High gh with low kh, ph

[spokanejared]

First ill give specifics of the tank and then the issue. I have a 150 gallon planted tank with moderate to high bio load and many plants. It's a well established tank of 5 years but this planted rescaping I've done is only 4 months old. I have alot of driftwood in there as you can see. I have co2 running 3 bps running 11 hours a day turning on 1 hour before sunrise and shutting off 1 hour before sunset. I have .2 watts per gallon with new lights on order that will increase this to over 2 watts per gallon. I use easy green ferts twice a week. I have typical new plant melting here and there but has mostly worked itself out now.  The temp is 86°.  I run 2 fluval 110s with the sponge and bio media that came with them. I use 1 bag of chempure green carbon, and one mini pack of purigen in each filter. 

Now for the issue. My parameters are 6.4 ph, 0 ppm ammonia, 0 ppm nitrite, about 75 ppm of nitrate, kh is 0 ppm, gh is 300+ ppm. I'm not sure why my gh is so high. I'm doing 15% water changes every few days to start bringing it back to normal, and I added 1lb of crushed coral in a filter bag to one of my filters to help bring the kh up a little. My question, is there anything I can do that I'm not already doing to help balance out my kh and gh levels or am I worrying about something trivial? My fish have no ill symptoms and are eating and acting very well. Thoughts...?

[face]

The question I have is why change something that’s working there’s nothing technically wrong with low kh/ph so why try to fix something that’s not broken?

[spokanejared]

That's a fair statement. I'm trying to dial in all parameters to as close to perfect as I can. I'm a hopeless perfectionist so I'm always looking for new advice and perspective to learn more. 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

On 3/13/2024 at 6:42 PM, spokanejared said:

I'm trying to dial in all parameters to as close to perfect as I can.

What would you consider perfect? As in, what numbers are you trying to achieve, and why are you trying to achieve them? Like @face said, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Focus on consistency instead of chasing arbitrary numbers. My water is soft, with little to no kH, and lower pH. That being said, I do absolutely nothing to it. I’d rather keep things consistent and not keep fish that I know won’t do well (no African Cichlids for this guy), and I absolutely do not want to make water. Instead, my 14 tanks get the same water changes every week, I keep foods and amount of foods consistent, I dose Easy Green, and a few tanks have C02. Keep it simple, and repeat it over and over. Chasing numbers that really don’t matter most of the time will be harder on your fish and won’t create a consistent ecosystem. 
 

It’s a beautiful tank. I assume you have it so hot for the Discus? If it were my tank, the only thing I would consider changing is lowering the nitrates via water changes and/or less Easy Green. 
 

I used to run a couple of those citric acid and baking soda reactors. They’re fun, but I got sick of buying citric acid and mixing it up, so I upgraded to 5 lb tanks. 
 

That’s truly a special tank, in my opinion. One I would love to have. From the shape, to your stocking selections, to the tannins in the water. I love it. 

[Mmiller2001]

The crushed coral is raising GH. Remove it. If you want to raise KH, use K2CO3. That said, there’s no reason to raise it unless you have certain fish that need a higher pH.

The pH of this tank was as low as 4.9

 

[spokanejared]

On 3/13/2024 at 6:42 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

What would you consider perfect? As in, what numbers are you trying to achieve, and why are you trying to achieve them? Like @face said, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Focus on consistency instead of chasing arbitrary numbers. My water is soft, with little to no kH, and lower pH. That being said, I do absolutely nothing to it. I’d rather keep things consistent and not keep fish that I know won’t do well (no African Cichlids for this guy), and I absolutely do not want to make water. Instead, my 14 tanks get the same water changes every week, I keep foods and amount of foods consistent, I dose Easy Green, and a few tanks have C02. Keep it simple, and repeat it over and over. Chasing numbers that really don’t matter most of the time will be harder on your fish and won’t create a consistent ecosystem. 
 

It’s a beautiful tank. I assume you have it so hot for the Discus? If it were my tank, the only thing I would consider changing is lowering the nitrates via water changes and/or less Easy Green. 
 

I used to run a couple of those citric acid and baking soda reactors. They’re fun, but I got sick of buying citric acid and mixing it up, so I upgraded to 5 lb tanks. 
 

That’s truly a special tank, in my opinion. One I would love to have. From the shape, to your stocking selections, to the tannins in the water. I love it. 

That's great advice. I just wasn't sure if having a high gh and no kh could potentially cause me issues down the line.