smm333 Posted September 30, 2023 Share Posted September 30, 2023 I have a 20 gallon that's been running fine for several years. My corydoras have recently been hiding. I was concerned so I checked the ph and it is at 6.0. The kh is 17.9 and the gh is 196.9. The tank has 5 albino cories, 3 honey gourami, 2 kuhli loaches, a single guppy and snails. I noticed my older mystery snails shell looks a bit weak so I'd planned on buying a wondershell tomorrow. Now I'm wondering if I should add crushed coral to the filter? I have an aquaclear so I could put a bag of it in there. Any advice would be appreciated! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galabar Posted September 30, 2023 Share Posted September 30, 2023 Do you do water changes? Have you tested your tap water for KH? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smm333 Posted October 6, 2023 Author Share Posted October 6, 2023 On 9/30/2023 at 1:29 AM, Galabar said: Do you do water changes? Have you tested your tap water for KH? I do water changes every 1-2 weeks. Haven't tested out of the tap, but my water is always soft in tap tanks. I added some alkaline buffer and that managed to raise it a bit. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted October 6, 2023 Share Posted October 6, 2023 if you have a light substrate, I'd recommend crushed coral for this case. If you have dark substrate, the alkalinity buffers work well. Just go slow. I keep my KH at around 3-4 degrees. (close to the tap is best) I had to run bucket tests to get a grasp of how much to add per water change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smm333 Posted October 6, 2023 Author Share Posted October 6, 2023 On 10/5/2023 at 9:57 PM, nabokovfan87 said: if you have a light substrate, I'd recommend crushed coral for this case. If you have dark substrate, the alkalinity buffers work well. Just go slow. I keep my KH at around 3-4 degrees. (close to the tap is best) I had to run bucket tests to get a grasp of how much to add per water change. I definately went slowly. I did 1/4 tsp over 4 days to get from 1 to 3. I'm just leaving it there to see how it goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted October 6, 2023 Share Posted October 6, 2023 On 10/5/2023 at 9:58 PM, smm333 said: I did 1/4 tsp over 4 days to get from 1 to 3. I would try to do ~2 degrees a week max. Get it to where you want, then try to keep it steady. (easier said than done. Mine definitely got way messed up. 😞 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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