5 min of your time for an Aquarium Survey please!

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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Thank you everyone for your valuable assistance.

I am no longer in need of data.

have some kudos everyone who helped out!
 
Thank you, patryuji! (for the kudos, and also I would not have tested kH and GH otherwise!) It was interesting that my (and some other people's)GH fell after the water change. Not by much, but it did fall. I wonder why? (is that a newbie question? :oops: I don't know a lot about water chemistry.) I know that the pH may fall a bit due to the acidic waste in the aquarium, but I wonder why GH rises through the week, while my KH stayed constant in each tank, even though the values were different in each tank. Something in the gravel??

TankGirl, why do you do a water change so often, and with large water volumes, in your planted tanks? I thought fertilizers replaced what the plants use. (is that another newbie question?? lol !)
 
Here's mine:

1. 25% weekly
2. 0 & 0 - <or if you are finicky - read undetectable by my current test kit>
3. 0 & 0
4. 5-10, 0-5
5. 150, 150 (PPM)
6. 160, 160
7. 7.6, 7.6 < my pH, KH & GH are pretty much the same as tap - just as well, I won't shock the fish with any big water changes>
8. don't test
9. twice a day
10. Me- about 10 baby pellets (prob a gram or so), my family - often go overboard & feed 2 or 3 times as much! Then there is the peas & veggies snacks.


EDIT: oops - didn't see page 3 & the "end of study" note ... :oops:
 
An t-iasg, the plants DO use up the nitrates, and that is why I have to dose it, but it was recommended to me to do 50% water changes weekly (almost 50%, I don't quite drain it down halfway, but almost) instead of about 25% twice a week (which was what I had always done previously - I am a water change freak type person :wink: ) and it has worked out well with my dosing schedule, algae control and debris control. After the water change the plants seem to "perk up" and I really think heavy water changes help reduce the incidence of disease in the fish.

I am definitely not in the norm with my water changes, but I have a home business and can take the time to fool with it. Works for me :D
 
for the rising gh i heard somewhere that the water evaporates and the minerals stay behind and makes it harder.
 
Of course! It happens in SW tanks, so it makes sense that it happens in FW tanks too. I have tight-fitting hoods, no tank lights on the hood, and no water level drop that I can see, but my test results show that enough evaporation is happening to cause the rise in GH. Interesting! So now I'm wondering why the KH stays the same!
 
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