Does water change help raise KH and GH?

[martinmin]

On 6/13/2023 at 1:28 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

I recently (as in the past few months) setup my 75G with aquasoil.  I can repeat the directions from the manufacturer, the instructions from George Farmer or Green Aqua, but the just is this....

When you FIRST setup your tank with aquasoil the substrate is leeching out ammonia and a lot of excess nutrients.  You physically see this in the water and all over the tank.  There is floating debris, there is a coating on things, and it takes manual effort to eliminate those things.  You're not vacuuming the substrate when it comes to that type of a substrate, you're simply going to do water changes, a few, for the first 1-2 weeks.  This helps to get rid of that initial shock.  This helps to get rid of that waste and mess in the tank that will cause severe algae if you do not.

Now. You have a tank, with soil for plants and you'll be planting it.  Those plants need a few days to acclimate to your water and to their new lighting conditions, nutrient conditions.  It is generally common not to dose anything the first 3-7 days of setting up a planted tank.  Once you're past the initial stage you are going to maintain the tank as you normally would.  I can speak to my own methods and to my own maintenance schedule, but if your schedule is different than mine or just your water is different than mine you are going to run into issues that I won't.  The idea is NOT to give you a rigid "follow what I do", but the goal is to train and pass on the technique of what works for a planted tank.  There are many other, so many on this forum even, experiences sources on the internet to ask questions about how to keep a planted tank.   Ultimately, there are a lot of best practices.

Commonly:
A.  Water changes weekly, 30-50%.  Dose in your buffers to keep your water parameters the same as much as possible.  There will be fluctuations. (The only way to verify this is with testing!)
B.  Dosing daily or several times a week if possible of your fertilizers (not your buffers).  If not possible, dose weekly.
C.  You want GH = 2x KH
D.  You want your water to be cooler rather than warmer to help the plants and fight algae.
E.  You want to have good CO2, good nitrate levels (fert levels) and you want to make sure that you aren't seeing signs of deficiencies with your plants.
F.  You want to actually maintain your tank and put in the effort to keep it "aquascaped".  Things like cleaning up excess waste, cleaning off algae, maintaining your filtration, etc.

The list goes on and on and youtube has a TON of wonderful resources.  Again, I will mention and recommend that you take a look at green aqua videos.  I will attach a playlist below of their tank care techniques.

 

This is great and I think I understand better now. Thanks a lot!

[Chris45]

Is there a video someone could recommend that explains basic tank chemistry, in a language that one might use for a small child, or golden retriever?

[nabokovfan87]

On 6/13/2023 at 5:55 PM, Chris45 said:

Is there a video someone could recommend that explains basic tank chemistry, in a language that one might use for a small child, or golden retriever?

I believe Irene (GirlTalksFish has a few videos.)  I will do a gander and see if there is one I recommend.  Are you specifically trying to learn about any singular aspect of the water chemistry or just in general what everything is?

Beginner friendly:

Intermediate:

Advanced, but very helpful!

Edited June 14, 2023 by nabokovfan87

[Chris45]

On 6/14/2023 at 12:16 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Are you specifically trying to learn about any singular aspect of the water chemistry or just in general what everything is?

Thanks. I undersatand the nitrogen cycle pretty well at this point but never bothered to mess with GH and KH.

I try to do a 50% water change each week and dose about a level tablespoon of equilibrium each time on my 290 litre tank (~75 gallon). I was told I needed to do this becuase our water is very clean and lacks minerals etc. Not really sure how this also affects the GH / KH and whether I need to check levels etc.

[nabokovfan87]

On 6/14/2023 at 7:52 AM, Chris45 said:

Not really sure how this also affects the GH / KH and whether I need to check levels etc.

The second post in the thread here has the examples of what is going on. Water changes replenish the minerals, but without testing bits making your experience a bit more difficult than it needs to be.

I do the same thing. 75G, 50% every other week. I was doing weekly changes, but with low stocking I've been able to move to every other week.