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Re: [APD] How do you guys do water changes?????




My experience is that some of my discuses are very sensitive to changes in pH or something, and just by doing 20% water changes, I noticed that their belly will swell like they've been fed and show signs of diarrhea and won't eat for a day or two. I assume it's from a pH shock of some sort.
I use a dechlorinator so it's not the chlorine issue.

There is no such thing as pH shock, and your Discus can't "feel" pH any more than you can in a swimming pool. [Mythology persists, and rarely as well as among Discus growers.]


We don't have enough info to be sure, but your description sounds a lot like someone who is using a dechlorinator when they should use a dechloraminator. [Hypo-based product instead of "Amquel" or "Prime" o/e.]

That process *is* pH sensitive, and a burst of deadly ammonia can be released if your new water has a high pH. Old-style dechlorinators flood the chloraminated water with ammonium when the bond is broken. [It is ammonia in higher pH water and very hard on fish.]

The two likliest causes for your symptoms are sudden change of osmotic pressure conditions (most unlikely at only 20%) or ammonia released from improperly-treated chloramines. I vote for the latter, maybe combined with a resident hexamita o/e infection.

Wright

--
Wright Huntley - Rt. 001 Box K36, Bishop CA 93514 - whuntley at verizon_net
                    760 872-3995

"Outsourcing" is condemned for sending a few American jobs overseas.
What is the appeal, then, of "outsourcing" our entire national security?
[The exact same politicians are insisting that it be handled only by the
UN, and never by our own resources.]       -- WH


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