To age water or not age water? .5 pH change

[Jeffress77]

So, after testing my pH from the tap (softened well water) I am getting 7.4-7.5 consistently and the display tank water and the holding tank water holds at 8.0

My question is, would this .5 swing have a negative effect on the fish?

These are larger, 5" -6" discus.

I am asking because if the .5 pH swing is not going to be detrimental to the fish, I am going to skip the aging / hauling buckets. I will just get the water changer hose and go right from the tap after I get the temp set correctly.

I know that the pH changes automatically from daylight hours to dark..so I would think that if the fish don't have an issue with this change, than a .5 swing with water changes would hurt either.

[pitdogg2]

well no you should be fine, BUT I must ask why is your pH changing daylight to dark? planted tank? My pH stay's the same day and night and yes I do have a few plants in pots.

[Jeffress77]

I have Anubias and Java Ferns right now. I have not checked the pH in the night vs. day, I just know that the diurnal fluctuations in pH are controlled by photosynthesis, resulting in higher pH levels during the daytime.

[pitdogg2]

I do not find that the case for me and my Anubias day or night. I do not use any Co2.

[Jeffress77]

Ok, I will test to be sure, but regardless...I just want to be sure that the .5 change will not be too harmful. It would really save a lot of bucket carrying. haha

[pitdogg2]

your good

[DISCUS STU]

Minor upward ph swings like this shouldn't present a problem. Usually they have to be sudden extreme downward swings to have some type of affect on the health of the Discus.

Discus can also take extremely acidic water w/o much of a problem. In the past I've neglected my regular water changes only to find that my water was in the 4.0 range w/o very serious long terms problems other than that I needed to make a water change pronto to correct this. Even more acidic than that and burnt eyes and gills can result and also worse.

[Jeffress77]

Yes, STU, thanks. I remember reading about that a few years ago when I was raising Discus. I think I will look into the water changing system rather than siphoning buckets.

[warblad79]

Also depending how much water you changing, if the you change 20%-50% probably the PH is not going to swing much. If I do 100% WC I would definitely age my water for 24Hours and add Safe.

[Jeffress77]

This is a 55G setup, and I usually change 25g every 3 days.

[DISCUS STU]

On my 55g, 60g, and 90g, I do 50% water changes about every 2 or 3 days with water straight from the tap w/o a problem.

I add Prime at 2X strength, connect my siphon hose directly to the tap and let 'er rip. I don't test the tank water's ph before I change the water but know that my municipal water is about 7.3 and relatively hard, which is a good thing to stabilize the ph. I don't age the water as I don't need to, nor do I have the storage capacity for this type of thing. I run pretty heavy filtration through two Eheims in circuit which may help process all of this as well, but that's only a guess. I do have a 50 gpd RO system but that's usually only for qt and breeding pairs, when I have them.

This works for me with my local water and under my conditions. Whether it would work for someone running only sponge filters with different local water conditions I can't say.

[Filip]

You can watch the fish behaviour and conclude what to do from that alone.
I haven't yet bought a ph meter and measured the ph difference,but I can see that my discus are pretty stressed for a 20 -30 min after a Wc.They breathe heavily and don't move.
I plan to age the water for that reason only.But I do large 80% wc.

With your 25 % wc. Im sure that they don't notice any difference.
But since you will go straight tap and have only55 g. Tank, you could/should do 50% each wc.