I'm back with more info.Please advise.

[Aquanate]

Hello again. Just finished my first week in the group. Some of you may remember I had questions about why my pH has gone up. Scape includes Sakrete play sand and gravel, cedar driftwood, lava rock, and I believe the rock holding the wood down is river jack stone. Im using under gravel filtration, trying out the slow moving plenum method spoke of by Kevin Novak. Even have my air pump working on/off every 10sec. Tds of tap water is 20ppm. pH is 6.0. After a week tds is around 90ppm, pH is 7.5 and as of today it seems the tanks are getting a tad cloudy. Seems quick to be a bacteria bloom. Just tested kh and gh and I'm posting a pic of it all. Loving this journey. Knowledge is wealth. Thank you for your help. kh around 40. Gh around around 30. Please bare with me remembering to take photos in the correct orientation.

 

 

 

[jwcarlson]

I'm not sure that TDS is going to tell you anything in this situation.

 

I'll pull the rock and put some vinegar on it.  Does it fizz?  

Otherwise, what's your water pH out of the tap vs overnight with an air stone running in it?

Mine comes out @ pH of 7 and ages over 24 hours in my barrels with aeration to pH of 8.2 because it apparently has a lot of carbon dioxide in it.

[Jawjagrrl]

Is your assessment of the PH being 7.5 based on the high range PH test shown next to the low range test above? If your Ph is lower than 7.4, it will look like this if you test with the high range test. If your tap is 6.0, stick with the low range test and only use the high range if your color maxes out the low range test. My tanks run right on the line of the two test options, so I'll always get 7.6 on the low range test and 7.4 on the high range test. 

IOW, your ph may still be acidic and none of your rocks reactive. But you can do the fizz test on them to be sure. Your kh and gh results seem pretty middle-of-the-road so I suspect you're in a pretty good "sweet spot" to keep quite a bit of stuff. 

[Aquanate]

Thank you. I did the low pH test first and it seemed pretty far into the low. I guess my worry is when I have to do a water change and how it will effect parameters. I should've tested that rock before I added it but I panicked when the wood started floating. Lol. This is week 2 so I think it will sink soon. Here's a pic of the low pH test I took first. Also, I tested my tap water after aging for 4 days. It was still 6.0

 

Edited March 17, 2022 by Aquanate

[jwcarlson]

That would seem to indicate you've got something in the tank that's bumping the PH.  But like @Jawjagrrl said, that looks low range to me in first pic and high range on this pic above.  So maybe you are right in between.  

I can't comment how much of a swing is bad for fish.  I know discus people say less than 0.4 swing.  I noticed that my fish seemed significantly better when I did water changes with aged water in my community tank.  But... mine is swinging a lot.

[Brandon p]

On 3/17/2022 at 5:16 PM, Aquanate said:

Thank you. I did the low pH test first and it seemed pretty far into the low. I guess my worry is when I have to do a water change and how it will effect parameters. I should've tested that rock before I added it but I panicked when the wood started floating. Lol. This is week 2 so I think it will sink soon. Here's a pic of the low pH test I took first. Also, I tested my tap water after aging for 4 days. It was still 6.0

 

That would can take a long time to sink. I have some that is still floating 5 month and I have one piece at almost a year but it’s a special case. It’s a cypress knee which in Fl you can’t touch but to got 3 from and old time but they had not been wet in over 100 years, so special. I’m not saying I will take months but I could depends on the wood type and many other things.

I don’t have the test kit can you say what the Kh and GH are please

[Aquanate]

Thank you. I did the low pH test first and it seemed pretty far into the low. I guess my worry is when I have to do a water change and how it will effect parameters. I should've tested that rock before I added it but I panicked when the wood started floating. Lol. This is week 2 so I think it will sink soon. Here's a pic of the low pH test I took first.

 

Sorry. Kh was 40, gh was 30

[BuzzDaddy21]

On 3/17/2022 at 2:30 PM, Aquanate said:

Im using under gravel filtration, trying out the slow moving plenum method spoke of by Kevin Novak

Hi Aquanate, I have 4 tanks setup with plenums and enjoy the hobby more because of them (I have very low maintenance) I like the look of your tanks. I can`t help with PH I`m not smart enough, the help you get here will be top notch.🙂 

 

On 3/17/2022 at 2:30 PM, Aquanate said:

Even have my air pump working on/off every 10sec.

I`m not sure why you would do this?  PM me some day and we can talk about this. Good luck.

[Patrick_G]

Is your substrate made up of only sand or do you have other material mixed in? 

[Brandon p]

I have always thought kh need to be 70ppm so 40 seems low. That in itself is not that bad. Up it stabilize the oh which you seem to understand.  So I think raising kh. Stabilizes that quick change. Sorry if this a late I think I might running to post together