pH mystery

[fishdad]

Got it
I understood but thanks for checking up

 

[Deckape]

Just wanted to.make sure. I couldn't stand the thought of causing a mishap.

 

[WhiteWidow11]

Quick question, sorry to hijack. I use a buffer to mimick lake malawi etc and everyone tells me cichlids will have better colors etc at higher ph. My species prefer 7.8 - 8.2. My tap is 7 and I achieve consisten 8.2 with my buffer additave. My fish have great colors and fins. Well I am about to run out of the buffer, and after reading this thread, I'm undecided on continuing to use it. Will my fish be less colorful or less healthy at 7?

Thank you

 

[eco23]

Quick question, sorry to hijack. I use a buffer to mimick lake malawi etc and everyone tells me cichlids will have better colors etc at higher ph. My species prefer 7.8 - 8.2. My tap is 7 and I achieve consisten 8.2 with my buffer additave. My fish have great colors and fins. Well I am about to run out of the buffer, and after reading this thread, I'm undecided on continuing to use it. Will my fish be less colorful or less healthy at 7?

Thank you

You definitely don't want to just instantly stop using the buffer. The shock of sudden change is what is deadly to fish. I do not know specifically about cichlids, but the general rule of thumb is to acclimate your fish to the water quality you have instead of constantly adjusting parameters whenever possible. I would get a second opinion before you make the change (lol Deckape!), but personally I would slowly ween them off the chemicals over the course of many teenie tiny pwc's. Look at it this way...for the sake of easy math (I know they're not realistic numbers) if you had a pH in the tank of 6, and tap pH at 9... If you did a 50% pwc you would instantly have a pH swing of 1 1/2 points. That would be absolutely devastating to your little swimmers. Im sure it would be more complicated than that because there's other factors I'm not considering like alkalinity levels, dissolved solids, buffers, etc... (I'm not a chemist), but in principle that's the way I understand it.

 

[Deckape]

You definitely don't want to just instantly stop using the buffer. The shock of sudden change is what is deadly to fish. I do not know specifically about cichlids, but the general rule of thumb is to acclimate your fish to the water quality you have instead of constantly adjusting parameters whenever possible. I would get a second opinion before you make the change (lol Deckape!), but personally I would slowly ween them off the chemicals over the course of many teenie tiny pwc's. Look at it this way...for the sake of easy math (I know they're not realistic numbers) if you had a pH in the tank of 6, and tap pH at 9... If you did a 50% pwc you would instantly have a pH swing of 1 1/2 points. That would be absolutely devastating to your little swimmers. Im sure it would be more complicated than that because there's other factors I'm not considering like alkalinity levels, dissolved solids, buffers, etc... (I'm not a chemist), but in principle that's the way I understand it.

You speaketh the truth Eco.

 

[Deckape]

how are things going?