Help with Calculating SeaChem

[nedonath]

Hello,
I have a 65 gallon freshwater aquarium with plants, driftwood, and various minnows and tetras. About 1 month ago I added angelfish to my tank and that is when I started having problems. Long story short, the angelfish got body slime and then reoccurring fin rot (would treat, clear, come back). All of my water quality tests came back within normal limits.

The LFS (this guy is super smart with water chemistry) tested my water and explained my KH and GH are too high which is causing my pH to be too high for keeping angelfish. He said I could 1. adjust the parameters or 2. keep only fish that can live within my water parameters.

The angelfish are cleared at the moment of fin rot and I have them in my 10 gallon Q-tank which I changed over to 100% DI H2O and need to start adjusting my main tank to put them back in it.

I have the seachem alkaline and acid buffer. I understand the ratio chart and actually work in a lab with these types of calculations; however, it seems there is an overwhelming amount of information being left off the label (e.g. are you calculating for amount of water being added or the volume of the tank? How do you come up with the parts- as it isn't the recommended x amount tsp to 20 gallon water)

I called seachem and a lot of the information she offered was at face value with an assumption that I have a working knowledge of water chemistry, which I do not. She was asking me about my target KH and then asked about my target pH. My target pH is going to be 7 and a KH value within the range of 5-6. She told me these values will not work together. But offered me the dose for doing a 12 gallon water change with DI H2O to target a KH of 3 and that will give me a pH of 6.5 (she said this should be my target). Does anyone know how you come up with these calculations???

Again, I understand the dosing chart, but that chart is incomplete as it is referring to a target pH but obviously a target KH needs to be factored in. Also, how are the parts derived??? I was using the x amount of teaspoon (e.g. 0.25 tsp to 20 gallon H2O) to calculate my dosages, but again, this isn't that cut and dry.

Thank you in advance.

 

[King Fisher]

What is your pH? Fish adapt to pH. Chasing pH, or attempting to alter it, usually results in fish death. I currently keep my Angel fish in 8.2-8.4 pH (my tap water) and he's been in my tank for two years without issue. I think you possibly have something else besides pH affecting your fish.

 

[nedonath]

My pH is 8.2 as well. I was advised that I need to target a lower KH as mine is currently 9. He said I needed to lower that before changing any other parameters.

 

[Dallascowboys16]

Those values sound perfectly fine to me. Most freshwater fish that are commonly available have been raised in captivity for generations and are adapted to normal tap water values. In general, although there are exceptions, a ph between 6-8.5 is perfectly fine for most freshwater aquarium fish given that they are acclimated correctly when added to the tank.

Now on to KH. Normally KH is not something we worry about in freshwater world. In short, KH is your water's content of calcium carbonate and its general effect on on water chemistry is the higher your KH, the higher buffering capacity your water has. High KH keeps a high PH stable and lower KH will help to keep your water stable at a lower PH.

GH is the last one I will address. Basically GH is your waters mineral content including, but not limited to - Magnesium (Mg)- Chloride (Cl) (NOTE: NOT chlorine )- Sodium (Na)- Sulphur (S)- Potassium (K). These minerals are important to plant and fish health so in general the GH as it comes out of your tap. As long as GH is somewhere around 3+ you have nothing to worry about.

After all of that, I'm just going to recommend that you not use buffers to alter your water chemistry unless you are keeping a species that requires specialized parameters. All buffers do is cause swings in water chemistry that usually do more harm than good. Your fish should be perfectly fine in your conditioned tap water in a cycled aquarium. If you have any questions about all of that feel free to ask away!

 

[King Fisher]

My kh and gh are 10. Again, I think it's something else going on.

 

[nedonath]

Hey! Thank you! That is helpful.

The fish I have kept for a year have been fine (tetras, loaches, minnows). But I purchased angelfish about 2 months ago and they are the ones having issues. They keep getting fin rot off and on. The fish guy said my KH is too high for them and that is why I am trying to adjust parameters. I am just not understanding how to calculate the targeted KH/pH with the recommended dosing.

 

[mbkemp]

Fin rot is generally bacterial. Stress, wild fish on the wrong water, or many other things like nitrite, nitrate, Tiger barbs etc can drive stress.

I concur with the above if your fish are not wild.

 

[Autumnsky]

What is the KH out of the tap?
And GH?
pH?

If they are different from the tank water, say lower, what kind of substrate and stones do you have? They can cause increase in minerals.

Also, do you just do top offs from evaporation with tap water? Evaporation leaves minerals in the tank water, adding top off water with tap water can cause too many minerals to build up over time, leading to high kH and GH.

How often are the pwc and how much?