[Floating plants]

Question: Do floating plants like frog bit and water lettuce require still water?

I tried both and the water lettuce melted away completely. the frog bit is still trying to hang on bit it melted away as well. Well I'd say about 98% of it. 

I do have some very small new growth on the hand full of plants left. 

I'm just wondering if anyone has successfully grown or at the top of thier water with water currents. 

 

Liz

 

[Raising PH]

2 hours ago, quikv6 said:

I add baking soda to buffer the soft/low KH NYC water we have. I echo what Brandy said fully. The only thing I would add is to do the test experiment with a larger quantity of water...perhaps something closer to what a typical water change would be.

When I just had a 20 gallon, I dialed in my baking soda test to a 5 gallon bucket, as that's what a 25% water change would be. I essentially found I had to add about 1/2 teaspoon of Baking soda to the 5 gallon bucket in order to take a PH of 6.8 up to approx 7.6. It also brought the KH up from 40ppm to 80-100ppm. The 5 gallon bucket gave me a really good gauge.  Now that I have a 75 gallon as my main tank, I generally waterchange about 20 gallons.  Same formula seems to works well...I add 2 teaspoons to yield the same result.

Everyone's water is different, so I really think a few tests are needed to dial it in, in the name of safety and healthy fish.

 

Does it cloud your water at all? Do you add to the filter or do you add to the water column?

[Raising PH]

2 hours ago, Nick L said:

So we are trying to raise our gh and kh and we are using something called aragonite (we picked it up from petco) our ph is pretty high already out of the tap (high 7's) but its been a few days and it's time to test water today (its been 3 or 4 days since we put it in) we will let you know what we find out. Not sure what your tank looks like as far as scape and whatever but the stuff we got basically looks like semi fine white sand. Everything we saw online said to use about a pound per gallon or so. If it works for us maybe it will help you out too

I read about that last night. I'm seriously interested in your result. 

I tested ph this morning and its still the same. Ugh! 

I did move some coral chunks in the hob filter. Well one chunk in each one. I also put some more chunks ontop of the air stone, I read that it helps disperse the dissolved coral through out the tank. So no change over night. 

I also snapped a photo of the tank in question. 

[Raising PH]

4 hours ago, AdamTill said:

A bit of Equilibrium or even baking soda in your change water will also solve the problem if you don’t mind dosing.

I've seen the baking soda before in videos and other forums. But no one has any dosing information. I've yet to be able to find out the shelf life of the baking soda in the tank. How often do you have to dose the baking soda to keep it steady? How much per gallon? 

I of course prefer to have it done naturally so that I do not have to keep dosing and taking the chance of one day screwing it up and killing all my fish. 

However at this point I am willing to entertain other options. 

[Raising PH]

Also I do not inject co2. I do however use easy green and excell flourish from seachem. 

[Raising PH]

I have a theory as to why my ph is dropping but it's just a theory. Now before I had a massive horrific bacteria massacre my ph would stay about 6.4- 6.8. (I listened to internet people about cleaning my tank to soon and cleaned it all at the same time. Killed massive amount of my good bacteria).

So I think that at this point my good bacteria is eating up all my ph processing the ammonia in my tank leaving me at a 6.0 for ph. My nitrites are 0 and my nitrates are between 10 and 20. My ammonia is 0. So I think there isnt enough ph left after the process. My tank is also planted and there is locally sourced drift wood in my tank. 

So I am hoping to use the coral that a LFS sold me out of a saltwater tank, as a buffer so that when I do water changes it doesnt drop back down. Its not a gradual thing either. It's as if the ph in the water magically disappears as soon as fresh water meets tank water. So I am trying to get the ph back to a point where I can have fish other than Angel's in this particular tank. 

I have doubled up now after reading your response. I put a piece in each of the HOB filters. I also put the remaining pieces ontop of the air stone. Hoping that it will help disperse the dissolved coral. I can see that it is dissolving when I moved the pieces. So here's to hoping. 

I'll check it again in about a hour and let you know if these two things help at all. 

Also I have not tested my kh lately. I need to get a bottle of that to go with my api testing kit. 

[Raising PH]

So I've added coral to my freshwater tank in attempts to raise my ph. I have put chunks of coral in my tank. They are not "crushed " . 

So I know the coral works from where I tested it in a container of fish tank water. It raised the ph there after sitting for a couple of days. I believe the ph has come up some considering the yellow that used to show after a ph test was pale faint yellow. Now it's a dark yellow, so logic would says its come up some but not high enough. 

So my question is does it have to be crushed? Would it not work with just chunks in the tank? 

My ph from the tap is a consistent 6.8-7.0 however even with pwc the ph still stays at atleast 6.0. I use prime water conditioner. it specifically states on the bottle that it does NOT effect ph. 

So I'm at a loss here. I've also read that sea shells work as well. Does it have to be a certain type of sea shells?

Some ph help would be greatly appreciated..

 

Thanks,

Liz