Aquanut Posted July 19, 2021 Share Posted July 19, 2021 Dear community, I have a fluval flex 123 litre tank which has been running for around 18 months now. It is fully planted with a fairly large piece of mopani. All the fish are happy in a soft acidic environment so i was not too concerned with PH of 6.4 a few weeks back. This tank is beautifully over filtered as standard & i have a seperate internal UV filter with venturi running as well The tank gets a 25% water change fortnightly, the gravel is vacuumed as best as possible. all the fish are healthy & happy. I was running 50/50 RO/Tap but on noticing low KH started leaving the RO out & just using tap. Here in Norfolk UK the tap water is liquid rock, super hard. I thought that maybe the trumpet snails were stripping carbonates out? I am having real problems with KH & PH. The KH is 0 & the PH is around 6.0. I have tried adding seachem equilibrium to get the KH up but i think i could add tubs full & get nowhere. I did a tap only 50% water chage which brought the KH & PH up to nicer levels but within a few days both were back to low levels with KH at 0. I am concerned with no KH the PH can swing wildly but thankfully all fish are healthy & not stressed. At this point i am considering the only solution being to strip the tank down, throw away the substrate which is 2.5 inches of aquasoil topped with a half inch of gravel. Thus getting rid of the snails. I can’t think of another way but am reluctant due to the beautiful mature swords & lotus. So here i am reaching out to you guys for help, all suggestions will be gratefully received. I’m sure i have left out some technical details that may be required for a reasoned response so please ask anything. I would rather avoid having to add vast quantities of chemical. Many thanks for reading this post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mmiller2001 Posted July 19, 2021 Share Posted July 19, 2021 (edited) Equilibrium is only for GH and adds some amount of K and Fe. This is why you are still seeing 0dKH. I recommend grabbing this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074D9BXRT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 You can add it directly to the tank and adding 3.03g to your 123L will raise KH by 1dKH. This will also add 13.93ppm K to the tank as well. Keep that in mind. Hope this helps. Edited July 19, 2021 by Mmiller2001 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbit Posted July 19, 2021 Share Posted July 19, 2021 @Mmiller2001 is there a reason you prefer potassium carbonate over calcium carbonate? I assume in this case it’s because the GH is already high? @Aquanut depending on what kind of aqua soil you have, it could be designed to strip the KH from the water and keep your pH low. A friend gave me some Fluval stratum a year ago and I just this week figured out it actively lowers KH. 🤦🏼♀️ That’s not to say the KH is totally absent or useless though—it’s my understanding the stratum “holds” it until it’s needed. @Mmiller2001 knows way more about this than I do, so he can correct me if I’m wrong. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perry Posted July 19, 2021 Share Posted July 19, 2021 Hi @Aquanut, firstly I'd say don't panic and tear down your beautiful tank; especially since your fish aren't showing any signs of stress. As @Mmiller2001 mentioned above the Equilibrium only raises GH. There are seachem additives designed to adjust the KH but I think you'll find that adding a bag of crushed coral to your filter is a simple, gentle way to raise your KH enough to stabilize your pH. I hope you find something that works for you and your tank. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mmiller2001 Posted July 19, 2021 Share Posted July 19, 2021 On 7/19/2021 at 7:35 AM, Hobbit said: is there a reason you prefer potassium carbonate over calcium carbonate? I assume in this case it’s because the GH is already high? It will increase GH. By using potassium carbonate or potassium bicarbonate, GH is unchanged. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquanut Posted July 19, 2021 Author Share Posted July 19, 2021 (edited) GH is 19 degrees. I take it adding crushed coral will increase GH as well? where as adding potash will not increase GH but will increase potassium? Edited July 19, 2021 by Aquanut Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbit Posted July 20, 2021 Share Posted July 20, 2021 On 7/19/2021 at 10:03 AM, Aquanut said: I take it adding crushed coral will increase GH as well? where as adding potash will not increase GH but will increase potassium? Yep! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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