Breeder says to lower PH B4 Fish Arrive - need advise

[JPW]

I am purchasing some discus my PH is 7.8
The breeder says I need to lower my PH.

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Here is what he says:

My discus have never been in the water with a ph
higher than 7.5. You must lower your PH to between 6.5
and 7.0 before the arrival of the discus fish from me.
It takes one week to stabilize the pH at this level.

- After the new fish are doing fine in your
quarantined tank for one week, you may raise the PH
gradually to whatever level you'd like.


Using salt or any kind of medication in the
quarantine is not suggested.
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My other discus do well at 7.8 and I don't want to make a change to all my tanks, or my 200 gal holding tank.

How can I do this?

or....... can I assume they will do fine at my PH level?

Jim

[paul_burney]

Hi Jim

I dont do anything special when i get new arrivals here they go from the bags straight into the tank my Ph here in Illinois is 7.6 and my tank temp is 88f for new fish i also use salt for the first few days at 2tbs per 10 gals HTH you
Matt Parsons lives Wis. near Green Bay he might be able to sell you some fish and Cary Strong is in Mich outside Detroit ( Great Lakes Discus). Im not saying your breeder is wrong i just never did it that way and i havent had any trouble my way.

[fcdiscus]

The higher ph will not affect them. I disagree with the breeder who told you that. Frank

[brewmaster15]

I disagree as well. :)

-al

[Carol_Roberts]

I disagree as well.

[GoodMike]

Now, is it true if your ph is lower than the breeders you need to slowly adjust them?

[fcdiscus]

Yes, that is true. Frank ;D

[flogger426]

frank,

i agree with everyone here - if the bio in your tank is running good the higher ph of your tank water should be no problem.

in my experience though i find that my fish have less problems over the long haul when my ph stays closer to 7 or below.

[ronrca]

I find that if you do not have RO, adjusting ph can really be difficult and a pain. I was always crashing my ph in my storage tanks so I figure that if I can not keep a steady ph and trying to lower, it will not be good for my discus either. As long as I acclimatize them slowly and properly, they will be fine! ;)

[Carol_Roberts]

Make it easy on yourself . . . Cary Strong (Great Lakes Discus) and Jeff Young (discusFarm.us) both keep their juvenile discus in pH 7.5+ (banners above)

[OEG]

Unless your ph is extemely higher or lower than the breeder you dont have to do a thing about it, i have had fish of all ages in low and high pH. I do like to keep my crowded tanks at lower ph so that amonia changes or increases are less likely to affect them at that point.
Oscar

[Keystonediscus]

Taking fish from a lower PH to a higher PH is less Dangerous than going the opposite way I aggre with Frank and Carol the Breeder is wrong. I also Use a 2 TBSP salt to 10 Gals Water Treatment on all new imports here for the first week to help them heal fins that get damaged or torn during shipping. Usually the are eating a few days after arrival.

Taking a fish use to 7.0 water and dumping him into a ph of 6.0 will burn fin edges off. I would recommend in either case slowly acclimating the new arrivals in a 5 gal bucket with a peice of airline tubing running tank water to the bucket at a mild drip. This will minimize any concerns for PH differences as the water will reach an Equalibrium in about a 1/2 hr

[jaydoc]

A question for you Pro's that came to mind from one of the above posts. Is it true that ammonia is more harmful at higher Ph? I kinda forget my chemistry but I seem to remember that there is more harmful, ionized ammonia dissolved in the water as the acid-base curve shifts toward higher ph. In other words , one must be even more careful to keep ammonia at 0 if ph is high.( Clean water, clean water, clean water!) The total ammount of ammonia doesn't change but the percent in harmful, ionized form does. Does anybody else understand whart I am refering to?
Cary

[Carol_Roberts]

Yes, ammonia is less toxic if pH is less than 7.0
NitrtItes are less toxic if pH is more than 7.0

[April]

the ph being low is one reason people are now opening the bags and dumping the fish straight into the tanks.
as.. in the bag the ph is low and the ammonia in the bags is ok. when you add higher ph..to a bag or bucket..of your new fish.. the ph goes up.. and the ammonia is more toxic. so..you could get fried gills and melted fins.
ive always just cut the bag.. reached in wiht my hand..and caught the fish and straight into the tank. never a problem. usually always going up in ph and heat from the bag to the tank.
and ive always used higher heat about 90 and salt for new arrivals. gradually you can lessen it with wc.s once their eating well etc. also the heat.
i agree on breeder choices. :thumbsup: great after sales care from both of them.. and both will give good advice.
let us all know what you get..and how it all goes. thanks. and good luck. very exciting getting new fish. ;D

[M0oN]

I've been told by a lot of people that discus display better behavior in softer lower pH waters then in higher. I'm currently getting an RO unit and slowly lowering my discus' waters from 8.0 pH to probably around 6.5-7.0 I'll post results as soon as I get them.

It's my opinion that you can keep them in your waters, though and that the only thing you'd need to make sure to do is acclimate them slowly before just dumping them into the tank.

[alex_m]

Hi,

i wanted to ask everyone, how can you take a fish from pH 6.5 and dump it in a pH 7.8?

IMO you need to acclimate the fish in a bucket.

thanks

alex

[delmore]

From what I understand, the bucket method - (adding water from the new tank and replacing water from the tank the fish came) over a period of a half hour or so, is useless.

[Carol_Roberts]

As stated, Discus can go into a higher pH without much trouble - unless the pH is way higher. . . . . You have to be very careful putting them in lower pH.

If you have higher pH, your best bet is to try to get the quarantine tank fairly close in pH to what the discus are used to by using RO or distilled water rather than messing with acid.

[M0oN]

In order for the bucket method to work you need to have an airstone and heater in the bucket and use the drip method, tieing an air hose off loosely so that it only drips small amounts of water.

Even this is pretty stressful, like Carol said your best bet is probably to put them in a quarantine tank with a lower pH and slowly increasing the pH day by day with partial water changes...or vice versa, whatever the case may be.

[alex_m]

Ok, i got it.

alex