pH Swing Over 48 Hours

[DISMKCUS]

Hi all,

I am new to discus and just set up my 120 gallon tank about 5 months ago. I have learned so much from this site and am embarrassed to say I just realized I should probably be aging my water (I have been doing tap to tank changes from the beginning). When I first got my discus (eight 4.5+ inch discus), I was changing 50% of the water every day, with a larger WC once a week. I had read that adult discus may not need daily WC's like the juveniles so I decided to start easing it to every other day water changes. This is when I started having problems. After a couple months of thinking it was disease/other issues, I went back to large daily WC's thinking clean water was the best route.

It has taken me months to figure out that my pH drastically changes over 48 hours. The water that comes from my tap is 7.4 pH. After 24 hours it rises to 7.8 and after 48 hours it settles at 8.2. I now realize the every other day WC's were probably shocking my discus.

I have a few questions:

-I assume I should be aging my water for 48 hours before using to stabilize the pH - does this mean I should be changing the water every other day? What percentage should I change? Could I go longer since I purchased high quality adult fish or is that not advisable?

I am not trying to cut corners on caring for my fish (have been doing daily WC's for months) but I also don't want to be worried about taking a weekend trip and my pH fluctuating and killing my fish because I went 2 or 3 days without WC, so ideally I'd like to know a safe way to change it every other day or every third day.

If I do start aging my water for 48 hours before use, how do I adjust my current tank (somewhere around 7.4-7.8) to the higher pH (8.2)?

Open to any and all other suggestions - thanks in advance!

[Ryan925]

Hi all,

I am new to discus and just set up my 120 gallon tank about 5 months ago. I have learned so much from this site and am embarrassed to say I just realized I should probably be aging my water (I have been doing tap to tank changes from the beginning). When I first got my discus (eight 4.5+ inch discus), I was changing 50% of the water every day, with a larger WC once a week. I had read that adult discus may not need daily WC's like the juveniles so I decided to start easing it to every other day water changes. This is when I started having problems. After a couple months of thinking it was disease/other issues, I went back to large daily WC's thinking clean water was the best route.

It has taken me months to figure out that my pH drastically changes over 48 hours. The water that comes from my tap is 7.4 pH. After 24 hours it rises to 7.8 and after 48 hours it settles at 8.2. I now realize the every other day WC's were probably shocking my discus.

I have a few questions:

-I assume I should be aging my water for 48 hours before using to stabilize the pH - does this mean I should be changing the water every other day? What percentage should I change? Could I go longer since I purchased high quality adult fish or is that not advisable?

I am not trying to cut corners on caring for my fish (have been doing daily WC's for months) but I also don't want to be worried about taking a weekend trip and my pH fluctuating and killing my fish because I went 2 or 3 days without WC, so ideally I'd like to know a safe way to change it every other day or every third day.

If I do start aging my water for 48 hours before use, how do I adjust my current tank (somewhere around 7.4-7.8) to the higher pH (8.2)?

Open to any and all other suggestions - thanks in advance!

How are you aging your water? Usually seems 24 hours is enough. Maybe you can increase circulation and surface agitation and you can cut the aging time to 24 hours

4.5" fish are not quite adults. At that size they still have growing to do although 8 in a 120 daily wcs may not be necessary. Care to share more about your setup?

Is this tank bbq? Other fish? Scape ? Etc

[DISMKCUS]

Hi there, I actually have not begun aging my water as I just discovered my pH changes over time (I ended up testing the pH of my empty quarantine tank which has not gotten a WC in 2 days and that's how I discovered the huge difference). I have been doing daily WC's tap to tank in my main tank (matching temp and adding full tank dosage of Prime prior to adding water). I do, however, have the ability/space to begin aging water, looking for suggestions on exactly what the best way is to do it.

My current setup actually only now has 3 discus (4 died from issues early on which I'm guessing might have been related to pH or possibly disease from my cardinal tetras from the LFS) and 1 I sold. Other tank mates include 30 cardinal tetras, 5 cories and 6 loaches. Just a few small amazon swords and sand bottom. 2 110 aquaclear HOB filters, 2 heaters, and a long air stone which spans 2/3 of the tank (lots of aeration).

My 3 discus are about 4.5", 5", and 6".

Thank you so much for the quick response - I believe my tank is pretty well aerated/agitated so not sure how much more I could add. What about adjusting my fish to 8.2 pH and doing 90% WC every other day from 48 hour aerated water? Any other suggestions?

[Ryan925]

Hi there, I actually have not begun aging my water as I just discovered my pH changes over time (I ended up testing the pH of my empty quarantine tank which has not gotten a WC in 2 days and that's how I discovered the huge difference). I have been doing daily WC's tap to tank in my main tank (matching temp and adding full tank dosage of Prime prior to adding water). I do, however, have the ability/space to begin aging water, looking for suggestions on exactly what the best way is to do it.

My current setup actually only now has 3 discus (4 died from issues early on which I'm guessing might have been related to pH or possibly disease from my cardinal tetras from the LFS) and 1 I sold. Other tank mates include 30 cardinal tetras, 5 cories and 6 loaches. Just a few small amazon swords and sand bottom. 2 110 aquaclear HOB filters, 2 heaters, and a long air stone which spans 2/3 of the tank (lots of aeration).

My 3 discus are about 4.5", 5", and 6".

Thank you so much for the quick response - I believe my tank is pretty well aerated/agitated so not sure how much more I could add. What about adjusting my fish to 8.2 pH and doing 90% WC every other day from 48 hour aerated water? Any other suggestions?

What you need to do is a take a 5 gallon bucket and aerate for 24 hours then compare to tap. With lots of surface agitation that will likely result in your 8.2 in 24 hours rather than 48.

If that's the case then you will want to age in a barrel with a heater for your wcs. I would not try and alter your tank ph. That will likely do more harm than good. You could do 50% wcs with aged water over s period and make the transition gradual. It is far less stressful for them to go to a higher ph than to a lower one

[DISMKCUS]

Ok thank you! I will age my first batch tomorrow and test the pH again.

[Phillydubs]

You should test your water for nitrate ammonia nitrite as well each day. See how it starts to climb and that will tell you how often you need to do a Wc

You may also consider re homing the discus that are left and starting fresh w a bigger group or adding to what you have but if you QT you are looking at 6-8 weeks before you can add