Ph

[BIGFOOT]

I can keep my water within .3 of target ph. Would this be considered acceptable?

[ShinShin]

Can you elaborate a bit?

Mat

[BIGFOOT]

Between water changes I get a .3 fluctuation in ph. Is this ok? Anything you want to know just ask.

[gators111]

Depends, is the fluctuation down or up? If it is down, you're fine. If it is up, it depends on the ph. 6.0 to 6.3 shouldn't be a problem. But 6.7 to 7 might be a problem, b/c the ammonium would "switch" over to ammonia.

[Alight]

In a cycled tank, there will be no ammonium to switch over to ammonia. So if the tank is cycled, 0.3 pH change in any direction is no problem at all.

The exception would be at very low pH. If down near 4.5 or so (I forget where the lethal pH is) , a 0.3 drop be near the survival area for your biofilter.

[BIGFOOT]

Ok now that i got a little input here is what I am doing. I know most people says there no need to adjust the ph for discus. Butt mine 8.0 after it is aged and I am not comfortable with this and I thought having the knowledge before ordering my fish would be a benefit. They might come from some one who has a low ph. and if i am able to adjust mine to match there it would make it a easy transition. What do ya think????

[ShinShin]

I've kept discus at 4.0pH with no problems. In fact, I had some Heckles at 3.8 for several weeks.

I am a believer in keeping discus in pH of <7.0. If you have storage barrels, I'd adjust the pH to match the incoming discus shipment. Otherwise, as Alight stated, a 0.3 differential matters not, either way, up or down.

Mat

[Alight]

To adjust water of pH 8 down to less than 7 is likely to be problematic. Most water with that high a pH will be quite hard. This means it will be highly buffered. This means that it will take quite a bit of acid buffer or acid to bring the pH down to less than 7. You will also experience considerable "bounce" and it may take days or weeks to get a stable low pH.

If you are going to adjust it down, you should soften it first (if it is very hard). To do this, the cheapest way over the long run is to mix with RO water, then adjust the pH.

I really don't consider pH changes to be that hard on a fish. I've gone from 6.8 to 7.6 and the fish don't even seem to notice it. You can do it slowly by slowly mixing the water the fish arrive in with your water over many hours to reduce the shock.

Changing hardness over large ranges quickly will probably cause more problems than rapid pH changes over 1 pH unit or so.

My recommendation would be, that if you really really want to adjust pH, get an RO unit, go for GH of 6 or less, then adjust the pH to where you want it. Be aware that this will also kill your KH, so you'll have to be really careful to monitor your pH forever after that, as the pH will change quickly with any changes, such as if you don't change your water for a few days, or if you change a larger amount than previously.


I do change my hardness and pH (one of the few here) to get to 4-6 GH and 6.6 pH. However, my well water is quite hard and pH 9.0. I really don't recommend that others do this unless they are pretty OCD.

[Alight]

Shin-shin, I mentioned the low pH possibility of killing fish, because a friend of mine here went on vacation, and the people caring for his tank didn't know what they were doing, and the pH in his tank went to 4. something, and he lost a bunch of discus. I assumed the deaths were due to the low pH, that caused the death of his biofilter, because I didn't think the pH itself would kill the fish, but of course, the deaths might have been due to some toxic build up from wastes, as the pH lowering was probably due to nitric acid from waste breakdown.

Al Light

[BIGFOOT]

To adjust water of pH 8 down to less than 7 is likely to be problematic. Most water with that high a pH will be quite hard. This means it will be highly buffered. This means that it will take quite a bit of acid buffer or acid to bring the pH down to less than 7. You will also experience considerable "bounce" and it may take days or weeks to get a stable low pH.




I do monitor my ph with a Pinpiont ph monitor. I have a gh hardness of 9 degrees. Butt believe it or not I only use 1.5 teaspoons of acid buffer per 25 gallons and this makes my ph drop to 6.7 then it slowly goes back to 7. This all takes place in 24 hour period.

[ShinShin]

Alight,

I agree with you on your last post. I had 10 discus in a 75 gal tank and did a minimum of 50% daily water changes when I had a pH of 4.0. The Heckles got 90-95% daily changes. I was trying to trigger a spawn. The male was anxious to go, but the female wouldn't. I was afraid to go lower than 3.8pH.

Mat

[Alight]

Bigfoot, how big is your tank? What kind of acidic buffer are you using? Something is not making sense here.

Al Light

[BIGFOOT]

30 gallon and Seachem Acid buffer.



Ps I also have a custom made top that has 1.25 inch cut on the corners at a 45 degree angle times three places. Which means i get little air exchange at the surface of the water. And this tank is filter solely by a sponge filter.