Stingrays and high ph levels?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
C

Crazyfish88

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 6, 2009
1,969
0
0
BC, Canada
Hello everyone. I bought 5 un used bags of geo system sand from a friend and will be changing out my gravel to sand for my stingrays. This is the same sand I use for my geophagus tank and the geos took the ph change ok. My question is this sand raises my ph levels to 7.5-8 but my tank is currently stable at 6.4-6.5. Will it be ok for the rays with the ph change? I worry the change will kill them.


Sent from my iPad using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
 
add the sand before you add the rays. it will take a few weeks for your tank to go back to 6.5 ish so maybe wait a while before you add rays.
ph shock can kill some rays like fresh imports or weaken stressed out rays.

whats going to happen is you will add the rays into 6.4 and you say the ph will go up to 8. than in a few weeks the ph will drop back down. you can soak the sand and rinse is for a week or two in a bin of some sort?? the sand will also increase your hardness ....same thing with that it will go up than down! if infact your ph is in the 6s out of your tap??
 
  • Like
Reactions: DwarfCichlidLvr
calgaryflames said:
add the sand before you add the rays. it will take a few weeks for your tank to go back to 6.5 ish so maybe wait a while before you add rays.
ph shock can kill some rays like fresh imports or weaken stressed out rays.

whats going to happen is you will add the rays into 6.4 and you say the ph will go up to 8. than in a few weeks the ph will drop back down. you can soak the sand and rinse is for a week or two in a bin of some sort?? the sand will also increase your hardness ....same thing with that it will go up than down! if infact your ph is in the 6s out of your tap??
Click to expand...

The rays are alrdy in my tank. I don't have another tank to put them in. I've had them for 7 months. My cities tap water is at 7 but our hardness is 0. Victoria and Vancouver BC's tap water has low hardness so we have problems with buffering capacity. I use a large bag of crushed coral just to keep my tank water ph stable at 6.4.


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
 
pH shock is a myth. The problem you may have is with a jump in General Hardness. Test the GH in the ray and geo tanks. You may be able to just add a little new substrate at a time so the increase is slow.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Pterophyllum sp
PeteLockwood said:
pH shock is a myth. The problem you may have is with a jump in General Hardness. Test the GH in the ray and geo tanks. You may be able to just add a little new substrate at a time so the increase is slow.
Click to expand...

As I recall the sand raises my gh to about 4-5. My rays tank is around 2-3. I will do that. Add a bag a week. Thanks for the advice.


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
 
Crazyfish88 said:
The rays are alrdy in my tank. I don't have another tank to put them in. I've had them for 7 months. My cities tap water is at 7 but our hardness is 0. Victoria and Vancouver BC's tap water has low hardness so we have problems with buffering capacity. I use a large bag of crushed coral just to keep my tank water ph stable at 6.4.


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
Click to expand...

i used to live in van they add ash to help stabilize ph.but adding a bag of crush coral is a very good idea,but make sure its always fresh or actually doing something,you could let your guard down and the ph will crash very quickly. i dont beleive your tap water will stay at 7 very long though.the only reason its at that i think is because they add the ash and other minerals .your tds is around 15-20 in the lower mainland. in victoria its probably very similar.
 
PeteLockwood said:
pH shock is a myth. The problem you may have is with a jump in General Hardness. Test the GH in the ray and geo tanks. You may be able to just add a little new substrate at a time so the increase is slow.
Click to expand...

what type of gh test kit do you use???
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom