Aging water PH help

[Mustanggtandgsxr]

Hello,

I have recently started to age my water. This test was done after 16hrs with heat and an airstone. I don't see much difference in the tap water and the aging water, but the tank water ph is slightly lower than the others. Why is that? Looks like the tap water and aged water is 8.0 and the tank water is 7.4. I did a 50% water change last night with aged water and then refilled the container back up. Should I keep aging my water since there is very little difference? Any advise is greatly appreciated. I use prime in the aged water. From left to right: tap water, aged water, aged water, tank water. 93887

[DJW]

I can see two possibilities. The water might need 24 hours of ageing, or you have a low KH in the tap water. Or both.

How long prior to the test in vial #4 (tank) was the last water change?

What is your KH in tap water?

How many fish in tank, sizes, tank size?

[Mustanggtandgsxr]

I can see two possibilities. The water might need 24 hours of ageing, or you have a low KH in the tap water. Or both.

How long prior to the test in vial #4 (tank) was the last water change?

What is your KH in tap water?

How many fish in tank, sizes, tank size?

I changed the water in the tank yesterday at about 6pm. I'm not sure what my KH is. Waiting on my order to arrive with a couple more tests from Amazon. I have a freshwater test kit but does not include KH. The fish are a mix of wilds and domestics. 9 total ranging from 2.5" to 7". Tank is 125 gallon.

[Alight]

The fish by themselves explain it. They will excrete ammonia which will, through the nitrogen cycle, add acid to the water. If you do a 100% change (all the water from your tank, filters, etc.) you will get the same pH as your aged water. I'd still age the water with the airstone, even if there is no pH change, just to oxygenate it thoroughly.

[DJW]

The fish by themselves explain it. They will excrete ammonia which will, through the nitrogen cycle, add acid to the water. If you do a 100% change (all the water from your tank, filters, etc.) you will get the same pH as your aged water. I'd still age the water with the airstone, even if there is no pH change, just to oxygenate it thoroughly.

The nitric/nitrous acid produced by the nitrogen cycle can be held in check for some time if the water contains some carbonate buffer (KH). In this case a drop in pH was seen overnight, which suggests a low buffering capacity.

[Mustanggtandgsxr]

I did a ph test after 24 hrs and the ph in the aging barrel is same as tap water. How could that be? My tank ph is at 7.4 and the tap water and aged water is at 8.0-8.2. is this stressing my discus? is the tank slowly dropping the ph? Im trying to keep them happy.

here's some info on my the municipal water. https://www.citrusbocc.com/waterres/cs/ccr/citrus_springs_pine_ridge.pdf

[fishtanktenderfoot]

Many folks experience some PH shift after aging. For example, my PH will rise .4-.6 after aerating, which I think is pretty common. However, other folks will experience a PH drop after aerating. And others, such as you, may experience no PH shift. It all depends on how your local water is treated. If you have tested your PH and do not experience a difference between your tap and aged water, then that is possible, and it is ok. There are other benefits to aging water besides PH shift, but that is a big one.

As far as your tank having a lower PH than your tap, that is completely normal. Your tank PH will naturally drop farther and farther until you do a water change to bring it back up. People who do large daily water changes will see less PH difference in their tanks, but if you only do water changes every other day or less frequently, your PH swings will be bigger. Fish are OK with PH swings that go from low to high (within reason). When folks stress about PH shifts, they are typically talking about moving fish from a higher PH environment to a lower one. That is much more stressful on the fish.

[Len]

As was mentioned if your water has low carbonate hardness (KH) it isn't abnormal for your pH to drop just due to the breakdown of waste by your filtration. That being said, a the shift your seeing isn't enough to worry about. If you have a lot of microbubbles in the water you may consider aging it enough to get rid of them otherwise there isn't really any need in your situation.