pH, driftwood, and pwc's

[KarlTh]

Many times tank maintenance will cause a need to do large water changes(like when tanks leak or break or suddenly cycle) unexpectedly. I personally had to do one on my discus tank recently. I did about 80% change, and did not have the ability to change pH first(I use peat moss in a filter bag). There was a full point difference in water. Fish were actually happy with the new water, no losses. Lots of "lets play tag" when done. Happy, stress free, fish seem to be able to do this better than fish going through bad water problems...

This does not surprise me. The importance of pH is overstated; most cases of so-called "pH shock" are actually osmotic shock; the fishkeeper moves fish from GH25 pH8 to GH4 pH6.5 and thinks it's the pH change which kills them; it's not; it's the osmotic difference. Fish are, I understand, largely insensitive to pH.