Re: [Killietalk] copper leaching from new plumbing

[Wright Huntley <whuntley at verizon_net>]

Mach Fukada wrote:
> Aloha Wright
>         Thanks for the info.  Will give me somthing to think about.  Our 
> water was fairly soft and acid.  Right out of the tap as it is surface water 
> coming vial the ferns and mosses in the watershed.   All struck me as odd 
> when they started adding phosphoric acid then went a 180 degrees to add soda 
> ash.  Now somtimes ph was 10 out of the tap.    Would almost give up and 
> work on rift lake chiclids.....   Maybe pupfish would be better......
>
> MTF
>   
First, fish don't really feel or care what the pH is (despite loads of 
published mythology on the subject). Yes, the major "Atlases" are quite 
wrong on this point. Read Scheel's ROTOW for the truth.

Between about 3 and 10, pH has no direct effect on fish. Indirectly it 
can change ammonium (harmless) to ammonia (deadly at a few ppb) at high 
pH or induce brown-blood disease at low pH, if a lot of nitrite is 
present. Otherwise, they can't feel the pH any more than you can when 
you dive into a swimming pool. There is no such thing as pH shock.

I used to breed wild Bettas in very low pH water, because there seem to 
be whole classes of bacteria that cannot survive down below 5 or so, 
This may help rain-forest fishes, too. Mostly it helps eggs survive, for 
the parents could care less. Hard water, at any pH, can certainly keep 
some eggs from hatching.

The EPA has mandated the addition of alkaline materials (soda ash or 
sodium hydroxide) to water systems, to stop the exact metallic corrosion 
you were first concerned about. The lead in pipe joints is scarier than 
the copper, BTW. It is long-term cumulative poison and a neurotoxin at 
that. What they add is rarely a buffer, so a bit of aeration will 
dissolve enough atmospheric CO2 to drop the pH a long way.

BTW, many of our desert pupfish live in surprisingly soft water. I often 
carry a tds meter on our Desert Springs Action Committee work parties, 
and a tds of 100 ppm isn't exactly rare. It is seldom over 200. In 
captivity harder water may provide some essential trace elements that 
domestic soft (or RO) waters don't have. I have found a bit of boric 
acid is a good thing for them, too. [Much domestic water is totally 
lacking in boron.]

Wright

-- 
Wright Huntley - Rt. 001 Box K36, Bishop CA 93514 - whuntley at verizon_net  760 937-2276 (cell) 760 872-3995.

http://www.self-gov.org/wspq.html 

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