Buffering KH

[Rycraft]

So my tank KH is 3 (tap is generally around 5) and I'm looking to buffer the KH a bit for my live bearers.  Water changes don't seem to be able to increase it and I don't want to do large water changes all the time. I have media bags and aragonite. Am I better off putting the media bags below my imagitarium black sand substrate or putting some in a smaller media bag in my filter?

I don't want to litter the substrate with it because I want my Corys to be able to happily sift through the sand. I just didn't know if it would still buffer the KH if it's buried under the sand. 

Any advise would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Rycraft]

Forgot to mention my GH is 8 and ph around 7.2 in the tank if that helps. 

[Eddie Z]

Hi Rycraft,

I have high pH, low kH water out of the tap and it doesn't take much to make the pH crash. It's also brutal on livebearers from pet stores though their fry seem to do fine. I buffer my water with SaltyShrimp GH/KH+ and it keeps everything happy. It even makes for super healthy snails as a side bonus. 

There's another product called Alkaline Buffer that I think only does kH. I know the SaltyShrimp works and I have a big bucket of it so I haven't played with alternatives. 

Eddie

Edited January 2, 2021 by Eddie Z

[tolstoy21]

@Rycraft You’d be totally fine putting it in a media bag in a filter.

I’ve put it in sumps, hang on the back filters and box filters, in media bags. Works perfectly fine.

Not sure how it would perform under another substrate.