If I do smaller water changes(just well water), would that also help in keeping the swings minimal?
Green algae won't go away...
- Thread starter Lillyan
- Start date
The volume of water change would help. Vs a 50% weekly change spreading it out to a daily 5% would be cool.
The thing with PH is it dives at night and is at it's peak at the end of your photo periods. We could take advantage of this.
Like changing your water on lights out...so over night it aerates so no significant PH jumps ..by the time photo period is up and going...Ph rises through the day (but well water has been well aerated for hours already).
Still you are like me..less work the better...frequent lower volume water changes is actually great for tanks...just takes a lot of work. I tried in my biocube for corals...worked great but after 2 weeks I got sick of the work.:thumbsup:
It's only a theory lily ... You can experiment with this water changing. Check PH before the change. Then change the water at lights out....next day near end of Photo period test PH again...see if it swung way up or not..
If not ..the theory worked and all is good in Lilly land!
I did put in a large water softening pillow in the tank yesterday.
Did a pH test, all 4 tanks had pH 7.2 and high pH 7.4....
Did a pH test, all 4 tanks had pH 7.2 and high pH 7.4....
Well water is very rich in CO2, this is why it's lower pH.
The KH is the same. After a few hours, the pH rises as the rich CO2 degasses, the same thing happens when open a can of beer or soda water, after a few hours, it's flat. Measure the pH and KH, the pH changes, the KH does not in the soda/beer. Same thing here.
Fish are not harmed by CO2 changes that affect pH, CO2 is not a salt and does not act like if you suddenly added a lot baking soda...... CO2 has no impact on fish osmotic shock. KH shifts can kill though.
I have done 40-80% water changes causing a pH difference of 1.0 or more. Fish breed, Cardinals are fine, shrimp breed like flies, wild soft water fish, grow old fat and healthy. I've done this going on nearly 20 years, every week. I add CO2 to these tanks which reduces the pH, but does nothing to KH. So when I remove the water and add tap back, it's not rich in CO2 like your well water, so the pH is about 1 full unit higher.
The fish are fine, having bred discus numerous times in several tanks, I'd take issue with the suggestion that pH has a hill of beans to do with it, rather, that the KH is the main issue.
pH in and of itself is poor parameter when you have CO2 changes, enrichment, plants etc, which you do.
TDS or KH would be a better metric to watch.
Changing the KH will permanently change the pH, whereas the CO2 will be temporary(unless you keep adding it). Your plants likely grow much better the day of a water change since you are adding a lot of CO2 rich water.
Since you are doing non CO2 planted tanks, look into this method more specifically, reduction or elimination of water changes is the typical suggestion and it does work quite well, provided the tank is not over stocked and fed etc, and thus requires frequent water changes.
The tank below has not had a water change for about 2 years:
A good example of well run non CO2 planted tank.
There are many others. these require much less work than typical fish only aquariums and look nice as well.
Regards,
Tom Barr
I know a planted tank with a ton of healthy plants and not overstocked with fish means less water changes. I had a large tank with nothing but Platy and I only did water changes on it if I added anything to it, like meds or salt, or if I washed out gunk. I prolly could of gone months w/o changing the water on that tank.
