Differences in PH ?

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JDempsey1980

JDempsey1980

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 26, 2013
70
11
8
Baltimore, MD
Hey all, I have a question about the ph levels in both my tanks.
In one tank, my ph is 6.8, has been this since forever. I have 3 Centrals in this tank that are doing well.
In the second tank however, I've used a substrate that came with a free tank, that I aquired. It had a mix of natural colored gravel, small bits of coral and sea shells in it. So, I washed it very thoroughly and picked out most of the coral and shell. PH in this tank is at a steady 7.4. I have 5 Centrals in this tank. They are doing quite well. They don't seem to mind this ph. They are very active, eat well, and such.
Now to my question.... As we all know with cichlids, especially Centrals, not everybody gets along all the time. So, with the difference in PH levels, I'm concerned that if I have to move fish around, it won't be good to for them to go from one ph to another so quickly. Any suggestions would be great.
Thanks in advance.
 
Put the one you want to move in the bag and slowly acclimate it with other tank water every 10 minutes for 60 minutes. It should be ok since the different PH not a lot between 2 tanks.
 
The paragraph below is from Elmhurst college, Virtual Chembook

The pH scale is logarithmic and as a result, each whole pH value below 7 is ten times more acidic than the next higher value. For example, pH 4 is ten times more acidic than pH 5 and 100 times (10 times 10) more acidic than pH 6. The same holds true for pH values above 7, each of which is ten times more alkaline (another way to say basic) than the next lower whole value. For example, pH 10 is ten times more alkaline than pH 9 and 100 times (10 times 10) more alkaline than pH 8.
 
lol he's not moving something from PH 8.0 down to PH 6.0, the different between his 2 tanks is 0.6 based on his information that not enough to kill any fishes between his 2 tanks.
 
The main reason why one should never use the drip method, is due to the fact that the water in the bag IS funky. Drop & plop is the safest manner in which to acclimatize fish, no matter where they come from, or how long they have been in the bag. A small swing in temp will have little to no affect on fish either, especially if one is going from cooler to warmer, which is typically the*case. pH shock is non existent, so unless the TDS is way off there's no real concern there either. I have seen fish imported from all points on the globe, Africa, SE Asia, Europe, etc, with some of these fish valued in the thousands of $$$ (for a single specimen) and every last one of them went straight from the bag, straight to a holding tank, and I have never seen a single mortality from doing so.*

The term "pH shock" is a total misnomer.*

What one really needs to pay attention to is TDS (total dissolved solids). Moving fish from water with low TDS to high TDS is usually tolerated fairly well, where as moving a fish from high TDS to low TDS can often cause a great deal of osmotic stress, even death.*

If one looks at this from even a common sense approach, if what some people stated about pH shock was true, most fish being imported in from outside of the country would be dead long before you opened the bag, as the vast majority of exporters do not use long term pH stabilizing agents when they bag the fish, and after 24-48 hrs the pH in those bags has definitely dropped, in many cases by a significant amount.*

In shipping situations this is a good thing, as the lower pH protects the fish from ammonia. Once the bag is opened, and C02 escapes, the (fish safe) ammonium, converts to ammonia, which can be toxic to fish at higher pH values. Hence the reason that most importers pay more attention to the water temp of the bag than anything else, and in the vast majority of cases simply open the bags, net the fish out, and drop them into their holding tanks. Experienced commercial importers learned a long time ago that the quicker you get the fish out of that toxic soup in a bag, the better.
 
What's the ph out of your tap water after it's been sitting in a container for 24 hours? If it's closer to the ph of 6.8, remove 25% of the free gravel in the tank with a ph of 7.4 prior to a water change. Eventually once you remove the free gravel and do more water changes, the ph will get close to the tank with a ph of 6.8. Then you won't have to worry about the ph differences.
 
Rocksor said:
What's the ph out of your tap water after it's been sitting in a container for 24 hours? If it's closer to the ph of 6.8, remove 25% of the free gravel in the tank with a ph of 7.4 prior to a water change. Eventually once you remove the free gravel and do more water changes, the ph will get close to the tank with a ph of 6.8. Then you won't have to worry about the ph differences.
Click to expand...

^^^this^^^
 
There was a time the logarithmic characteristic of ph scale made me more meticulous about ph, but in practice I've found changes of a few tenths within an acceptable range doesn't phase most fish, at least if the change isn't from basic to acidic. In other words, if I was transferring fish from a tank 7.2 to a tank 7.4 or the other way around I wouldn't worry about it. But 7.4 down to 6.8, basic to acidic I wouldn't be as confident doing and would prefer to acclimate in a bucket.

Actually-- if it was me I'd raise the 6.8 tank to get it over 7 anyway (simple, effective, and cheap way to do it is with baking soda). My own preference is to keep tanks in the 7s, anyway, there's really few fish that actually require much lower or higher, including most that come from lower or higher in the wild. Technically speaking, there's something of a trade-off with biological activity between acidic or basic ph. Roughly speaking, beneficial bacteria are more efficient in ph over 7, ammonia is less toxic in ph under 7, but the details are fairly complicated.

In simple terms:
TFH article
“A pH of 6 is really quite inhibitory to nitrifying bacteria, and 5.5 would be the absolute cutoff,” Strom said. “There wouldn’t be any of the traditional nitrification below that. Even 6.5 slows them down.”
Click to expand...

For more of the complexities: americanaquariumproducts article-- scroll down to "Low pH and Nitrification Important"
 
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