Partial Water Change

[Hyrules]

It's been almost a month since i bought and installed my new 75 Gallon. Everything went well except for my mistake with the mix of aragonite which i put too much in my sand. Since my PH is high around 8.2 which is the aragonite maximum i`m doing PWC every week that way sucking a little aragonite everytime. I was wondering if this is ok for my tank and cycle. My fishs seem's to be able to sustain a PH that high without any problem and my old and new filter are still running in parallel.

 

[TomK2]

I don't think your fish will mind the pH. Aragonite is like crushed coral, high in calcium carbonate? If so, as long as some is in your tank, it will disolve and buffer the pH up. That means you are going to have a really stable pH. I think it would take quite a while to exhaust the solid reserve in the substrate, so it will be that way for a while. Your nitrifying bacteria will do just fine at that pH.

 

[Hyrules]

ok then thanks for the answer i will space my water changes to a month or 2 for now.

 

[tropicfishman]

I agree, about the only thing that can kill your nitrifying bacteria is the lack of water, I've heard bacteria can live for only about 20 minutes out of water, your fish I beleieve will be fine also, PH is more about stability than a specific range, its the drastic PH swings that can kill fish very quickly, so avoid using any PH altering chemicals such as PH UP or PH DOWN, good luck with your tank

 

[TomK2]

I would still do water changes on a weekly basis. Great for the fish, plants, and keeping nitrates in check. If you only did water changes every month or two, I think nitrates would climb, and other problems might crop up.

 

[Hyrules]

I dont have real plants so it is not really important on this point. I generally do a 2/3 water change every week but it's darn long to fill and remove 2/3 of water. I even have a python for that and it take's me about 1 hour to fill and remove the water.