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Showing results for tags 'high ph'.
Found 12 results
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Help! Very high KH, PH, alkalinity! But very soft water? I have had this tank up and planted for four weeks now. Zero nitrates, nitrites, and zero ammonia. No limestone. The only thing added to the tank has been Easy Green liquid fertilizer. I have been “feeding” the tank Hakari micro bites every other day. The tank was seeded from existing tanks and the plants were from the other tanks as well. I am using the same water I use for all six of my tanks. (Filtered water from a water store) They all are at 50 hardness, 80 alkalinity and 40 carbonate. PH of 7. THIS TANK: 25 GH, 300 Alkalinity, 300 carbonate, 8 PH. What am I doing wrong? I started doing two gallon changes every other day with RO water a week ago. No change except the PH may have come down to 7.9. I am just about to tear the whole thing down. I could really use some knowledge and advice! -
I'm setting up a new Guppy planted tank. I have purchased eco-complete. I read that heavy rooters dont do so well establishing their root base in eco-complete alone but i dont know. Any feed back? I want to layer my substrate with maybe some stratum to help the heavy root feeders and I need the help with lowering my pH. I have higher than ideal pH, GH and KH in my tap and in other tanks. I plan to get some type of bottom feeders and read that I have to be careful of not using a substrate that is too small, too big and too sharp. What exactly would that be? -
So I've started to loose my cardinals I've noticed my ph is a little high around 7.4-7.8 and I know my kh is little light, had a hard time getting my nitrite to cycle till I raised my kh and now I'm losing 1-2 cardinals every couple of days . I have video of one of my cardinals floating across the substrate and twitching and trying to live but ultimately died, I don't know how to post the video here. I see no signs of illness in my cardinals or other fish and other water parameters look fine. Any advice and suggestions are welcomed. Thank You -
So I’m finally getting a tank started for the first time, I was originally going to do a 20 long but since I want a decent variety of fish I decided to go for a 40 breeder instead. I’ve also been researching on YouTube for over a year now (mainly getting info from Aquarium Co-op, Primetime Aquatics, Girl Talks Fish, and MD Fish Tanks). I’m wanting to keep a betta as the centerpiece, rummynose tetras, some kind of live bearer (I’m leaning heavily towards Endlers), either ottos or plecos, and cherry shrimp. I know bettas can sometimes eat shrimp so I’m going to test it’s temperament with a couple of cherries first before getting a bunch for a colony. Also this will be a heavily planted tank (got about $200 worth of plants in my cart on Aquarium Co-op’s website 😅) and I plan on feeding high quality food. In Arizona we have really, really hard water and high PH. I’ve seen it range from 7.6 to 8.2 depending on the city (I don’t know numbers for hardness, I haven’t gotten my test kit in yet). I know I can cut the tap water with RO/distilled water to lower PH/hardness, but I recently saw a video from Prime Time Aquatics where Jason said he’s successfully kept bettas and shrimp in his tap water, which is pretty close to what I have here. In the video he says that keeping stable parameters is a little more important than matching the exact parameters of the fish you’re keeping. So, finally to my question lol. Has anyone here kept bettas or shrimp successfully in harder water with a high PH? If so, did you end up cutting your water, or did you leave it just as it comes out of the tap, and did you notice any issues with the health of the fish or shrimp? -
My tap water has a really high ph around 9.. I keep my tank around 7. How should I do water changes to keep the pH from changing to much in the tank?
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Let me start this out by saying, I have super hard well water. There's tons of limestone in the area. I'm fact, about 5 miles down the street is a limestone quarry. On a well water testing kit the GH reads 450 ppm. PH is 8.4. We have a water softener, it sort of works. An RO system is not an option. Fishkeeping started as my pandemic hobby last year. Anyway, my first tank was a 3 gallon with one Betta and some plants. I used UNS Controsoil in that tank. Aquasoil only buffered my water for about 3 months. My biggest struggle with that tank was keeping it balanced. It was an algae filled mess. In January, I bought a 5.5 gallon tank, and switched my substrate to Seachem flourite. This tank has been easier to balance. Yesterday, was tank maintenance and water change day. I looked at my tank and decided to rescape it a bit. Then because I had the day off, I decided to visit two lfs. I bought some limnophila (can't remember what variety), water sprite, and luduwigia repens. After talking to the employee at the first lfs I visited, he thinks the only plant that will make it is the luduwigia. He did say I could set up an African Cichlid tank and they would breed without me having to anything. I really don't want to breed fish lol. I've run peat in a HOB filter before. Currently I only run a sponge filter. Louie my betta can't handle 2 filters running. Sir Nippy Fins (my first Betta) had no issues. Sadly, I lost him after jumped out of a gap in the lid. Indian Almond leaves and Adler cones don't do too much. Mostly, I use them for the tannins. I could mix in a some distilled water every week. Anubias grows well. I have an aponogeton that's pretty happy in my tank. I struggle with crypts. Amazon swords and Java fern merely exist. They don't really grow at all. Java moss and bucephalandra turned into a melted mess. My biggest surprise was red tiger lotus. It did so well, I had to trade it in after it outgrew the tank. The plant had two leaves when I brought it home. Three weeks later it had taken over half the tank. Floating plants are hit or miss. I've tried red root floaters twice. One lfs sells them by the giant handful for $3. My frogbit is doing alright. What other plants that like hardwater should I try? Sorry for the novel length post but I figure there are people who would find a discussion on hard water planted tanks useful. . -
My water comes out of the tap at 8.2-8.3 ph with 37 ppm of tds, low gh and kh. My shrimp do great with just crushed coral and my panda corys don't seem to mind higher ph but I haven't been able to get my ember tetra or pygmy cory colonies to spawn much. Would it be worth trying to lower the ph of my tap water before it goes in? & what would be easiest to use/ how should I add buffer back to the water afterwards? -
Has anyone had otocinclus in very hard water and high ph. My water is 20dgh, 10dkh, 8.0ph. I've always wanted them but stayed away because they are wild caught and from soft water. I was just curious if anyone had pulled it off successfully?
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I live in northern Indiana and we have really hard water. My pH is testing at 8.0 or a bit higher and I know I likely have very hard water even though my test kit hasn't arrived yet so I haven't tested that yet. Anyway, I have a new planted tank (20 gal.) that is currently cycling. Question: how do I safely lower my pH and soften up my water? RO is not an option. I've yet to add any fish or invertebrates to my tank but i want to have things ready when it's time! Thank you in advance!
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Looking to get as much insight as possible on plants that people have had experience are unaffected by 8.2 PH and fairly high GH/KH. So far my list is Pogostemon Stellatus oct., pogostemon Downi/Helferi, Red Leopard Val, Anubias, Red Tiger lotus, and Bacopa. What others do people have experience with that handle hard water well? -
So I have had 7 Paracyprichromis nigripinnis (Blue neon herring cichlid) in a tank by themselves for about 6 weeks. I had no deaths for the first 4 weeks (except one a few days after they arrived, I don't think it handled the overnight shipping well - I ordered 8 and it was pale and lethargic compared to the others). Then I had one die with no symptoms, parameters were all perfect (0 amm. 0 nitr. 5-10 nitr. dkh 14 dgh 18 ph 8.0 temp 77), then another several days later, still no symptoms. So I decided to treat with Maracyn and ParaCleanse, per Aquarium Coop treatment suggestions on Wednesday, after vacuuming the tank and doing a water change. I haven't fed since then, and I noticed a bacterial bloom this evening. Tested parameters, sure enough I had detectable nitrite (0 amm. 0.25 nitr. 10 nitr. dkh 14 dgh 18 ph 8.0 temp 77). So I did a 70% water change, being sure to match the parameters before changing. I find this interesting, as @Bill Smith mentioned in a post that he always has bacterial blooms after a Maracyn treatment. I add baking soda and epsom salt to my tap for this tank, since its a Tanganyikan tank. Bill's thought that he gets bacteria blooms while Aquarium Coop didn't in their testing was due to his water hardness. Curious if that could be the case here, since I have such hard water in this tank? I'm also currently treating a 5.5 gallon tank with a group of 9 juvenile white clouds that I just purchased, I haven't yet had a bloom in that tank, but it just has water from my tap, which is sourced from our well (7.4 ph, 4 dkh, 7 dgh). I also am treating that one prophylactically with Ich-X, which I'm not doing is this tank, since none of the fish have shown signs of Ich. I am planning to follow the current treatment with a course of Ich-X for this tank, I was just spacing them out since the Paracyps seem to be more sensitive.- 5 replies
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I’m new to fish keeping and currently have one aquarium with guppies. I am interested in breeding bristlenose and would like to set up my second tank to do so. It is a 20 tall and currently has 4 plants and a couple mystery snails in it while I finalize what to stock it with. Everything I have read/heard says that bristlenose should be kept no higher then 7.8ph, especially when trying to breed them. My water out of the tap has a PH of 8.5 and GH of 300. I’m concerned that any bristlenose I bring in will will either a) not survive or b) not thrive and breed. I’m looking for input on whether or not this could work with my water conditions or would the bristlenose fall apart and not thrive?
