Dealing With Water Chemisty (High PH, hard, massive swings overnight)

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Rokuzachi

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Feb 9, 2011
Messages
625
Location
Texas
So, my tap water tests concur with the water quality report for my area in regards to PH. It's also on the low end of being hard.

Straight from the tap PH: 9.7-10.0
Sitting in open container for ~12 hours PH: 7.6-7.8

Is it just me thinking it, or is this the start of a bad dream for my future fishkeeping?

I have a water changer, but if my PH out of the tap is this high, I'm assuming I can't use it to refill during a PWC as I've read that big PH swings are very dangerous for aquarium life. Will I have to prep water for PWCs by leaving it out over night, or is there another cheap way? I've never run a RO/DI unit before and I'm not really looking to spend money on one at the moment.

Any tips, links or stories of your triumph over a similar problem are greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
Well I usually wouldn't recommend a ph product but in your case you might be better off. Unless you are willing to fill your tub and allow the water to sit over night I wouldn't see any other options. I use to use a PH product for my water at my old house and it was also a water conditioner. It's made by API and is called proper PH. It brings your PH to 6.5. I used it for about 3 years without any issues.

Here's it's packing label

Automatically sets & stabilizes pH at 6.5. Removes chlorine & detoxifies heavy metals.
Great for Tetras, Discus, Angels. Contains Aloe Vera and electrolytes to reduce fish stress.
Use when setting up an aquarium or changing water.

Hope that helps

Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium
 
The good news is, your pH looks good after it reaches equilibrium. 7.6-7.8 is very manageable. I would not add any pH altering chemicals to your tank. It is a recipe for disaster. Especially in your case. Just get a good size bucket and let the water sit for 24 hours before you do a PWC.
 
+1 for NOT using any chemicals.

I suspect that your water had been "limed": pH artificially raised (to reduce pipe corrosion) by CaO (or related chemicals). Anyways, the effect is temporary, and the pH reverts to original after exposure to CO2 in air.

It is quite possible that the amount of lime used is quite small in spite of the large pH rise. Therefore, it is possible that you can do small pwc's without any major pH swing. Unless you can measure the ionic content of the water, you will have to experiment to see how far you can push the water. <Do this outside of your fish tank of course!> Have some water in a bucket equilibrated to air (make sure the pH is stabilized - should match that in your tank), then do a pwc in the bucket & see how much pH swing you get. If it is less than 0.1 or 0.2, you are good to go. In general, you can do ~ 10% pwc without problem. <This is the same procedure for people using cc to raise pH in their tank & pwc with pure water .... just the reverse.>

Once you know your limit, you can do pwc up to your limit. <But to be safe, add the change water slowly - like over 10-15 min so any pH swing will be minimized.>

The optimal way of course is to aerate your water before hand like Fort said, but it can be a bother (esp. if you have a big tank), so I am offering an alternative. <OTOH, you might find that your safe pwc limit is too low for your comfort & invest in a bucket anyway ....>
 
Thanks a lot guys! I'll do some experimenting this weekend and get it sorted out. I've got a week or two till my stand gets here from the distributor so I'll have plenty of time to figure it out.
 
I don't know how large your tank is, but since it seems like it stablized in 12 hours, you could get a couple of those 5 gallon water bottles (the hard plastic ones meant to go on a water cooler) from the grocery store and fill them from the tap the night before you do a water change. I have a couple that have moulded handles on the sides so they are easier to manipulate.
 
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