PH and the lazy aquarist

[Fishnut]

I'm what most people would call a lazy aquarist.  I HATE messing around with my tanks to do water changes, test the water, fiddle with fertilizers and I don't remember to feed the fish for days at a time sometimes...ok...maybe 2 at the most.  I'm busy so I'm frequently too busy or tired to remember.  Since I've been keeping fish for so long (20+ years), I have developed a system that helps me keep happy healthy fish (for the most part) and at the same time getting away with doing as little as possible.  I have understocked tanks where the fish occupy different niches in the tank and serve different purposes, bits of real wood, lots of plants and fish who aren't going to crap out on me if I miss a water change (well, most of them anyways).  I only have biological filtration...no charcoal or any fancy products...in ANY of my filters.  A lot of my tanks are actually under gravel filters!  Lol...totally old school, I know .  As I mentioned, I also don't feed them tones so they don't make too much mess in their tank.  All in all, I don't have to muck around with the tanks very much!!

Disclaimer: For all you busy hobbyists out there,  please don't try to duplicate my lazyness!!!  It took a long time to perfect. Do what works best for you.

The more sensitive fish are manageable in small tanks and sometimes...like with my shrimp collection...it doesn't work out and I loose them.

Today, I decided to buy my first PH test kit...ever ...yes, ever. 
Curiosity got the better of me because I seem to have collected an interesting assortment of creatures so I wanted to see how different the PH was in each environment.  I made sure that I thoroughly rinsed the test tube between each test AND I rinsed the tube with the tank's water before testing it to make sure the results were accurate.  Here's what I got:

Tap water: I need a High Range PH test kit for accuracy because it was at this kits max PH 7.6

72 Bowfront: has some natural wood, lots of plants, flourite and regular gravel substrate; Got a 30% water change after the GA and hasn't been touched since. PH 7.2

30 Gallon cold water: Has some natural wood, some plants, (but it needs more), regular gravel with under gravel filter.  Hasn't had a water change in about a month and a half.  PH 7.0

Nerite Snail QT tank: got set up yesterday, used regular gravel, undergravel filter. PH 7.4

Crayfish tank: has that fine black gravel that Super Pet used to sell from Hagen, a couple bits of mopani wood for them to hide under and a power filter with filter floss only; got a 50% water change last week. PH is more than 7.6 so they're happy little crays!

CPD tank: Red Sea Flora Base substrate, plants and some mopani wood; hasn't had a water change in at least a month. PH 6.0 and the rest of the parameters were perfect considering how tardy I've been with them!

Killifish tanks: They also have the Flora Base as a substrate but got a water change a week ago.  Their PH is at 6.8.  I'll be converting them to regular gravel soon.

Interesting results to say the least!!:)

I took the opportunity of "being in the mood" to test the usual water parameters of all the tanks.  Now before you people who are sticklers for water changes and who are neurotic parameter testers start harping at me for being so lazy, ALL the tanks have 0 ammonia, 0 Nitrites and .5 Nitrates

Cheers

[Bees]

I'm in the same boat as you, no obsessing over the tests and numbers for me.

I take care of my tank the same way I barbecue - check on it once in a while but for the most part leave it alone.

That's not to knock the precision methods of others.  Analyzing small changes and observing the results generates valuable information for everyone.

My goal is to keep the fish happy.  I dig it when they curiously swim around my hands and tools whenever I work on the tank instead of hiding in nooks and crannies.  Maybe I'm in there more often then I realize heh.

[fischkopp]

The nice thing with the aquarium hobby is that there are many different approaches, and most of them work if done right.

I just checked the pH recently in my tanks - mainly because of a little catastrophe that I was trying to understand. I use an electronic tester. All measurements are done 2 days after a 50% water change - I do this weekly so far. The results are also quite interesting and might help somebody to understand their own tank chemistry a bit better.

My tap water has something a pH of approx.  9 and is quite soft GH <4° and KH <3°. This is central Ottawa water near hogs back / mooneys bay. Where the pH eventually settles depends 1st on your substrate, 2nd on your vegetation and 3rd on the amount and age of driftwood.

• 1. For a tank with limestone/calcium/SomeKindOfGravelThatMakesTheWaterHarder the pH settles above 7, close to 8, now that is no surprise.
• 2. A tank with silica substrate and vegetation (no CO2 nor fert) will measure a pH between 5.8 to 6.8 - a higher pH is measure on a tank with newer light bulbs.
• 3. The same size tank, also with silica substrate and NO plants at all settles at 5.2.

Every tank has old driftwood pieces, being more than 2 years in water. So I doubt they contribute too much to the results.

What do we learn?

• Substrate is important if you care about pH, make sure it is silica base. Some planted substrates (fluorite, eco initially) tend to harden the water, most Hagen I used will harden the water quite a bit. Harder water leads to higher pH.
• If you happen to have a silica substrate (or anything that won't leach calcium or magnesium etc. into your water) then you will have the greatest  soft and acidic water to make every South American fish happy - at the same time you must be aware that a 50% water change straight out of the tap is not the greatest idea, as it will rais the pH from 5 to 7 in no time. Sensitive (your favourite) fish may not like that so much ...
• Plants tend to raise the pH in tanks without CO2 supplementation. I think I remember that this happens, because the plants will take up the carbonate from dissolved calcium carbonate if there is not enough CO2 dissolved, hence making the water harder. But I might be wrong here.

[washefuzzy]

I've come to learn as long as I do my weekly water changes, don't over feed and don't fuss my fish actually live.  I just wish I had more control of the temperature in my apartment. sigh.

[BigDaddy]

The only time i check pH is if I want to measure my CO2 levels in my planted tanks when things seem to be out of whack (read: algae) or when I'm prepping my apistos for breeding.

[Nerine]

Have to say I'm in the same boat though I let my fish go longer between feeds, usually feed every 4-5 days

I have no idea what my ph is, my water is slightly green (FINALLY!) I should test though just to see what it is! I haven't owned a test kit in umm....many many many years. I think when I first got into fish I had a test kit, back in the 80's and I used a pool test kit for awhile for chlorine as our tap water had enough chlorine to register on a pool testing kit lol

I don't run with carbon or any other fancy thing, just some pillow stuffing and some sponges and ceramics

I do water changes when I remember...oops Come summer there will be more changes as usual due to I have to water my lemon tree with tank water otherwise it suffers as my ph out of the tap is 9+

I haven't lost any fish in awhile except for my gourami's killing each other

No fuss, no loss

[bitterman]

Honestly, I have found the drop kits for Ph like the hagen ones are useless. If you want to test for ph, get a ph meter, calibrate it and use it. Its so fast and easy to measure the Ph now that I finally decided to get one. I measure the ph of the water in the tank and what I'm adding to ensure there is not too much of a spread.

B

[beowulf]

I only test the water in a tank if it is a brand new setup with a new filter.  Once things are running I don't worry.

[fischkopp]

Are these your readings?

Yes, I am using a pH meter, as Bittermann stated: it's the way to go when it comes to precision and testing lots of tanks

• 3. The same size tank, also with silica substrate and NO plants at all settles at 5.2.

I have to update/revise my own statement: the tank that drops down to 5.2 has quite a high fish load.

I recently became aware of the fact that the oxidation of ammonia to nitrite (as part of the nitrification process) releases free H+ into the water; this effectively lowers the pH. That seems good at first, since I have acidic softwater setups anyway. But: the bacteria that is responsible for the oxidation of ammonia prefers slightly alkaline water, their capability to oxidize ammonia is inhibited if the pH drops below 6. 

What does this mean: imagine that you have a semi high fish load, natural soft acidic water and a very effective bio filtration. Your bio filter is happily processing all the ammonia, fish is happy, pH drops - until it falls below 6: the bio filter looses its efficiency slowly because the ammonia oxidation is inhibited. Nevertheless, it continues to work - just not @100%, fish is still happy, pH keeps dropping. Up to the point where the efficiency drops down significantly enough that the filter won't be able to keep up with the ammonia that happy fishies produce. And suddenly you have a little disaster with very unhappy fish due to high ammonia buildup!

I think this happened to one of my tanks within three days! And I might have made it worse with an 50% emergency water change straight from the tap (remember: tap pH=9, tank pH=5) because all the remaining ammonia become suddenly more toxic due to the increased pH. All the stress involved eventually caused a bacterial breakout, to which I luckily only lost one fish.

So, depending on what you do, it can be a good idea to check the water. It might help you to understand a few things a bit better.

Thanks to Fishnut for starting this topic! It made me more aware of the pH topic.

[KLKelly]

I think the exact same thing happened with my rainbow tank   I thought the low ph protected them from the ammonia blip caused by the levamisole