The importance of "correct" pH

[BassetsForBrown]

I understand that SA/CA's are supposed to have a pH on the higher side as a general rule. My tap water after using Prime conditioner is basically 7 flat - neutral.
I know the biggest damage associated with pH is rapid changes more than the particular level at any point in time. I've been adding baking soda to my water immediately after water changes to maintain a pH of 7.2.

Does keeping this higher pH actually help my fish in anyway? Or would they be just as happy if i weaned them off the 7.2 back to the regular tap water pH over time?

I don't mind adding the baking soda if it does help them in anyway, no matter how small. I just don't want to do it if there is no reason for it.

Thanks, i know my question is written in a unorganized manner.

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[aclockworkorange]

The ph/kh/gh of native waters throughout Central and South America can range from very high and hard in the crater lakes of Nicaragua down to soft acidic black water in the Amazon. But furthermore, I would not actually worry about it or even mess with it unless you have something that's wild caught and really prefers extremes.


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[David R]

Firstly, pH is (IMO) one of the most over-worried about factors of fish keeping. Have a read of this article on Water Chemistry; http://www.tbas1.com/Exchange/The New England 11.pdf
pH is only a small part of the equation. If you're trying to provide "correct" parameters for your fish then hardness/TDS/conductivity are more what you should be focused on. I had trouble with Geophagus developing HITH when kept in a tank with a pH in the low 7's and TDS of 120-180ppm, and this was resolved by moving them to another tank and using rainwater for water changes [no hardness/minerals] along with a little crushed shell for buffering which still kept the pH at low 7's but the TDS under 80ppm.

Second, as aclockworkorange said, making generalisations about water parameters across an entire continent (or two, if you consider Central American different to South America) a bit ambitious. You can make some generalisations though, like Amazonian fish preferring slightly acidic and softer waters, and most Central American (and northern South American) species preferring it a bit higher in pH and mineral content. There's loads of information out there so it should be easy enough to find out [roughly] what sort of water your fish would encounter in habitat, but if you're going to start messing around with it then do yourself a favour and get a GH/KH test kit and a TDS meter, you're really going in blind by only checking the pH.

 

[Modest_Man]

For discussions sake, we utilize a YSI to measure pH (among other things) on some local sloughs here in Oregon. We measure it at the surface and every half meter down to the substrate. We tend to observe a pH of roughly 8 on the surface and about 6.5 on the bottom, usually in only a couple meters of water. That means if a fish were to swim from the surface to the bottom it would traverse a pH gradient of 15 times more acidic conditions than when it started in the span of a couple seconds. Several of the species we sample we find in a pH of 6.5 all the way up to 11.5 (household bleach is 12-12.6 - I would not recommend swimming in that slough; the high pH is due to industrial waste). While the pH changes drastically with water depth, the SPC (conductivity) and ORP (oxidation reduction potential) tend to stay pretty stable unless we reach anoxic water on the bottom. So there are changes not just from body of water to body of water, but drastic changes within very small areas of the same body of water.

For rivers the water is 100% mixed due to flow, so species that reside only in rivers in theory could be more susceptible to pH changes than those that deal with lateral gradients in ponds and lakes.

Granted, this has nothing to do with the water in Central or South America. Simply my observations.

 

[David R]

Very interesting!!

 

[Modest_Man]

Unfortunately we don't measure TDS, gH, or kH. The same can be said for temperature swings. We see swings exceeding 10 degrees C (18 degrees F) in just a few meters of water. Most fish live in a very dynamic environment, vastly different than the (mostly) static aquarium we provide for them.

 

[Aquanero]

I would let your fish acclamate to your tap water and not mess with water chemistry. Do your water change use declor and be done with it.

 

[Inglorious]

I've always used the philosophy that stability is more important than the actual numbers, as long as they're within a reasonable range. You didn't mention if your stock was WC or CB, but if they are the latter then it's entirely possible that they were never in the "correct" pH water until they got into your care anyways. I know that a lot of the CB Africans aren't raised in "natural" conditions, but ones that are most easily sustained due to the local water source.

 

[David R]

Obviously it really depends entirely on what your tap water is like and what fish you're keeping. Many fish will adapt to a wide range of conditions, but even so having a basic understanding of water chemistry and how to keep things stable and in an acceptable range is a good thing, IMO.

If you are going to "mess with" your tap water there are two important things;

A- know what you're doing and why you're doing it. Trying to get your pH to be "perfect" 7.0 without knowing a thing about hardness etc is futile and likely to cause more harm than good. Read up about water chemistry and which parameters really matter for the fish you're keeping, and how to change them safely. Which brings me to B...

B- mess with it in a way that is going to provide a stable environment. My tap water [rain water] has no mineral hardness whatsoever. I keep South American fish so that is a good thing, but I also keep large amounts of driftwood in my tank and my water would become incredibly acidic (like pH <5) if I did nothing to it. Some of the fish may tolerate that if it happened gradually, but it is far from ideal. I could come up with some sort of dosing regime that I add to the tap water every water change, adding calcium, baking soda etc to try provide some sort of buffer, but if you get it wrong or forget you upset the balance and having fluctuations in the parameters. Instead, I have a few KGs of beach sand (crushed shell) mixed in with my regular sand substrate and that provides enough hardness to prevent the pH from crashing without making the water too hard for my fish. No treating/dosing/adjusting necessary, just add water straight out of the tap into the tank.