KH consistently too low

[FishMama814]

I need help. My KH is consistently and frustratingly low. I have a 29 gallon tank of platys, guppies, and swordtails and a 10 gallon tank of Platy, guppy, and swordtail babies. The 29 gallon has a media bag of 2 cups of crushed coral in the filter and a decent size chunk of Texas holey rock buried in the substrate (it’s got sharp edges so I was afraid it would scratch the fish if I didn’t cover it). The 10 gallon baby tank has a the same Texas holey rock situation but no crushed coral. 
 

I feel like I did have a decent KH reading for awhile in both tanks but the last 6ish months I can NOT get it to raise up. Any suggestions?

[AllFishNoBrakes]

As long as you have some kH you should be relatively okay. Cory has described kH as money in the bank. As long as you have a little money in the bank, you should be alright. Do you need to raise your kH?

My water is naturally lower pH, soft, and very little buffer (kH) and I haven’t had an issue in 3+ years. I have enough, and keep up on maintenance, that I don’t run out so what I have works for me. You have livebearers, and in general they like a little higher pH and higher GH, but kH just keeps your pH from crashing to the best of my knowledge and understanding. 
 

I’m all for helping each other and helping everyone achieve what they’d like, but question one, to me, is do you actually need more kH?

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/31/2023 at 5:34 PM, FishMama814 said:

I feel like I did have a decent KH reading for awhile in both tanks but the last 6ish months I can NOT get it to raise up. Any suggestions?

Ultimately it's a complex problem, but there has to be more to the story.  Let's cover a few basics....

A.  What is your actual KH value?  What is your target?
B.  Do you have any soil based or active substrate in your tank? Is the tank overstocked?
C.  What is your filtration (specifically, how strong is the pump and the circulation) in this tank?
D. What is your maintenance schedule, how much water and how often, in this tank?
E.  What is your testing method?  Can you double check results using a liquid test kit?

Using buffers and using KH buffers can be a bit hit or miss.  It's something where it is very easy to go too far quickly and stress the fish.  It is also very easy to not use enough for fear of moving things too quickly.

Let's get it figured out and dive into what could be going on.

[FishMama814]

Thank you all so much. To answer questions: 

Lets start with the 29 gallon:

14 total fish: 1 swordtail, 3 guppies, 10 platys however, 4 of those platys are still babies (they were good hiders and never got moved to the baby tank. I would say 3 are about 2 months old and one is about 4 months old.)

KH tested by tetra easy strips (my master kit doesn’t test for KH) and usually measures somewhere between 0 and 30. 
I do water changes purely based on the nitrate level getting above 20/30. Typically every two weeks and they are usually about 10 gallon water changes. (I use a 5 gallon bucket to keep track.) 
it’s heavily planted but no active substrate. I started salting this tank (1tbl aquarium salt:5 gallons) because it went through hell with some sickness but I have kept it salted with water changes only adding the amount of salt based on water change amount. I also put in a large wondershell with every other water change. Typically once a month. 
The filter is a Top Fin Silenstream. It came in a 29 gallon kit. All of my tanks are Top Fin kits. I use the fluval sponge and bio media filters in it though. I like them better than the filters that are made for it. And then have the 2 cups of crushed coral in the media bag in the filter as well. 

The 10 gallon tank of babies probably has about 15 babies in it.

KH is testing at 0 with the same strips.

The same substrate as the 29 gallon and has a few Java ferns and bacopa in it but not heavily planted like the 29. 

Same water change schedule based on nitrates above 20/30 and about 3-5 gallons of water when changed. I do an xsmall wondershell as needed - typically every other water change. No salt or crushed coral in this one but it does have the holey rock piece. 
Filter is the Top Fin silenstream from the kit as well. 

If I forgot to answer anything, please let me know. Happy to answer. 
 

thank you so much for all the responses. That’s a good analogy for “money in the bank.” I just get nervous about the stability of the ph. And I can never get a good answer in research for what it should be. All the research I’ve done makes me think my KH and GH should be the same for the species I have in here. But that doesn’t seem right. I keep my GH pretty high in both these tanks because of the recommendation for the species. Usually around 300. 
 

thank you so much for all the help!!!

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/2/2023 at 5:26 AM, FishMama814 said:

KH tested by tetra easy strips (my master kit doesn’t test for KH)

Unfortunately the GH and KH kits aren't included in the base test kits in the US. I highly recommend picking up the liquid test kit though. It's very easy to use and not expensive at all.

 

On 8/2/2023 at 5:26 AM, FishMama814 said:

I do water changes purely based on the nitrate level getting above 20/30. Typically every two weeks and they are usually about 10 gallon water changes. (I use a 5 gallon bucket to keep track.) 

Not required, but it helps to set a schedule. Say, every Saturday to clean all the prefilters, then every other Saturday to clean the tank and do your water change. (Just an example)

On 8/2/2023 at 5:26 AM, FishMama814 said:

The filter is a Top Fin Silenstream. It came in a 29 gallon kit. All of my tanks are Top Fin kits. I use the fluval sponge and bio media filters in it though. I like them better than the filters that are made for it. And then have the 2 cups of crushed coral in the media bag in the filter as well. 

I'll have to check into these. I haven't seen them in use, but I have seen them before. They look similar to something normally made by another company. One of the weird issues with kitsmos that the filter is often or usually not what is normally recommended. It just means that it might work well for a lightly stocked tank, but most often it is recommended to "size up" to the next one.

With filters having adjustable flow and adjustable features this is becoming less of an issue and the hobbyist has a lot more freedom to adjust things to their own desired settings.

I'll check it out and see what I see.  The changes you have done to the media sound perfect! When it comes to the output of the filter on the water surface, does it seem to be very strong or very slow?

[FishMama814]

On 8/2/2023 at 9:08 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

Unfortunately the GH and KH kits aren't included in the base test kits in the US. I highly recommend picking up the liquid test kit though. It's very easy to use and not expensive at all.

 

Not required, but it helps to set a schedule. Say, every Saturday to clean all the prefilters, then every other Saturday to clean the tank and do your water change. (Just an example)

I'll have to check into these. I haven't seen them in use, but I have seen them before. They look similar to something normally made by another company. One of the weird issues with kitsmos that the filter is often or usually not what is normally recommended. It just means that it might work well for a lightly stocked tank, but most often it is recommended to "size up" to the next one.

With filters having adjustable flow and adjustable features this is becoming less of an issue and the hobbyist has a lot more freedom to adjust things to their own desired settings.

I'll check it out and see what I see.  The changes you have done to the media sound perfect! When it comes to the output of the filter on the water surface, does it seem to be very strong or very slow?

I can adjust the flow (it says “open” and “close” on the knob). The 29 gallon I have set in the middle between open and close and the 10 gallon with the babies I have set to close just because their babies so I don’t want the intake to be too strong. I’m attaching pictures for a better reference of setup and such. 

[nabokovfan87]

I would try to put the lift tube as far up as it'll go (if it is adjustable) and then consider something like a prefilter sponge. Marineland sells nice ones as well as aquarium coop. Just check the Diameter of the tube and hopefully there is one that works.

That should let you turn the flow up, if you're comfortable doing so, which will help to get the CC to dissolve.

I double checked the GPH on your filters and they should be sufficient for those tanks. I would encourage trying to run them as high as you can.  If you have issues with too much of a waterfall, just raise the water level. This video does a good job of explaining that.

 

Edited August 2, 2023 by nabokovfan87
added video