>My observations are that the pH problems are a cause of secondary effects.
>Most of the damage from wildly off pH are ammonia or nitrite problems.
Yes, I think there are many things that are the cause of pH fluctuations but
I cant see too many aquarists doing full water chemistry tests - many don't
even test their pH. However, I agreed with Harro that if you keep your water
well-buffered there seems to be less problems in this matter. As earlier
stated I had less problems if I kept the alkalinity between 50-100 ppm. In
the end I didn't bother to test for pH - rather I just use to test the
alkalinity and knew that if I kept it in that range I wouldn't have any
problems.
Just as an aside John Doley in Darwin who use to bred a lot of rainbowfishes
for the trade had problems keeping his water below pH 9.0 yet it didn't seem
to bother them. It was ground water and also very soft if I recall correctly.
Adrian.
Adrian R. Tappin
Brisbane, Australia.
"Home of the Rainbowfish"
http://www.ecn.net.au/~atappin/home.htm