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I'm currently setting up an aging barrel to help elieviate any unnecessary stress in water changes do to bubbles and chlorine. But my pH starts at 7.0 or 7.2 (I'm color blind I'm sorry I try my best lol) and drops to 6.6 or 6.4 in about 15hours. I have yet to see someone get a concrete answer as to how much of a swing is a bad swing so figured I'd start a thread to see. Thanks for any info
If you are aging your water, then you have eliminated any issues with a pH swing. Unless that swing is after it’s in the tank.
im aware of that and thats why im setting up an aging barrel. i just want to know how much of a ph swing is actually considered bad. cause as far as i know my ph drop from tap to tank isnt that bad, but im new to discus and have been wrong before so im curious. is .6 ph change drastic and unhealthy? is .2 even too much? or is a bad ph swing not until you hit a change of of a full number??Quote:
Originally Posted by LJSmith
Downward PH swing is much harder on fish than the other way around . Downward and sudden PH drop shouldn't exceed more than 0.3-0.4. during a WC.
Luckily you have an upward swing when your WC , so I think that 0.6 would be tolerable shift .
But regardless of the PH swing you still have to take care of Gasses and microbubbles during the WC. That's why it would be better if you age water especially for big WCs like + 50% tank volume .
I think that you can get away with unaged water when you WC up to 40% , but should age when you do more.
Work on getting your tank to buffer the same as your barrel water after its aged.
IMO you are fine with a .2 swing. My swing is .4. It goes from 6.8 to 7.2. I found that it stressed the fish over time.
I'd suggest you test your KH. KH and ph go hand in hand. A low KH or zero KH will allow for more ph fluctuation while a moderate or high KH will tend to stabilize it by buffering. I keep my KH around 5 or 6 to keep water ph steady....which it is. Just my thoughts.....
My kH is 4.5 and I have no problems with a pH swing in my tanks. Of course I change water every day...
I use an RO/DI automatic water change system. I used to reminerilize in the RO/DI barrel before addition to the tank, however now I just have my apex send me an text message when the pH drops to 6.0, I then just dump some seachem equilibrium and baking soda in until the pH is 7 (ish) again. It's only once a month or so. I see 0 reaction in any live stock dumping the powder in the sump vs keeping it steady in the barrel.
Hello, How do you keep your KH at 5-6 to maintain stable PH??
I have practically 0 KH and unfortunately as a result PH fluctuates, what can I do without adding a bunch of buffers?
Is equilibrium by seachem the answer
thks
Many keepers here uses crushed coral in their filters or just add baking soda to raise the Water KH Peter. It's something worth considering.Quote:
Originally Posted by petshannon
Equilibrium only adds GH and doesn't raise the KH. As Philip mentioned, crushed coral is a popular method, but not the only one. I pour a cup of my lovely tap water (KH 23) in once a day when I feed, it keeps the pH from falling too far.
I’ve been keeping my KH between 3-5 by mixing one part basement tap to four or five parts RO. Of course, you’ll have to test your tap as it’s surely different than mine. My API Test PH is 7.6 to 7.8 all the time while my digital tester says 7.5 to 7.6. Fish are doing well w this PH as long as it remains constant. A low, but ever-present, KH helps assure me that there will be no PH swings.
My pH goes from 7.6 out of the tap to 8.4 after 15 hours. Fish can live through this (direct water change from shower head) but they seem to clearly prefer aged water. I did direct water changes for two years and it worked, but it was hard to grow fish out and it took forever to refill the 75 gallon tank due to it coming from a shower. They deal with the shock of going from 8.4 to 7.6, then the bounce back to 8.4 over the next few hours - they can live through this but they prefer to have aged water for WC at pH of tank water.
I am currently battling a mystery variable with new fish from Hans and am wondering if my pH at 8.4 is the issue, even if it is extremely stable due to my aging of the water.
Cammietime,Quote:
Originally Posted by CammieTime
If I read your post correctly.......8.4 to 7.6 and then back to 8.4 is too much PH swinging. One way or another, you have to find a way to make the PHs as close/stable as possible. Maybe additional aging containers would do the trick. In any case, plz figure out a way to minimize such changes. Remember that each one number PH swing is a factor of 100x +/- acidic or alkaline, not a mere one. Lastly, check the KH levels as a decent low KH can greatly stabilize PH movement acting as a buffer to changes. Hope you work this out.