The Science Behind Acclimitisation

[Miss Wiggle]

wow jesus that sure is an eye opener!!

Co2 is diffucult to test for, testing pH is the general recognised solution to it. either with a permanent Co2 test in the tank which is based on a pH test kit solution, or by taking a sample of water from the tank and measuring the pH change over a 24 hr (i think) period.

be nice to do some further tests with a pH probe that can record the pH below our test kits do if anyone has one and would like to volunteer!!

i would not expect the low pH reading at the start to be significantly lower than 6 for two reasons 1 - the climb of pH is relativley steady 2 - to produce enough Co2 to lower the pH that far the poor cories would be not far off from suffocation.

it leaves me wondering ifthere is perhaps some other factor influencing the pH not just the Co2 produced by the cories? if anyone would like to make suggestions i'd love to hear them.

do you know if the ammonia test kit you are using really does test just for ammonia or if it is for ammonia and ammonium combined?

The ammonia level shouldn't be rising that quickly. Ammonia test kites don't differntiate between ammonia and ammonium, so the suggested changes would not be measured there.

The increase in pH was interesting.

is ther any way we can test purley for ammonia without the ammonium?

 

[Polardbear]

It's a standard ammonia test kit (NH3/NH+4). I'm not aware of a test kit that differentiates between ammonia and ammonium.

I was surpised at how rapidly the ammonia reading rose myself so I double checked it with a different brand of ammonia test kit right after the second reading and got the same results.

I actually have an very accurate digital pH tester and was going to use it originally but the batteries were dead. Maybe next time!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

It's a standard ammonia test kit (NH3/NH+4). I'm not aware of a test kit that differentiates between ammonia and ammonium.

I was surpised at how rapidly the ammonia reading rose myself so I double checked it with a different brand of ammonia test kit right after the second reading and got the same results.

I actually have an very accurate digital pH tester and was going to use it originally but the batteries were dead. Maybe next time!

lol fair enough

see i wouldn't expect the ammonia to rise. the theory is that the ammonia & ammonium combined reading stays the same however the lower pH gives it a lower toxicity as per bignoses table that andy linked too above. the ammonia rising would be what you'd expect to see if the theory is correct if your test kit was measuring the level of ammonia by itself.

it's puzzling, very puzzling, all i can think of is that there must be some other factor that forces the ammonia/ammonium compound down all together when they are in the bag.

 

[Meds081603]

Wow what an interesting thread. I am most likely ordering some fish online from liveaquaria on 7/17/2007. I have test kits for ph, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and phosphate. I am going to test the ph and ammonia in 15 minute intervals after opening the bag. I will be sure to post the results here. Are there any other things I could do or check to aid in this discussion?

 

[rdd1952]

The water in my tank has a pH of 8.0, I'd love to be able to tell you what my GH is but the GH test kit doesn't go high enough.

The API GH and KH test kits that I have don't have a chart. You simply add a drop at a time and shake lightly to mix. The water should turn blue when you add the drops. You continue to add a drop at a time until the mixture eventually turns yellow. The number of drops you have added is your degrees of hardness. So technically, even if you had to add the entire bottle of drops, you could still get a reading as long as you could keep count of drops. I thought all GH and KH kits worked the same way.