Water Change and PH question!

[catfishacr]

Hey Everyone,

I have a 300 gallon tank. Right know im doing water changes by filling up two trashcans. Main purpose for this is my tap water has a PH of 9.2 ( got exact # from city), once it gasses out it drops and stays at 8. Takes about 18 hrs for the ph to stable out. This process was working but with fish growing need to change more water at a time.

I've read here that many just fill the water directly into the tank from the tap. Lets say i do a 50% water change straight from the tap, It will change my ph temporally to 8.6. I know ph fluctuation is not good for the fish, Is a .6 ph fluctuation too much stress on the fish?

Also when you guys add water back straight from the tap. You prime the tank before you fill the tank back up, correct? Doing this can I leave my filters running while the tank is filling back up?

Thanks so much!

 

[Lawlboom]

I can't say much about the PH question. My PH comes out of the tap at 7.0 and stays 7.0. For the water changes. I shut my filters and heaters off and add prime directly to the tank. If you are using trashcans why not just prime the trash cans. Also I've read that chlorine gasses off also. So you might not have to prime at all. I'd look into it more though or wait for a more experienced member.

Also for a while I was leaving my filters run and adding prime to the tank. Never had an incident I just kinda realized that doing that was probably a little dumb.

 

[slippery slimecoat]

Just last week I had a ph spike when doing a water change. The town must have been doing something to the lines. The ph jumped .6. I thought I was going to lose my whole tank at one point. It took them 24+ hours to bounce back.

 

[DN328]

I have ~300 gallon w/ sump and do a ~45% WC every 4 weeks. I add direct tap water with small increments of prime accounting for my full tank volume. My typical process for the last year.

I paid less attention to my ph since my tank cycled. I've taken ph before a WC, and it was about 7.4. I should probably do it after a water change, but to be honest I don't think I'd do much to correct it even if I knew. I add crushed shells when I was cycling and I've kept it there since. I don't believe there's negative impact, so I've just kept in one of the sump trays. In theory, I understand it helps keep the ph stable with less dips and spikes. I'm not sure if it's doing much at the moment.

 

[Lawlboom]

PH Shock is not really deadly to fish. If it happens several times throughout the week, that is a different story. Honestly a .6 jump would probably go unnoticed. When I bag acclimated my first batch of discus from 5.0 to 7.0 they appeared drunk and were swimming all lethargic. They all survived just fine though.

 

[ragin_cajun]

Why not just drip, say, 40 gallons per day? That would effectively change out the entire tank volume once a week. You have a sump? Tank drilled?

 

[rodger]

TDS drastic change is much more dangerous than a big Ph swing.