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Maximum pH delta with drip acclimation

Neptune's Neighborhood

Member
5 Year Member
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53
Location
Orlando, FL
I'm finding conflicting reports of how much of a pH swing freshwater fish should be able to withstand, or at least the rate of acclimation they can stand.

Say going from 7.5 to a different tank that's at 6.5, what would be a reasonable amount of time for drip acclimation to avoid any shock or negative effects? I know different fish are of different sensitivities, but let's say this range is within range for the species.

Just wondering if anyone has some expertise on this. Thanks!
 

dw1305

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
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2,755
Location
Wiltshire UK
Hi all,
There isn't a standard answer. The problem really lies with pH as a measurement, primarily because it is a ratio.

I'd wager that relatively few people (including those who comment on pH issues on a lot of forums) actually understand what pH measures, and the chemistry that underlies it. I'd strongly recommend reading <"Regani's"> posts on this forum, because he is both a chemist and an Apistogramma keeper, and really does understand water chemistry.

The bottom line is that what effects fish are changes in water chemistry. <"hard water to softer water">.

In alkaline buffered water you have a lot of bases (H+ ion (proton) acceptors), and you need to add a lot of acids (H+ ion donors) to change the pH, because pH is the ratio of H+ ion acceptors : H+ ion donors. This is why the pH in the sea, or Lake Tanganyika, is both high and very stable, you have to add a huge amount of acids to counter act both the bases in solution and the reservoir of bases, (these are "buffered" systems).

In soft water you don't have a reservoir of carbonate buffering, and the pH can range from very low levels (if you have a source of acids like dissolved CO2, or the humic acids in "black-water"), to very high levels where there are more bases, often due to the addition of a strong base, like sodium hydroxide (NaOH). This is the situation in a lot of UK tap water.

pH will rarely be stable in soft water, because very small changes in water chemistry cause large changes in pH.

You can use conductivity as a an estimate of water chemistry. If your pH 7.5 water has a conductivity of ~500 microS, or greater, it is likely to be alkaline buffered water, and drip acclimatization is probably a good idea if your pH 6.5 water has a conductivity that is much lower.

cheers Darrel
 

gerald

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Messages
1,491
Location
Wake Forest NC, USA
Following what Darrel said, two tanks can both have pH 7.0 and yet have VERY different total quantities of ions and relative amounts of those ions. The fish's ion uptake and ion excretion mechanisms (gills, kidney, intestine, etc) may need to adjust to the different ion balance in the new water, even if pH is the same. This is why you often see fish breathing faster after being moved (aside from the fright response), or after a big water change in a tank that hasn't had a change in a long time. So to answer your question ... I don't know, and anybody who confidently offers you a definitive answer probably doesn't know either.
 

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