# Need some discus water buffering help



## Steve (Mar 27, 2013)

So after having a lot of water transitions and trying many different things to try and keep my discus from darting I think the problem has to do with a fluctuating pH of around 0.5 per day. Therefore I feel I must buffer my water and since I do daily waterchanges I'm trying to find a somewhat cost-efficient way of doing it (or perhaps with a buffer I can reduce my water changes if the pH stays stable). Right now I buffer my african cichlid tank with baking soda, epsom salt, and non-iodized table salt but some people on SimplyDiscus said that was a bad idea (but no one seems to know why its a bad idea). I'm wondering what all you guys in the Vancouver/Metro-Vancouver do to your water to raise healthy discus. I know some people use Discus Trace elements and such but those end up costing hundreds of dollars per year. Anyone got any suggestions? Should I try my african recipe with less baking soda to keep the pH around 7? I have lost 4 discus in the past 4 weeks (two in two days..) and am in need of some immediate suggestions!


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## tony1928 (Apr 22, 2010)

I'm very surprised you would need to buffer given you are doing daily Wc. How big is your tank, how many fish do you have in there and how much water are you changing out? 

I do once a week wc for my discus and I keep a bag of crushed coral in the filter. The pH still does drop but I would say that it drops from 7 to about 6.4 over an entire week. If I didn't have my coral in there it would probably drop to the high 5's. 

Sent from my gigantic Samsung Note 2


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## kacairns (Apr 10, 2012)

Do you clean your sponge filter/filter out every day as well, if not that could be cause of the fluctuating pH values as there is a build up of gunk in the filter. When doing daily water changes there is no chance for good bacteria to properly take hold even if taken from a cycled tank. I found rinsing out the sponge filter at minimum every 2nd day helped keep the pH from fluctuating and even better everyday. To lessen the stress of the water change as well I had 2 sponge filters that I just swapped on each change so that they weren't waiting and washed it out afterwards.

Using crushed coral you'd have to use a small amount and do some testing to see where you want to get it as crush coral buffers upwards of 7.6pH I believe so you'd want to use enough to keep the pH around the right area you want, without going too much.

I myself used with some success in a 50g tank Seachem Acid Buffer and Seachem Alkaline Buffer. It would allow me to go 2-3 days after a 100% water change before the pH would start to drop without washing out the sponge filter. If I recall right when I asked Rick about Discus buffer and solving my own dropping pH he recommended those to me and if needed also using Seachem Equilibrium for trace minerals. Although seachem site says that using the two Buffers together "can manage" between 7.2 and 8.5pH, I had success keeping it around 6.5 and after 2-3 days it would start to slowly drop and by about 12 hours later would be .25-.5 down


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## Steve (Mar 27, 2013)

55 gallon tank, 3 discus and 3 sterbai corys, 50% waterchange daily. pH drops from around 6.0-5.5 daily. pH out of the tap is 6.5 I believe


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## Rockman (May 19, 2013)

I don't keep discus; but in my big south american tank I use dolomite lime (used in gardening... I found mine at home hardware) to stabilize my pH. It's got a lower solubility than crushed coral; so the pH is typically lower. In my tank I get 6.3-6.5 pH, with a kH of about 1-2 and GH 3 (vs when I used CC where I got pH 7.3-7.5, kH ~3, GH 5). Could be worth a try.

At lower pH, carbonate buffers (baking soda, etc) tend to be somewhat unstable (most of it winds up as CO2, which can be offgassed or consumed by plants). A phosphate buffer would be a bit more stable.


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## crimper (Oct 20, 2010)

have you tried removing any filter media? just leave a heater and air stone in the tank? if your ph still drops, you probably over feeding them.

mess up with water chemistry and you'll end up with more issues. i had raised my discus with just heater and airstone with no fatalities. i have ph fluctuations on the winter time and buffered it with aragonite sand, usually stablized after a couple of days and remove it when its back to normal. these occurence is very seldom, maybe 2 or 3 times in the winter season.

these days ph is preatty stable for me. by the way how do you measure your ph? do you use digital ph meter?


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## Steve (Mar 27, 2013)

I measure my pH with a nutrafin test kit. I don't have an airpump so I can't run an airstone on my tank which is why I'm using a HOB filter. I have ordered an air pump from the states and should be picking it up hopefully soon. Why does a filter change the pH but not an airstone? I thought oxidizing the water was what caused pH fluctuations.


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## Steve (Mar 27, 2013)

I'm also wondering if it would be beneficial to stick the fish into a smaller tank (30 gal) and do a larger percentage of water change? As of right now my python is broken so I'm doing about 25-30 gal per day with buckets


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## crimper (Oct 20, 2010)

when food and waste gets trapped on the sponge filter or your filter media and starts to decompose, your water acidity level goes up (ph is dropping/crashing). it is a must to clean filter media all the time.

trust me, give it a shot. remove your filter and you will see the difference. airstone bubles helps oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange. less CO2 in the water, the more stable your ph is.


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## crimper (Oct 20, 2010)

Steve said:


> I have ordered an air pump from the states and should be picking it up hopefully soon.


Contact dodo, he got some cheap but good Air pumps for sale. I got several pumps from him last Saturday and those are the best $5 I've ever spent in this hobby.

Here's his ad http://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/fres...sifieds-27/fs-ff-lots-cheap-equipments-62241/


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## Steve (Mar 27, 2013)

You think it's worth removing the filter media and just using the HOB to disturb the water?


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