A Very Interesting Article

[The-Wolf]

I think this will shock and amaze you all, it did me.
http/hjem.get2net.dk/Best_of_the_Web/lowph.html

 

[breezer40]

Great article! I wouldn't like to try the experiement with my fishes but it does make you wonder if we are not at times too occupied with keeping fish in perfect PH levels.

 

[Bloo]

Very interesting indeed though my gut feeling was that nothing would have happened done controlled over a period of time - starting off at a fairly neutral pH.

I personally have lost fish when I introduced CO2 and my pH dropped from 8.4 to 7.4 in a few hours - with a kH of 11 even. Within a few hours I lost my (healthy) catfish.
I guess it also somewhat depends on what pH the fish was born / raised in, and what pH it prefers. I would guess that fish preferring strong alkaline waters will not do well at all over a longer period of time in a pH of 4.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I think this will shock and amaze you all, it did me.
http/hjem.get2net.dk/Best_of_the_Web/lowph.html

Interesing article, but not shocking for me at least.
I've never been very concerned with my ph levels as my fish thrive as long as water quality is good and there are no fish deseases. I do think some people can be way too occupied with ph levels, especially newb's, but i think there are far more important stats to worry about- knowing your ph is a good thing, but this article proves it may not be all that important and perhaps a bit hyped up? It seems that ph boosters may become even more useless than what they already are, them seem to cause more issues more than anything else, but if it is not fluctuating ph that is so bad then i wonder what else these chemicals affect in the water chemistry that is so bad to the fish's health?

 

[Boxcar Muzzdogg]

If a fish spawns or dies in low pH, perhaps the cause is not the pH but something associated with the low pH. For instance, the spawn might have been induced by low conductivity which is associated with low pH. Or a high waste content, also associated with low pH, could be the real cause of a fish's death.

The physiology of fish is a very complicated matter. So is water chemistry. We aquarists have generalized the water parameters to pH, dH, and temperature. A fish and its water involves a lot more than that.

That was a very interesting article and I would be interested in reading his source for the information as there may be a detailed discussion of ionic balance. As the author said, more studies must be done testing other variables associated with pH in order to fully understand what affects the fish at a specific pH.

 

[rdd1952]

I personally have lost fish when I introduced CO2 and my pH dropped from 8.4 to 7.4 in a few hours - with a kH of 11 even.

I think this may be the key to it all. We always say that the pH crash killed the fish when in actuallity, it is probably nothing more than the fact that the CO2 drove all the oxygen from the water killing the fish. The pH drop is simply a side effect of the CO2 build up and not the actual problem. Just my thoughts, definitely no scientific evidence to back that up.

 

[The-Wolf]

glad some of you found it interesting
Have you read any of the other articles on that site?

I particular liked the TDS (total disolved solids) article
http/hjem.get2net.dk/Best_of_the_Web/TDS.html

 

[John_Nicholson]

While fish can die from sudden reductions in ph the bigger issue is normally a yo yo effect. Someone has water that has buffering capabilities (not soft) and they want to adjust the ph. They add the acid that they are using, measure the ph, it looks good, they do the water change and as the water is settling out the ph will yo yo up and down as the buffers in the water "fight" the acid. It is this action that most fish have problems with. This is why in most cases people should just leave the ph alone.

-john

 

[BigC]

John is correct in saying that it's the buffering process that stresses and kills fish. There are many chemical compounds out there which claim to adjust the pH +\- but they do not hold stable for long and once their buffering capabilities are exausted then you will get a pH bounce which is not good for the fishes health.
http/www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_adjusting_pH.php

 

[Ben]

I have my SA community tank at a reasonably low PH and after reading that, i may consider lowering it even more, and seeing if the fish are more comfortable with it and watch their behaviour.

Thanks for the article Wolf

DD

 

[Mr Miagi]

The artyicle is interesting, but not much credibility. She could have made it up LOL. She is pretty vague about "a recent study" and these so called "scientists" LOL. It would be great to get more detail, on the authors and the study i mean.

 

[bunjiweb]

Alot of the fish we buy come from areas of the Amazon river that have pH as low as 3, so this doesnt surprise me...

Fish appear to be pretty adaptable to pH, most of my tanks tend to be 7.5-8.

Ben

 

[annka5]

It's interesting, but there are some parts which make me think there MUST be an exaggeration in there -a pH of 3 or 2.4 and the fish are OK? I think if I sat in a bath with a pH of that, I'd become pretty uncomfortable. I can't imagine how it could be otherwise with fish left in it for 40 days or whatever.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Just makes me more jealous of those blessed with low pH and soft tap water

 

[rdd1952]

Just makes me more jealous of those blessed with low pH and soft tap water

It's interesting how we all look at things and maybe how we all want what we don't have. I don't consider my soft water such a blessing since I am afraid of adding driftwood and CO2 to my tanks for fear of dropping the pH too low. My KH and GH are both 1 (or lower if that's possible). My tap pH is about 7.2 to 7.4 but my tank pH runs about 6.2 to 6.4 without adding somthing to buffer it. I keep a little bit of crushed coral in the filter pack just to give the water a little buffering capacity and keep it from dropping too low. And that's with just the driftwood, no CO2 yet.