GH 2,300 ppm?

[Noahspurlin]

I’m more new to keeping guppies and have them in a quarantine setup over the last month. I have about 1” of crushed coral substrate in my fish tank because my tds out of my well water is around 100 ppm. And have the water volume at 15 gallons in a 20 gallon long. I used my TDS meter and it is reading at 2,356 ppm. What should I do? I have a whole document of water parameters and dosing over the last month for the fish tank I can also add that. 

[SandBkeeper]

2356?? That's crazy. I would say do a water change and remove some of the crushed coral. 

[Noahspurlin]

That’s what I thought too! I tried searching everywhere for that kind of reading and couldn’t find it. Hopefully by doing the water change it lowers it and all fish stay healthy.

[jwcarlson]

And your well is still measuring 100 ppm on the same meter?

Can you get your hands on some RO water from a store and test TDS in that, should be like 0-5 or something quite low.

Edited February 15, 2023 by jwcarlson

[Noahspurlin]

Yes I even tested my tank that I plan on having the fish in and it measures 173ppm. And other tanks are around 70ppm 

[anewbie]

While a lot of locations have rock-hard well water there is soft well water - it all depends on the source et all. 

[Noahspurlin]

Usually my well water it around 100-150

[jwcarlson]

On 2/15/2023 at 3:39 PM, Noahspurlin said:

Yes I even tested my tank that I plan on having the fish in and it measures 173ppm. And other tanks are around 70ppm 

So where is the 2300 ppm measurement coming from?  Just one tank (the one with crushed coral?).

[knee]

Did you add aquarium salt? 

[Noahspurlin]

Yes I have 

The aquarium measurements are coming from the ones where I have added roughly an inch of coraline

Here’s what I have added for salt the moscow is 15 gallons water volume and the lavender is 4 gallons of water volume. 
 

 

[Noahspurlin]

Here’s what I have done with the Moscow green guppies tank the 15 gallons of water volume. 

This is my other tank that started off with a pair of lavender magenta guppies that also has a reading of GH  2,000+ ppm 

 

This is my water before it goes into a tank 

 

[Noahspurlin]

Here are the twin quarantine tanks with the light off the last week 

 

[jwcarlson]

So you're adding salt only for the amount of water you're changing out?  Or you're adding that much on those days without changing water?

I see 25% WC listed for some of those days, but the salt dose looks the same?  Plus you've put a lot of meds in.  I would change some water out and see how much it comes down.  I think there's just been... a lot of stuff... dumped in.  If you're done with the meds, I mean.

[knee]

Not sure if the meds add to the TDS cause I don't test TDS when I do quarantine but the crushed coral and aquarium salt has definitely added to it. 

[jwcarlson]

On 2/15/2023 at 4:18 PM, knee said:

Not sure if the meds add to the TDS cause I don't test TDS when I do quarantine but the crushed coral and aquarium salt has definitely added to it. 

It's a solid that dissolves into the water. 🙂

[Noahspurlin]

Okay I will do a water change because I’m sure it has raised up a lot because of crushed coral and salt. 

On 2/15/2023 at 4:19 PM, jwcarlson said:

On 2/15/2023 at 4:17 PM, jwcarlson said:

So you're adding salt only for the amount of water you're changing out?  Or you're adding that much on those days without changing water?

I see 25% WC listed for some of those days, but the salt dose looks the same?  Plus you've put a lot of meds in.  I would change some water out and see how much it comes down.  I think there's just been... a lot of stuff... dumped in.  If you're done with the meds, I mean.

I was adding based off of the Fritz salt of what to do with live beaters and decided to ditch it before the final step because I listen to a lot of aquarium co-op podcast and videos and came across how little salt should be added for guppies. 

[jwcarlson]

On 2/15/2023 at 4:20 PM, Noahspurlin said:

Okay I will do a water change because I’m sure it has raised up a lot because of crushed coral and salt. 

And the meds.  It doesn't need to be anything massive.  Personally I would just do a 90% change, but that's because I've always got aged/preheated water ready to go.  If you're changing with straight out of the tap then do something like what you've done before.  And check the numbers after the water change and then again after 24 hours.  You might have to change out quite a bit to get back down to where it should be.  But it's probably been this high for awhile and if the fish aren't obviously distressed, I wouldn't get too hung up on that number.  The main concern would be if you get it back to normal and it just keeps climbing until it hits this number again.  

An inch of crushed coral sounds like... a lot.  But I've never added it because my water is hard as a rock to begin with.  Someone else can comment, but I'm not sure there's any real concern with just using your tap water without any crushed coral.  It's not like it's straight RO.  And I'm not sure that it's even particularly soft.  I wish I had your tap water though. 😄

[nabokovfan87]

Could this be caused by a water softener?

[Noahspurlin]

Usually I do have aged water but my Rubbermaid trash can is empty :(. So I will do a 25% WC and then measure in 24 hours again.

[nabokovfan87]

This is an interesting result to me.  Could easily be read on a test strip as 40-50 KH and your PH could vary a bit.  Just an interesting result here that the KH dropped pretty significantly, but PH continued to climb.

[Noahspurlin]

On 2/15/2023 at 4:30 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Could this be caused by a water softener?

No I do not have one

[nabokovfan87]

On 2/15/2023 at 1:54 PM, Noahspurlin said:

The aquarium measurements are coming from the ones where I have added roughly an inch of coraline

Normal recommendation for Crushed Coral is 1 lb per 10 Gallons.  Not sure how many bags were added, but I am intrigued if you have any idea.

[Noahspurlin]

On 2/15/2023 at 4:34 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

This is an interesting result to me.  Could easily be read on a test strip as 40-50 KH and your PH could vary a bit.  Just an interesting result here that the KH dropped pretty significantly, but PH continued to climb.

I use the aquarium co-op test strips and it’s hard to tell with the orange for pH and KH reading. So it could be just an eye error 

[nabokovfan87]

On 2/15/2023 at 2:37 PM, Noahspurlin said:

I use the aquarium co-op test strips and it’s hard to tell with the orange for pH and KH reading. So it could be just an eye error 

I often have the same dilemma trying to read them.  I'm always trying to find a good lighting in the dark room that gives me a decent light.

Edited February 15, 2023 by nabokovfan87

[Noahspurlin]

On 2/15/2023 at 4:37 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Normal recommendation for Crushed Coral is 1 lb per 10 Gallons.  Not sure how many bags were added, but I am intrigued if you have any idea.

I have came across that recently while doing research too, going forward that is the rule I’d like to try and follow. I used about 15lbs between the 2 fish tanks and it looks like I was following the instructions but more for salt water and African cichlids.