100% Water Change

[Phaedra]

My betta, Darby is sitting in a 1g temporary tank for the time being while I get to work on a 100% tank clean out, which I haven't done in a long while. He is in a 3g heated and filtered tank, and usually gets 20-50% changes once a week. But I've recently had a bout of hair algae and I wanted to try to get rid of it properly.
So on a spur of the moment inspiration, I thought I'd check the PH from my tank compared to the PH of the aged water and--

ERK!!
I discovered that his old tank water was sitting at 8.0 PH while his new, aged water (which is already in his tank, I might add) is at 7.2! Can someone tell me the safest way to acclimate Darby to his newly cleaned home without worrying about stressing -or worse- killing him?
My usual procedure is to remove a baster-full of water from the QT tank , flush it away, and replace it with some of the new tank water so he can acclimate properly. I do this every fifteen minutes (roughly) for an hour or so and then I net him up and plop him in the clean tank. But with a PH difference like this, should I worry even more?

And a bit off the original subject here, but does anybody know if aged water has to be uncapped in order for it transpire properly and get rid of the chloramines/chlorines?
I leave mine uncapped, but I worry about the usual household stuff getting in there, such as air fresheners etc.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

 

[-germ-]

Erm....
Not too sure but theres been a fair few topics covering acclimitisation recently and many of the more knowledgable members seem inclined toward PH not really having a negative effect on the fish rather the hardness of the water. This obviously isn't set in stone though, heres a few topics covering it;
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showto...p;#entry1727746
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showto...16&start=16

 

[Phaedra]

Thanks a lot for the links Germ. I was starting to wonder if everyone had logged off the internet at the same time- lol!
Time to buckle down for more reading. And I was hoping to clean my own home today!

 

[-germ-]

Sorry....
They are fairly long, i'll save you sometime if you like.
No, more than likely such a small change in PH shouldn't really make a difference, but dripping only takes a little time so you may as well do it in my opinion Betta seem very sensitive to changes in water quality/stress.
I'm not sure in the chlorine/chloramine question, iwould have thought it should be uncapped as (from what i've read) you are supposed to add an airstone to the water, if it was in a sealed container surely, well..... pop?

 

[Phaedra]

Well, I guess my question about the aged water is in a whole other category and could probably warrant another discussion like the one I'm reading on the safe number of water changes (thanks for the link!).

What you've said about the PH is basically what I figured was the only proper way to handle the change. My heart did a flip when I first discovered the difference though, because I lost a guppy in my 10g after an 80% water change and I went "ERK! That must have been the cause!" Not wanting to lose any more fish, the least of which my little Darby who I'm very attached to.
I think I'll just start the process of acclimating him slowly while I busy myself with the rest of the house.