pH Issues

[lharris]

Hi everyone,

I’ve been reading this forum for months gearing up to begin my Masters research on P. motoro (yes, I have acquired all of the necessary permits from FWC to conduct this research in Florida).

I’ve been experiencing major issues obtaining a ph of ~ 6.5 with the goal of providing as natural of a setting as possible. The ph of the tap water in SE Florida is between 8-8.4. I have used various ratios of SeaChem acid and alkaline buffers, Indian almond leaves, blended RO water, to no avail. I will have my ph at around 6.5 at the end of the day (using the buffers), and within three days it bounces back to 8.3. I have no substrate and little evaporation. My alkalinity is at about 70-90ppm, hardness is about 100pmm. I plan to lower the KH a bit in the next few days to see if this will help.

From reading some of your posts, it seems like I might be obsessing too much about this ph issue. Should I just get over it and settle for a ph of 8.3? The distributor keeps their rays at about 6.8, so that's quite an acclimation period. I know that a stable ph is critical so I'm trying to get this right before I actually have the rays. I’m unfamiliar with how this may affect the ray’s health, but I hope some experts on this forum with years of experience can share your opinion or any tricks you may have for lowering and maintaining ph.

I have maintained marine elasmobranchs for years, but conveniently enough, seawater buffers nicely on its own!

Thanks for any thoughts!

Lindsay

 

[johno27]

I am no expert by any means but keeping the ph stable is the most important thing. Although 8.3 is not ideal or natural it is a lot better than the ph swinging up and down all the time.

The best you can hope to achieve is that the water in your tank is the same as the water you will be performing water changes with. The good news is that your water appears to have great buffering ability and you shouldn't have any problem keeping it where it is at

 

[skynoch]

Don't worry about the higher ph just keep it stable. My ph here is around 8+ and a tds of 450-600 ppm and all my rays have acclimated well and are breeding. I'm even having quite abit of success with flowers and tigers and have my tiger breeding my flower.

 

[hereticlosmorte]

ditto here. my pH is in the mid to high 8's and my rays are doing fine. once they are acclimatized to it, you will see them behaving normally and breeding in that environment.

 

[Crazyfish88]

Don't bother wasting money on those buffers unless u have ph crashing problems. Just keep your ph stable and let them adapt to what your tap is at. Your doing more harm then good fluctuating with the ph.


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[Hogman]

Greetings, I'm a liscensed water and wastewater operator and have been in the fish keeping hobby for 30+ years. 20 of which have been Discus. I operate a surface water treatment plant and several small water systems wells. The replies you have received are spot on. Water chemistry is a very complicated thing and trying to change one parameter such as PH, often leads to changing another. It often leads to a constant battle and a crash. Like mentioned, water stability is key. I lived in Florida many decades ago and remember strong hydrogen sulfide content of the ground water there. Do you a rotten egg smell to your water? I age, aerate, and heat my water (55 gallon barrel) for 24 hours prior to water changes for gas off, dechlorinate and stabilize the PH. Water comes from tap at 7.6 and raises to 8.2 to 8.5 after ageing. Very sorry for long post. I can go on for hours. So, after 3 decades of fish keeping, I'm going to get my first Ray next week. Glad I found this forum and hope I can help from time to time

 

[JohnG]

My PH is very high like yours, in the mid 8s usually, doesn't seem to effect my rays at all. They are all healthy happy pigs, even have a couple that are almost certainly pregnant.

I would not worry about your PH, aside from giving some extra time to aclimate. They will get used to the high PH, they won't get used to it bouncing around while your constantly trying to keep it down.

 

[spotfin]

On a side note, what will your research center on?

 

[lharris]

Thanks everyone for your advice!

Spotfin, I work in a sensory biology lab at Florida Atlantic University, and we focus on elasmobranchs.
My project involves determining how sensitive freshwater rays are to electric fields in the water. We've all heard that sharks can sense your heartbeat. It's the same deal here, except with rays in freshwater. Freshwater is poorly conductive, so the electric signal is most definitely altered, so I'm going to quantify it using a behavioral experiment.

I've worked in the lab for years taking care of marine sharks and rays, but freshwater is entirely new to me and my labmates! I'm sure I will be posting more questions soon

Thanks again!

 

[johno27]

Sounds good, I think you will find that they do have some extra senses. I know that my rays can "sense" when there is a nightcrawler in their general vicinity even when it is unlikely they can see or smell it.

I look forward to hearing some of your results please keep us posted