crushed coral + peat?

[Phlegethon]

Ok, now that I've gotten the buffering capacity of my soft water up, how can I maintain that and get the pH back down? The CO2 brings it down a bit but I'd like it to come down a little more. Are there any problems with running peat and crushed coral in the same filter?

 

[TankGirl]

Nope.

 

[betowess]

The CC will raise your pH and KH, however. If you have pressurized CO2 you can crank it up to 30ppm and it will drop your pH fast.

 

[Phlegethon]

Hmm, the Hagen site says that peat will lower BOTH pH and KH. Wouldn't this be working against the buffering of the crushed coral? My CO2 is fermentation so it's not that strong. It is lowering it very slowly though. The coral raised my pH to 7.5 and the KH to 3 degrees. At night the pH swings to about 7.3. I guess the neons & angels can adapt to it but I know it's much lower for them in the wild. Tanks is packed with Amazon swords as well...

 

[Guest]

You can use baking soda to raise your KH as well. A stable PH is far more important than a perfect PH.

I'm not understanding why you want to use CC and peat at the same time in a tank. It seams contridictive to me.

 

[Phlegethon]

The thought occured to me because I want a higher KH but a lower pH. I know they are linked but I thought I'd toss it out there and see if there is something I'm missing.

 

[TankGirl]

Raising the KH while simultaneously keeping a lower pH is something planted tank keepers do all of the time, usually with crushed coral in the filter. The main thing about KH is that it keeps pH stable, so if you have a low KH and you inject CO2 for your plants, you can have dangerous pH swings, which is controlled by raising the KH.

You are on the right track for sure - and I think it will work, but let us know since I have tons to learn about all of this!

 

[Guest]

AHHH I see. What exactly is your tap waters PH, KH and GH after standing for 24hrs? It appears your using Hagen DIY CO2. What size tank is this? Any driftwood or rocks in the tank?

To the best of my research and observations. Peat moss softens water (GH). It has nothing to do with carbonate hardness (KH).

Phlegethon, at this point, more info is needed. What is you tap waters PH, KH and GH after standing for 24hrs? Same water para's are needed for the tank? What size tank. What type of CO2? What kind of fish you keeping?

Variables need to be eliminated.

 

[Phlegethon]

Hi -

Thanks for taking a look Mr. Troll. That's good to know about the peat. I'll have the aged tapwater parameters tomorrow - here are my current tankwater parameters:

pH: 7.5
GH: 80ppm
KH: 50ppm
temp: 78F
wpg: 2.75

The tank is 40 gallons, CO2 using 2xHagen fermentation units runnng through a single Hagen "ladder" diffuser. Heavily planted with Amazon swords, Micro chain sword & a clump of Frogbit for soaking up nutrients until the chain swords entirely fill in the foreground.

Current fish:
2x 2" Angelfish
18x 1-1.5" Neons
8x 1.5" Bronze Corys

 

[betowess]

I don't think a hagen ladder is going to seriously lower your pH. It will help the plants, but you should not have any major pH and Kh changes. At least that has been my experience using a 2 liter and a ladder in my 18 gallon. Bob

 

[Phlegethon]

Ok, I have the parameters for my tapwater after sitting for 24 hours:

pH: 7.4
GH: 40ppm
KH: 20ppm

I should also mention that I have a mid-sized piece of bogwood in the tank, maybe 5-8 lbs.

A pH crash sounded so horrific that I didn't want to get the CO2 going until I got my buffering capacity up a bit, even though it's only a harmless lil'Hagen.

 

[Guest]

Well your kH is pretty low. You might want to bring it up to around 50 ppm.

 

[Phlegethon]

Thanks Rex. I've been running some crushed coral in the filter and the water in the tank is up to 50ppm now. I'm going to try a little peat to gradually get the pH a little lower. BTW, do you know of any articles oline that give a good rundown on nutrient balancing? I can't seem to fertilize without encouraging algae. So far I've just tried plain old Flourish once a week.

 

[Guest]

See my FAQ for info on suggested nutrient values.

 

[betowess]

Check out Gregg Watson for some dry ferts on Rex's FAQ. You'll probably need to add some potassium sulfate (potash), micro nutrients like flourish (liquid) or CSM+b, iron Seachem liquid is fine, and maybe some nitrates, though in my tanks the fish take care of that. Possibly some PO4, but very carefully as too much phosphates will bring on algae bigtime. Too little will as well, however. Also, I tend to get an algae bump with flourish, but have better luck with the CSM+boron for micro nutrients. Its kind of confusing at first, but worth the research. HTH. Bob