Hillary

Has anyone done a comparison between Zerowater filtration and reverse osmosis systems specifically for hobbyist-type home aquarium tanks?

Hi Corey!! Thank you for your reply, I know my post was a bit scattered. I'm just all kinds of worried :( My stem plants have melting bottom leaves, so I will try dosing with Seachem Equilibrium and will see if it helps. I have 2 lights, one is an O.X.L (Chinese brand?) 15W light, and I have a Fluval 13W compact fluorescent light.

Hi everyone! Love the channel and have been following AC and Corey for the past year. I've tried googling this issue and it seems to be a strange one? My tap water has a pH over 8 (tested with API pH dropper test, but not with the higher pH tests), but my GH is 6 dGH (KH is 4 dKH). My googled research tells me my GH is too high and my pH is too low for a planted dwarf puffer tank. My setup: Tall 16 gallon, Aquaclear 20 hang-on-back filter, submersible heater, 2 air stones (1 small and 1 med) Fluval stratum with Fluval root tabs Plants: anubias nana, bacopa caroliniana, carpet tiny clovers Plants/hang-on-back filter/substrate migrated from a 5 gallon, the 5 gallon had been up and running for 7 months before migration. (added extra substrate, pogos, echinodorus parviflorus, buce thea red, ludwigia red hybrid) Added a new medium-size rock, a medium-size piece of driftwood and a smattering of almond catappa leaves. The plants have been continuously shrinking and melting despite having Fluval stratum with Fluval root tabs. My 5 gallon had an algae problem but the 16 gallon seems better so far. I keep my tank lights on for 8 hours per day, while also getting sunlight during the day from a west/south facing window about 10 ft away. The only plants that are thriving are my tiny clovers, I started them from seed while setting up the 16 gallon. My dwarf puffer died the day before I was going to transfer her to the new tank (RIP Booger), most likely due to parasites (she was doing fine for the first 5 months, but suddenly took a turn and got very skinny despite being fed until full once a day. I live in Canada so I couldn't get Paracleanse in time). My snails' shells are thin and sad and I had 4 out of 7 pumpkin shrimp die in a week. TLDR; my tank is out of whack and my dwarf puffer died and my plants are melting! Help! - Hillary