HOW TO CONTROL PH SWINGS.

[yusufm52]

Hello everyone, some members might already know me, from my thread 'Filteration for a 250 gallon build'
And for members that don't my thread here is a quick history,
I had purchased 4 discus 6weeks back and as the group was small I got 3 more 1week back, and had some problems with the tank but as I am a newbie it is normal I guess in this hobby.

My problem is that my tap water changes its ph, so I kept my water for aging but aftr 24 hrs the ph went up from 7.8 to 8.0, and then in the next 12hrs upto 8.2 and I don't know how do I control this?
And since my water parameters keep changing the fishes are also not getting used to it, and I know stability and consistentcy is the key to this hobby, any kind of help is greatly appreciated.
Forgot to mention the fishes are 3" in size.
Thank you.

Yusufm52
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[DiscusDrew]

That's pretty unusual, usually airation fully swings the Ph within 24 hours. Two options my friend, increase the amount of oxygen and CO2 displacement by adding more airation, as in adding more air stones. Option 2: set up a second aging barrel so that you can allow the water to age longer before you add it to the aquarium. This would allow you to continue doing daily water changes without putting water in the tank that is not fully aged. If you take option two you will need to allow the water to age until the Ph has swung as far as it will, which sounds like 36 hours. HTH

[yusufm52]

I am ready to setup two aging barrels but the thing is its when I shift to my 72 gal tank, I wud need to do a 35-40 gal if not daily but alternately, so how much aeration is required? And what other thing affects the Ph to swing so much?
Yusufm52
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[DerekFF]

No big deal. If you used 24 hour aged water at 8.0ph and did a 50% WC on tank water thats 8.2ph there would be such a minimal ph change that no one would ever know or care in the tank. Just age for 24 hours and call it good

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[yusufm52]

No big deal. If you used 24 hour aged water at 8.0ph and did a 50% WC on tank water thats 8.2ph there would be such a minimal ph change that no one would ever know or care in the tank. Just age for 24 hours and call it good

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The 8.2 is not in the tank but still when its in the aging barrel.

Yusufm52
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[jimg]

No big deal. If you used 24 hour aged water at 8.0ph and did a 50% WC on tank water thats 8.2ph there would be such a minimal ph change that no one would ever know or care in the tank. Just age for 24 hours and call it good

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2+1 maybe do smaller wc's and let nitrification keep it stable

[nc0gnet0]

No big deal. If you used 24 hour aged water at 8.0ph and did a 50% WC on tank water thats 8.2ph there would be such a minimal ph change that no one would ever know or care in the tank. Just age for 24 hours and call it good

+2 Your worring too much about things that the fish won't even notice. Your trying to avoid large PH swings, and the ones you posted are very minimal. With what you have posted, I wouldn't even be afraid to do 30-40% water changes straight from the tap, unless I had very very young fry.

Rick

[yusufm52]

+2 Your worring too much about things that the fish won't even notice. Your trying to avoid large PH swings, and the ones you posted are very minimal. With what you have posted, I wouldn't even be afraid to do 30-40% water changes straight from the tap, unless I had very very young fry.

Rick

So your saying that even if the tap water is at 7.6 and then aftrwrds it gets to 8-8.2, and I directly do 30%-40% WC, its a no problem? :)

Yusufm52
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[Keith Perkins]

If you're doing 1/3 WCs and the pH of the new water is swinging from 7.6 to 8.2 the water in your tank after the WC should only be swinging about .2 I believe (.6 * 1/3), which is nothing. So +3.

[MostlyDiscus]

So your saying that even if the tap water is at 7.6 and then aftrwrds it gets to 8-8.2, and I directly do 30%-40% WC, its a no problem? :)

Yusufm52
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NP from 7.6 to 8.2 or going from 8.2 to 7.6 . Your fish wont think twice about ph going up or down.

[DiscusDrew]

I think the original recommendation was still aging your water but just for 24 hours, and to me that sounds like your safest most stable bet. My Ph has the exact same swing that yours does almost, I go from 7.6- 8.2 after aging, it has only caused problems straight from the tap on new arrivals but I still prefer the stability of my Ph when its been aged 24 hours personally. Mine goes all the way to 8.2 in 24 hours though, I've done plenty of changes with water aged only 12 hours where Ph is 8.0, in these cases the fish don't notice even a little.

[yusufm52]

Well I have setup an aging setup, so I'll just use the water which has been aged for 24 hrs. Thanks everyone for your help.

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