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Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

Hi,

John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.

I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.

With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.

I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.

If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.

I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.

I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.

Thank you
Darragh Sherwin

API PH 6.5 adjustment

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10 Oct 2012 21:56 #1 by mars (Gedas)
API PH 6.5 adjustment was created by mars (Gedas)
Hi all
Anyone could give me an advice?
I'm setting up new planted fish tank, slowly moved all plants, only fish left, now in my old tank I'm keeping PH at 6.5 with CO2 controller, but I would like to move CO2 system to the new tank for my plants, and after few weeks to move fish only.
But as soon I disconnect my CO2 a PH will jump up to 8 PH, so I'm thinking to use API PH 6.5 adjustment, so just thinking is it safe to add to my fish tank, the fish I have some discus and few neons.
Any advice would be appreciated.

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10 Oct 2012 22:15 #2 by JohnH (John)
Replied by JohnH (John) on topic API PH 6.5 adjustment
I don't think you'll find things to be quite that simple and anyway that pH stuff is awful - I tried it once and the whole tank and contents went white! - I think the only reason the fish didn't as well was that they kept on the move so it couldn't settle on them.
This should, I think be best left to someone like Ian with a much better understanding of water chemistry to explain things far better than can I.

Over to IGM

John
Location:
N. Tipp

We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.


ITFS member.



It's a long way to Tipperary.

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10 Oct 2012 22:48 #3 by BillG (Bill Gray)
Replied by BillG (Bill Gray) on topic API PH 6.5 adjustment
I think you would be ok just to disconnect the co2 and let the ph adjust naturally in the tank, it will happen gradually enough to allow the fish to acclimatise. It will not be a jump to a ph of 8 as you may think. The ph of 6.5 is due to the dissolved co2 in the water, as the co2 dissolves in the water, it forms carbonic acid. Over time through gas exchange at the surface of the tank, the co2 will diffuse back into the atmosphere and the ph will rise as a result. The ph shift back to your natural ph will take some time.

The ph in your tank will not remain at a constant 6.5 unless you have the co2 on 24 hours a day.

To allay any doubts about this, you can try a little experiment. Use a test kit, to measure the ph in your tank before your co2 switches on. You should find its higher than 6.5 as co2 will have diffused back into the atmosphere through normal gas exchange. You could also just use your ph controller to check this.
If you want to slow the process down further and allow more acclimatisation time for your fish, you could minimise the level of surface agitation in the tank. This can be done by re-directing filter outlets, return pipes, disconnecting power heads and air stones etc. This will reduce the rate at which the co2 diffuses out of the water hence slowing down the rate of increase in ph.

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11 Oct 2012 00:08 #4 by mech1 (pat bell)
Replied by mech1 (pat bell) on topic API PH 6.5 adjustment
My advise would be to manually adjust the PH controller to give a little bit less every day into your tank over a week or so. Gradually reduce it until you can just remove system.

I dont advocate chemicals to control PH.

Be prepared to deal with algae in both tanks as co2 shifts appears to be a trigger if what I read is true.

Pat.
Knocklyon 2 min from J12 M50

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11 Oct 2012 23:05 #5 by mars (Gedas)
Replied by mars (Gedas) on topic API PH 6.5 adjustment
The only one thing, I'm worry about my discus, cause PH could reach up to 8.10 ,I think this is to much for them.

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12 Oct 2012 08:07 #6 by igmillichip (ian millichip)
Replied by igmillichip (ian millichip) on topic API PH 6.5 adjustment
If the pH goes from 8.1 to 6.5 then that is a jump of 40 times the concentration of acid....that is quite a lot.

My feelings are, and without actually being aboe to analyse the water via a forum, that the alkalinity of your tank (even at pH 6.5 with the CO2) is too high OR that you have very low buffering and that you have some mineral bases raising the pH.

Those might have been developed within the tank by high photosynthetic activity (if you had powerful lights and certain species of plant).....but I can only guess I don't have your water here. ;)

To use any form of substance to reduce or buffer pH in a freshwater tank you really need to know what exactly you are battling.......

what is the pH of your supply water? (now that would need to be left for a day and raised to the temp in which the fish are kept).

If you have a high pH because of a high alkalinity, then the amount of acid that you'd need to add could be so much that you would raise conductivity and Oxidation RedOx of the water so much that Discus would not cope.

ian
Irish Tropical Fish Society (ITFS) Member.

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12 Oct 2012 14:21 #7 by mars (Gedas)
Replied by mars (Gedas) on topic API PH 6.5 adjustment
Ya i did very big mistake then setting up my old tank, i had very low of knowledge what im doing, basicaly whats lowers ph in my tank is the gravel from the sea, who has small bits of shell in it.No plants left only few and fish, but i cant remove gravel from the tank , then fish still in the tank, and i cant move fish to the new tank cause would be to early, i want to wait at least few weeks.

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12 Oct 2012 18:09 #8 by igmillichip (ian millichip)
Replied by igmillichip (ian millichip) on topic API PH 6.5 adjustment
The shells won't help ;)....especially with CO2 added as well (that will make it worse)

There are very few mysteries with water chemystery ;)

The most common mysteries that I have seen are people test equipment not working, or not being read properly or people telling porkies.

ian
Irish Tropical Fish Society (ITFS) Member.

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12 Oct 2012 20:49 #9 by mars (Gedas)
Replied by mars (Gedas) on topic API PH 6.5 adjustment
Ian
This is what im traying to tell, tjhen i was setting my old fish tank i had no idea about ph, and i tought gravel from the sea will look nice, this is the main reason why my ph jums to 8.1 if i would disconnect co2. co2 controller im testing every 3 months so it cant be wrong...

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