Why water changes are important !!

[flamenco-t]

Why water changes important ?

one answer: CARBONATE HARDNESS

Carbonate hardness is the ability for your tank to maintain PH. Every water have them.

The problem is that our biological benefical bacteria also feeds off of it.

So the higher bio load, the more carbonate hardness that our bio bacteria consume thus your tank's ability to maintain PH is decreasing.

Have you ever measure your PH level after water changes ? it's usually higher than normal. As time goes along, it usually decreases until the next water changes.

Baking soda, crushed coral, holley rock and other carbonated base stuff that we put in the tank is just a temporary solutions/band aid.

I did this on my 240, I am running 50 gallon per day drip. One week I had to order a new oring for dosmatic injector and during that week, my PH drops to 6.0 from 6.8-7.0 that I constantly keep them at. My fish's appetite decreases, tank water looks a little cloudy and overall mood of the fish were out of whack.

Once I started the drip system again within 3-4 days, everything was back to normal. I feed my fish daily, I know when something is up. My tank is also overstock as well.

PS: I started this becasue i am sick of seeing people's respond to threads on how important water changes is...We all know that, but most of us never know WHY . BTW, this is not the forum said above :) MFK is

stan

[DallasDiscus]

Thank you for posting the scientific reasoning behind the water changes. I thought water changes were to get out nitrates and nitrites, as well as new trace minerals for my plants.

[radioaktiv]

excellent info as always bro :cool:

[bgk245]

Well, it does help remove nitrates, though if your tank is heavilly planted, that's not always as big an issue. I had noticed that the ph goes down, I just had never heard the explanation. I just assumed that waste and spoiled uneaten food were acidic and that's what pulls the ph down, since my tanks are usually running at about .5 less than the tap water.

Thanks for the info!

[kSpieler]

Great Info! Thanks :D

Stupid Question#672 ...what about those with fish that prefer soft water with a low pH? Is the lack of carbonate hardness straining their bio?

[flamenco-t]

Carbonate hardness is basically a simple explanation of trace elements. All living things needs trace elements to survive so are our bio bacteria.

We all know that water changes replenish trace elements in all living eco system. Now we know how that affect our tank's PH.

Did you know what the waste that our biological beneficial bacteria produce is acidic ? this also another reason for PH drop/swings.

Acidic water = lower PH

stan

flamenco-t added 8 Minutes and 28 Seconds later...

Great Info! Thanks :D

Stupid Question#672 ...what about those with fish that prefer soft water with a low pH? Is the lack of carbonate hardness straining their bio?


Good question...the answer to that is I don't know :)

The only thing I can think off is the source of water..if your water comes from a calcium based soils, then the water will have a higher carbonate hardness versus water source from a different area will have lower carbonate hardness.

But this is usually when the water constantly flowing such as river system

For example, african lake...water doesn't really flow, more so of contained. And most of the water source comes from a calcium based soils which carries higher carbonate hardness therefore higher PH.

Amazon river...most of the water source comes from the andes mountain range overflowing through the atlantic ocean. During transit, it goes through a lof of clay and dirt based soils that have lower carbonate hardness therefore tends to have lower PH level, BUT being in a river system, water constantly replenish to make up for the lower carbonate hardness therefore maintaining a constant but lower PH.

Stan

[fishyjoe24]

So the higher bio load, the more carbonate hardness that our bio bacteria consume thus your tank's ability to maintain PH is decreasing

so the more bio bacteria there is the more ch/kh? so the ph increase?
or am I confused and wrong? what make the water soft or hard.

[mrsadler]

great info thanks for sharing

[masroberts9]

as ph drops carbonate hardness is converted to bicarbonate hardness, as the ph continues to drop that turns into carbonic acid. adding calcium and raising ph should precipitate carbonate hardness. introduction of acids should turn carbonate hardness into bicarbonate then to carbonic acid. So our nitrogenous biocolonies should decrease the amount of acid. and our carbonatious reactions should take care of everything else. :confused: trace elements are usually insignificant compared to nitrogen or phosphorus levels.

And *in neutral (6-8) pH ranges* alkalinty = (bicarbonate) + (carbonate),
So i have a hard time believing that carbonate hurts the ph.

[masroberts9]

well, i asked my professor about microbacterias consuming carbonates, she confired that bacteria consume carbonatious material including carbonate. she continued. If you have an excess of carbonate then the carbonatious bacteria will thrive. The thriving of these bacteria would create excess amounts of carbon dioxide which would bring down the ph. and it is possible that the bacteria consume at a rate fast enough to throw off the balance of carbonates and acids. since carbonates neutralize acids, it could then be said that the acidity of the water would get worse. but then you have the bacteria dies off due to the increase of ph and so you would have less carbon dioxide production and less acids to neutralize. so basically there is a balance and it just takes time to find it.

[flamenco-t]

Did I ever mention thy carbonate hardness hurts Ph? I was simply showing that carbonate hardness have a direct effect on Ph swings in terms of trace elements, this is how water changes can help replenish those trace elements: All you African keeper should know this and how carbonate hardnes causes ph swings.

Stop using your text book " big words" not everyone here goes to college and have a proffessor office hours access :D

[fishyjoe24]

sounds like some one is getting a degree aquaobiology(spelling?) how ever you spell the study of aqua life.

[masroberts9]

uhh ....they seem like words that are pretty commonly used here in fish hobby. :confuzeld:

[China8USA]

I never mess with PH, never measure, never care.

I do 50% WC weekly and try to keep all the filters running nicely.
That's about it for maintenance.