How low is too low?

[johnnyjellybean]

So the babies are on the backs with this latest spawn I have going here. I checked PH this morning and noticed it had dropped to 5. The babies seem fine, but I'm, thinking I should do a water change and raise it.
Any suggestions or opinions?
Thanks

[Willie]

You're lucky to have such soft water that the pH can drop to 5.0!

I've had discus go through pH crashes completely unscathed while other fish, e.g. Corydoras, were burnt. However, doing water changes is always a good idea with fry. Start with a 30% - 50% change just to make sure you don't make the parents overly anxious. Then increase it daily.

A common mistake is to assume fry do not contaminate water because their total mass is so much less than adult fish. In fact, water quality declines rapidly from ammonia accumulation. You'll notice that fry breath very rapidly and every breath releases urea from the gills. Urea breaks down into ammonia in the water, then nitrite, then nitrate. So water quality drops quickly in tanks with large spawns and large water changes are highly recommended. I'm always concerned when people post that they can breed discus in small (~20 gal) tanks. Yes you can, but larger breeding tanks favor better fry development.

[johnnyjellybean]

You're lucky to have such soft water that the pH can drop to 5.0!

I've had discus go through pH crashes completely unscathed while other fish, e.g. Corydoras, were burnt. However, doing water changes is always a good idea with fry. Start with a 30% - 50% change just to make sure you don't make the parents overly anxious. Then increase it daily.

A common mistake is to assume fry do not contaminate water because their total mass is so much less than adult fish. In fact, water quality declines rapidly from ammonia accumulation. You'll notice that fry breath very rapidly and every breath releases urea from the gills. Urea breaks down into ammonia in the water, then nitrite, then nitrate. So water quality drops quickly in tanks with large spawns and large water changes are highly recommended. I'm always concerned when people post that they can breed discus in small (~20 gal) tanks. Yes you can, but larger breeding tanks favor better fry development.

Thanks. I did a 30% change and brought it up to 6. The fry didn't seem to react in any way. Yes, the water is pretty soft here and comes out of the tap at anywhere from 60-80 TDS.

[pitdogg2]

I had breeding pairs and fry in a ph of 4-4.5.
No problems what so ever.
In the 80's I used straight R. O. Changed 50% every other day.