Attachment 122217Face book I got a large. Storage tub and aged the water for 24 hours put in air stone and heater , I checked the ph today was 72 so close to tank ph I believe this will do trick .
I have to buy a bigger container as this was a little small for amount of water change I want to do .
My Discus have arrived 8 in all all different colours .
After I got them for few day my ammonia keep going up so I did water changes
Added media from my other tank took me while to get it established again could not figure out way it was happening then tonight I noticed my new filter had quit
My canister filter all that was running was a hang on tital 75 which was suppose to just be a extra I tried to prime the new one but it still did not work so I resorted to a old 305 that I reciently bought a few new parts for and I managed to get it working .
Needless to say that other filter is being sent back .
I did check on tank and ammonia is 0 nitrite is 0 ph is about 72 so everything
Should be ok .
Update
My Discus are doing great no issues I am ageing most of water all premiers are good ph is around 6.8 seem to be were it stays. Made my first beef heart mix today they loved it .man they like to eat .
But my German blue rams are another story. One is doing good the other two are dark color and one is hiding all time he will come out but the male chases right back