Best method of matching perameters for w ch on dry tank

[Walshy]

Hey guys. Just hoping to find out some people's methods. I find it very easy to get low ph. I have even had to add small amounts of corals to stop it from crashing down well past 4. My water has basically 0 kh and 0 Gh. I have begun adding Gh into the water to get 1 Gh because the fish need it. My concern is that when I do water changes it fluctuates my ph and seems to be the key reason I loose a lot of fry (water out of the tap is ph7.) Is it ok for me to match the ph using ph down on my new water or is there a better way to go about it? My fry are always very resilliant up untill I start changing water. Just wondering if there is some good advice out there u can give me? I generally try and aim for a ph no less than 5. But it seems to continue to drop down further unless small amounts of corals are added. I also recently picked up some elizabethae sao gabriel wilds. And the key to keeping them happy is steady ph from what I have read. Although some threads appears to be pointing the opposite way? Is there anything I am missing or is adding ph down to the new water to match the current ok to do? Thanks for your time.

 

[Walshy]

The heading was ment to say fry tanks not dry tanks :| my phone doesn't let me change it. Stupid auto correct lol.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

And the key to keeping them happy is steady ph from what I have read. Although some threads appears to be pointing the opposite way? Is there anything I am missing or is adding ph down to the new water to match the current ok to do?

You can't keep pH stable in very soft water, unfortunately a lot of what is written about pH is written by people who don't understand what pH actually measures.

Fluctuating pH, in very soft water, doesn't kill fish.

Because your water has 0 dKH, your water company may be adding NaOH to your tap water, which would raise pH, without adding any dGH or dKH. If you add an acid (I assume that "pH down" is HCl based), this is an H+ donor (definition of an acid). As soon as you have added enough H+ to neutralise your OH- ions (bases are "H+ ion acceptors"), your pH will decline to very low levels (potentially off the bottom of the pH scale, as HCl is a "strong acid").

I use water from my main fish tank as a water change for fry tanks, in this way you can change 100% a day without any problem.

cheers Darrel

 

[Mike Wise]

For super-soft water tanks I don't use tap water. I use water from a container that is processed to have approximately the same pH and hardness as the the tank water.

 

[Walshy]

I don't have the option of using water from the main tank because the fry are still in the main tank (newly hatched) but once I move them to a grow out that's the way I'll be going I think. As for processing the water to be of the same value. How do u process it without adding any ph down products?

Would u say that it is something different other than my ph swing when I change water that is killing off fry? Once again. Thanks for the input. It is much appreciated.

 

[Mike Wise]

I do use something to lower pH in my r/o water. I cycle the water through sphagnum peat. It will lower the pH, increase the conductivity (but much less than the commercial chemicals) and raise the hardness (but, again, much less than the commercial chemicals). If find it not only more effective than commercial products designed for this, but is much less expensive, too.

I can't say why you're having this problem. Realize that fry of some species are more sensitive to changes in water values than others. You may need to check the water values in the tank just before you change water and compare it to the change water. If they are very different, then you might want to to several 5-10% water changes over 2-3 days instead of a 25-50% water change all at once.

 

[Walshy]

Thanks for the advice. Sounds like I needa get some peat and A large water container. Hopefully I'll be able to raise a lot more fry