[KH&GH Question]

On 3/17/2023 at 5:42 PM, BrettD said:

KH is generally more important in PH buffering. My test kit is different, but if the scale is 0-12, I don't think 3 or 4 would necessarily be a problem, as long as you're not doing water changes with vastly different parameters, like straight RO water for example, you shouldn't see dangerous swings of any kind. A lot of people here seem to have water similar to yours, and they keep all of your targeted species.

GH is kind of broad, but if you're at 12 of 12, I doubt your fish are missing any vital minerals. 

Alright! Maybe I'll go with 3 and 9, over 4 and 12; I just didn't want it to swing and thought 4KH would be better for that.

On 3/17/2023 at 6:46 PM, knee said:

If it helps, I keep pygmy cory and ember tetras in 4 GH, 2-3KH water and they're doing really good. I've also kept neos in 2 GH, 1 KH water and they were still very prolific. Just keep it stable and as long as you have a KH reading your ph will be fine.

Ok, good! I went with 4KH over 3 because I didn't want it to swing, but maybe I'll go a little lower so the GH is a tad lower.

On 3/17/2023 at 10:26 PM, Mmiller2001 said:

If you use salty shrimp, I would only measure TDS as that's more important. I keep all my Cherry shrimp in lower TDS and 0KH. PH swing and pH crashes are never going to kill fish or shrimp. These are nothing more than wives tales. Sudden, extreme TDS movement and unmaintained tanks kill fish and shrimp.

I'll measure that too next time 🙂

On 3/18/2023 at 1:02 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

I feel very blind for missing this, my apologies. 

OK.... Neocaridina Shrimp.  Here is the relevant video / playlist that would fit what you're doing.  He has quite a few videos on this topic and there might be another one that has further detail.  Playlists specific to neocaridina shrimp tank setup is also there for your viewing enjoyment.
 

This is also pretty important.  Stability is the key.  Get your method down, be consistent in how you apply any buffer, and monitor them for how they behave during water changes.

No worries! Thank you, I'll check those out! I'm new to keeping shrimp so I'm sure I will find them useful.

[KH&GH Question]

I was playing with Salty Shrimp GH/KH+ in RO water and got 4dKH and 12dGH.

Is it more important to have a certain dKH or GH, which should I be looking at when I'm remineralizing? I was also able to get 3dKH and 9dGH; would that work better or is 3dKH going to give me pH fluctuation?

I'm aiming to keep cherry shrimp, pygmy cories, and possibly ember tetras. Would they be okay at 4dKH & 12dGH?

Thanks!!

[Opinions on going RO in my situation?]

Retested my tap's ammonia and got .25ppm. Whew! I also tested a bottle of distilled I have sitting around as a control, which came up 0. I'll test the ammonia again just to make sure.

Any opinions on the salt from the softener/lack of calcium and magnesium? Is it worth going RO if I can bypass the softener? I'm leaning toward going RO but I'd love to see what people think about the softener itself.

Thanks to everyone who has responded so far, you've all been very helpful!

[Opinions on going RO in my situation?]

On 3/7/2023 at 7:11 PM, anewbie said:

You could do ro water; but with an aquarium that is 13 gallons another alternative would be rain water. You might need to make it harder (as you would ro water); depending on the fishes you keep. Be aware that if you do use rain water and you have tar roof on your home (some homes have slate and similar that won't harm the water); you will not want to collect roof water but rather have a pail that collect rain directly. Also if you live in a neighborhood with managed lawns you probably want to avoid run off as it can contain pesticide and similar. 

I'll look into collecting rainwater! That would probably be a good idea and the tip about the tar roof is helpful, I wouldn't have known that. No managed lawns, farming area here so that's still a possibility.

On 3/7/2023 at 8:48 PM, Fish Folk said:

Ammonia skies easily when pH is high. Reef tanks run into this. You might get away with keeping some rare Tanganyikan shell dwellers from your tap water. You’ll just need a serious colony of bacteria to crush that nitrogen cycle. Look into Lamprologus or Julidochromis… 

Those would be really neat, I have looked into them a little bit. I'm loosely planning a 20 or 29 gal so I will definitely look into them more, I hear they have pretty neat behaviors.

On 3/7/2023 at 9:14 PM, jwcarlson said:

Your well water sounds quite similar to my tap water (18-20 for both GH and KH, pH ages to 8.3).  I don't have ammonia like that, but I'm wondering how real that reading is, to be honest.  Make sure you confirm that.

I keep discus in my tap water.  My opinion is that unless you're keeping something wild caught or trying to breed fish, you shouldn't necessarily be worried about a lot of those numbers.  Except the ammonia... that's an issue.

I, too, do not understand the bleach causing an ammonia reading.  Unless you're saying there's a lot of chlorine and you used a dechlorinator before testing.  In that case, I think that can result in ammonia readings.

Yes, very similar. I'm definitely checking the ammonia again. I'm not sure what actually gets put in the tap when it comes inside, I was told it was "chlorine bleach" so I'll figure out what we actually put in there. I didn't dechlorinate before testing the water, I had a sample in a plastic cup for a few days to get a more accurate pH reading so I took water from that.

Thank you to everyone who replied! I'll look into the ammonia, it is definitely concerning. I don't know a ton about how my household's water softener/treatment systems work so it's theoretically possible it's from that or the well itself could have a problem. I'll look into testing the well too.

[Opinions on going RO in my situation?]

Breaking up the replies so they aren't super long.

On 3/7/2023 at 5:23 PM, Lennie said:

No clue how 8.0 ammonia is ending up in the system ngl

On 3/7/2023 at 6:59 PM, Pepere said:

That 8 ppm ammonia is perplexing from a well.

 

honestly I would be trying to first confirm it.  I would not be wanting to regularly consuming water with 8 ppm ammonia in it.  If it is accurste I would probably be thinking of a reverse osmosis unit for my drinking and cooking water.

I am not aware of how bleach can raise ammonia levels.  I understand how chloramine when treated with dechlorinators can liberate ammonia.

On 3/7/2023 at 8:13 PM, KittenFishMom said:

If you shocked the well with bleach, you might be getting ammonia reading.  It takes using the water for a while to get all of it out of all the pipes.

We put an RO/DI system in for drinking and tank water at the cottage.

We have a salt based softener at our house. we have hard water outdoor taps for watering plants. We also have out door hot and cold soft water tapes for cleaning things, like grungy stuff, like a dog that went swimming in a gross pond. 

RO/DI water is like distilled water.  You could use bottled RO or distilled water on a temporary bases to see if you like it.

I also think you can get the ammonia to drop by storing it in a big tub with a heater and and air bubbler and air cirulating over the surface. This also helps with sulfur water.

No one in our cottages neighborhood drinks their well water. You either carry it in, or get an RO system for drinking water.

 

On 3/7/2023 at 7:08 PM, Theplatymaster said:

@WishyFishy what test kit are you using?

I am not 100% sure how the super high ammonia reading is getting there either. I'm not sure what actually gets put into the tap before we use it, I'm not the person in the household usually doing that haha. I will look into it more and retest. I'm using a pretty new, unexpired API master test kit.

 

 

[Opinions on going RO in my situation?]

On 3/7/2023 at 4:42 PM, Pepere said:

Curious as to how bleach would cause well water to show Ammonia.

I think it's the test picking up on ammonium and not ammonia-- don't quote me on that though I need to read up on it more. Or I have bigger problems. I'll test it again in a few days in case I did something wrong or there was a fluctuation or something. I'll also try and find out exactly what's getting added into the water to treat it.

On 3/7/2023 at 4:42 PM, ColBud said:

Sounds like you have the tank already… if you also have all the other equipment why not set up the tank and run it with your tap water and test a few of the plants you want to keep. If things work well great go further if not adjust from there. 
I assume you are concerned about plants not live stock…

sorry if you were asking about the ammonia my brain skipped that part

It's okay, I was asking about both! I do keep plants though I am a beginner with them and noticed they have..failed to thrive. I have some kind of anubias, rotala, foxtail and monte carlo I added about a week ago. I expect the monte carlo to die off I just thought I'd give it a shot haha. The plants are alive but not doing great and I was thinking the softener could have something to do with it.

On 3/7/2023 at 4:50 PM, Theplatymaster said:

you could run some ammonia remover in your filter.

like a ammonia filter pad.

I will check that out!

 

[Opinions on going RO in my situation?]

I have well water that is very hard so it is treated through a salt-based water softener. I'm wondering if it wouldn't be worth it to go 100% RO water for my 13gal, currently my only tank. I don't really mind keeping harder water species but the problem is my tap has added salt and removed calcium and magnesium from the softener. Nowhere in the house has unsoftened water including the outside hose 😞

 

My tap parameters today were:

 

17 drops KH 

pH 8.2-8.4--in the middle of those colors 

8.0 ammonia (I believe this is due to chlorine bleach used to clean the well water)

0 nitrite 

0 nitrate 

18-19 GH drops

 

50:50 mix of tap & water I bought

pH 8.0-8.2 in between colors  

KH started to turn at 11 greeny teal 

Would’ve turned all the way at 12 but I dropped it haha

GH 9-10 drops

 

Would it be worth it for one tank? I would like to get a larger tank eventually but for now I only have one. I could buy RO or distilled by the gallon, add minerals, and eventually set up RO in my house. Would this be worth it? I am unsure because I don't mind my water being hard but the salt and ca&mg problems give me a pause. I can bypass the softener, but then there is the issue of residual salt still getting in. Thoughts?

[How do I know what size tank my floor can support?]

Thank you everyone! This is a future project, probably for sometime next year, so I was just looking into if it is possible at all. Maybe the carpeted spot would be better since that is on an exterior wall.

Unfortunately I do not have a basement or I would put my tanks down there, and it would be easier to check the joists! I think the tank would be perpendicular to them in the preferred place based on the way the house is laid out-- wouldn't make sense any other way. I will see about finding alternative places for it too to avoid that section of the floor with boards that flex. The house is about ~1920s.

[How do I know what size tank my floor can support?]

Hi,

I live in an old house with pine hardwood flooring that is admittedly not in the best shape. I'm sort of planning a 20 or 29gal but I only really have 2 options on where to put it, either:

-on said hardwood flooring-- it does bend a little in places when you walk on it

-on carpet (not my preferred spot haha)

Should I be worried about the weight of a 20 or 29 (I would rather go with the 29) on the floor if I have a well-made stand that's level? I'm 90% sure my house is not on a concrete slab but I can check and confirm that. Most of the resources I've found on this issue are dealing with 55-125 gallon tanks so I appreciate any insight! I don't know if a 20-29 is enough weight to be concerned about.