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RE: CO2



> Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2002 06:50:52 -0500
> From: Neil Frank

> HERE IS A RELATED QUESTION for everyone. When the
> CO2 tank stops (say, when the tank is finished),
> the pH will go back from where it came. So pH 7.0
> jumps back to 8.0 and fairly quickly. Not too bad
> for the plants...but HOW DOES THE RAPID JUMP IN pH
> (and return to higher pH) AFFECT SOME FISH.

A pH shift in and of itself won't affect most fish. What we normally
perceive as "pH Shock" is actually a reaction to sudden shifts in osmotic
pressure, where the common "cause" is the change in TDSs. You can literally
"blow out" the gill structures if the hardness changes too suddenly.

Particular pH levels only affect the fish's health in the long run, where
the respiratory and renal systems must cope with the imbalance to the body's
pH. The added burden simply "burns out" one or the other of the two systems
eventually.

The sudden loss of CO2 that contributes to the rise in pH will cause more
CO2 to be outgassed from the bloodstream, temporarily causing the reverse of
acidosis (can't think of the proper term at the moment, but I'm pretty sure
it's not "basidosis"), but it's no more harmful or lasting than
hyperventilation is to us. It certainly won't "bubble out" as nitrogen would
in a case of Diver's Bends...

-Y-

David A. Youngker
nestor10 at mindspring_com