General Hardness Not Increasing

[Ahughes1805]

I’ve been using Brightwell Aquatics Remineraliz for over a year and never had issues until recent. I’ve noticed that my GH which used to be hard (which I want) in the tank has gone soft after creating my own water from RO/DI with Seachem Alkaline and Acid buffers to achieve my required PH, KH, and Remineraliz based on directions and formula for 5-gal buckets used for water changes. I do 10/6 to get 1.67 mL per gal, multiply by 5 for 5 gals which should be 8.34 to increase the GH by 10. I’m not seeing an increase in my 5 gal bucket. Now I’m adding the remineralize after my buffers and unsure if that’s causing an issue. 
 

Thanks.

[nabokovfan87]

@Ahughes1805 for the sake of sanity checking what is going on let's run a trial test.  Take your 5G bucket and do everything you normally do, but don't add remineralize.  Once the bucket has sat for 24 hours with an airstone, test everything.  Add in your remineralize and test again.  Wait another 24 hours and repeat that testing. 

Those 3 sets of data will give you a good idea as to what the buffers are really doing.  If you're adding buffers, over time it's very likely you will see things build up and increase over time.

[Galabar]

This might help: https://seachem.my/blogs/news/how-to-adjust-ph-with-seachem-acid-and-alkaline-buffer

 

[Ahughes1805]

On 7/16/2023 at 2:51 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

@Ahughes1805 for the sake of sanity checking what is going on let's run a trial test.  Take your 5G bucket and do everything you normally do, but don't add remineralize.  Once the bucket has sat for 24 hours with an airstone, test everything.  Add in your remineralize and test again.  Wait another 24 hours and repeat that testing. 

Those 3 sets of data will give you a good idea as to what the buffers are really doing.  If you're adding buffers, over time it's very likely you will see things build up and increase over time.

The following has 0 buffers added and just Brightwell Remineraliz.

I have 3 test strips. 1 prior to adding 10 ml of Brightwell Reminerliz (yesterday) -image 7866, after -image 7866 10ml of Remineraliz was added, 1 taken this AM prior to leaving for work -image 7868, and 1 taken 10 minutes ago -image 7875.

Doesn’t seem to show any color change with the GH. I can attempt 1 capful which states to be approx 5ml for any changes. 

The batch of Remineraliz is not expired. I do have a wondershell coming in the mail to see if that helps with any GH increase. I’m also half tempted to use the salty shrimp GH/KH+ I have to see any changes happen to the GH in lieu of Brightwell…if the salty shrimp works I may purchase the GH+ version and continue to use the Seachem Alkaline and Acid buffers for PH/KH. 

On 7/16/2023 at 10:57 PM, Galabar said:

This might help: https://seachem.my/blogs/news/how-to-adjust-ph-with-seachem-acid-and-alkaline-buffer

 

Appreciate the article, I could never find that before hand and Seachem Malaysia has a video tutorial and developed the following. Just 1 if the few printed out for varying PH/KH needs.

[Ahughes1805]

I apologize Nabokovfan87, I misread your troubleshooting. I can inform you that when I do the buffers less remineraliz that within 30 minutes - 1 hour the PH and KH rise to the levels I need. I don’t have a spare/fresh RO/DI 5 gal bucket to do the buffer request for 24 hours. I normally purchase 3-5 gal buckets worth for 20% water change in 1 tank and 20% water change for another tank with desperate parameters and 1 spare on which tank needs attention over the other during the week before I purchase refills of water.  
 

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/17/2023 at 6:34 PM, Ahughes1805 said:

I apologize Nabokovfan87, I misread your troubleshooting. I can inform you that when I do the buffers less remineraliz that within 30 minutes - 1 hour the PH and KH rise to the levels I need. I don’t have a spare/fresh RO/DI 5 gal bucket to do the buffer request for 24 hours. I normally purchase 3-5 gal buckets worth for 20% water change in 1 tank and 20% water change for another tank with desperate parameters and 1 spare on which tank needs attention over the other during the week before I purchase refills of water.

You should be able to run the test with tap water. Just a known start point and a known change to prove the concept.

Some buffers might need a lot of shaking, if liquid, and others are going to need just time to dissolve. I've heard and seen in a few directions where it can take ~24 hours before you see it's full impact provided you give it good aeration. I think a lot of people rely on 30-60 minutes of time for things to dissolve.

On 7/17/2023 at 6:09 PM, Ahughes1805 said:

Doesn’t seem to show any color change with the GH. I can attempt 1 capful which states to be approx 5ml for any changes. 

1 capful per how many ppm or degree change per what volume of water? I've found some strips to be extremely unreliable and so it's just a situation where it might be best to verify with a liquid test or a very controlled environment with a very high dose.

[Ahughes1805]

On 7/17/2023 at 9:23 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

You should be able to run the test with tap water. Just a known start point and a known change to prove the concept.

Some buffers might need a lot of shaking, if liquid, and others are going to need just time to dissolve. I've heard and seen in a few directions where it can take ~24 hours before you see it's full impact provided you give it good aeration. I think a lot of people rely on 30-60 minutes of time for things to dissolve.

1 capful per how many ppm or degree change per what volume of water? I've found some strips to be extremely unreliable and so it's just a situation where it might be best to verify with a liquid test or a very controlled environment with a very high dose.

So I know the strips aren’t bad. I ran at my office and saw the strip change for hardness. I’ll have to pick up liquid kit and test GH specifically and see if that shows anything different. 
 

In terms of PPM or DGH, 10 gal per 1 capful (5ml) is roughly 83 ppm or 3DGH if at 0 -per google. I don’t have the bottle in front of me at the moment. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/18/2023 at 6:13 AM, Ahughes1805 said:

So I know the strips aren’t bad. I ran at my office and saw the strip change for hardness. I’ll have to pick up liquid kit and test GH specifically and see if that shows anything different. 
 

In terms of PPM or DGH, 10 gal per 1 capful (5ml) is roughly 83 ppm or 3DGH if at 0 -per google. I don’t have the bottle in front of me at the moment. 

It should be very easy to dip the strip (you can cut one in half with scissors) and then pour the tap water into the glass, get your reading, add the GH additive to the glass and then show any change.

Again, some additives may take a while to show full impact though.