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SeaChem Akaline/Acid Buffer and Equilibrium HELP!


GoldenEye
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  I've been in the hobby for at least a year and I've had a horrible experience with my tap water.  The water is incredibly hard, over 300 ppm. I spent quite a bit of time early on chasing ph.  I've had probably 30-40 guppies die off over the course of 6 months and just chalked them up to weak genetics until I brought in a some cory cats and a few common plecos to grown out for our turtle pond.  None of the plecos survived (bought one at a time) and I lost a few corys.  After that I stopped blaming the guppies and started blaming my water.  Something had to be wrong with the water.  It's not the fish, can't be after this many right?  Now some of this could have been from the tank not being cycled but were talking months into it and I just can't help but think water hardness as I regularly find sediment in our shower heads and sink faucets. 

  Fast forward to now days.  I have what almost even I would consider to many tanks and hundreds of guppy fry from the pair of "indestructible" guppies.  I keep 3 different type of pleco, a couple bichir, cherry shrimp, neons, cherry barbs, multiple species of cory, angels, goldeneye dwarf cichlid and I'm sure I'm forgetting something.  I setup my rodi unit 6 weeks ago and have been experimenting with creating my own water.  I tried just cutting it but the hardness and ph just shoot through the roof when I add it to the tank.  So I bought the seachem buffers and equilibrium.  I've made about 100 gallons using this stuff in batches of 20gal at a time without any accuracy.  The directions of how to use these are either just that confusing or they just aren't there.  I read them over and over and watch all the videos available.  I still cannot understand how this is supposed to work.

 

  If anyone has any advice on how to use these products I would greatly appreciate a recipe for how they make their water.  5g,10g, 20g however you make it.  I plan to buy a 55gal drum once I figure this out so any help is greatly appreciated!

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From what I've read the acid buffer is not plant safe, just incase you're keeping plants. if you're not keeping plants then you might want a different mineral supplement because there's a lot of extra stuff I there for plants.

 

But If you have ro water you probably only need the alkaline buffer any way.  Unless you have something special I'd not worry too much about the exact kh gh targets.  Just do the same thing every time you make water.

 

Also in my experience, equilibrium takes a while to dissolve and if you're altering kh you'll probably have to wait a bit for co2 to equilibriate before you measure parameters.   I'd throw an air stone in to help mix and speed that all up and measure the next day.

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I had an issue at one point i used alkaline buffer. Contacted seachem they said use neutral regulator as well being new to the chemical you are likely to overshoot call their customer support line. They will get all your specic tank info and give you dosing schedule etc

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If you really want to be very accurate, set pinpoint numbers and know exactly what you are adding to your water; then give those products away or trash them.

They are great products, but overly expensive and are difficult to measure. It sounds like you want to begin taking control of your water, and you will not regret doing so.

Here's what you need.

https://greenleafaquariums.com/products/magnesium-sulfate-mgso4-1lb-bag.html

https://greenleafaquariums.com/products/calcium-sulfate-caso4-1lb-bag.html

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074D9BXRT/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_BD4RBVWVV7T1MFWAX7XJ?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

https://rotalabutterfly.com/nutrient-calculator.php

Any gram scale or a great set of measuring spoons. 

Each of those bags will probably last you well over a year.

Plug in some numbers on Rotalabutterfly and done. 

See my signature on a quick guide on Rotalabutterfly.

It's so easy, it just seems daunting.

 

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On 7/17/2021 at 1:35 PM, Mmiller2001 said:

They are great products, but overly expensive and are difficult to measure. It sounds like you want to begin taking control of your water, and you will not regret doing so.

They're easy to measure if you have a scale.  But adamantly I usually just scoop knowing that as it compacts a scoop becomes "bigger" over time.

 

I think equilibrium is is great and not too expensive unless you have a lot of tanks.  for me its worth it.  It hardens my water and acts as a 0-0-X fertilizer with micros.  If I was hardening 20 tanks I'd for sure start buying unmixed bags of dry ferts though.

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