LFS sold me blue water conditioner crystals - do i really need it?????

[labidis]

The guy at my LFS sold me water conditioner blue crystals because my GH and KH were "low".
I have not used it yet......Do i really need it, and will i need to keep feeding these crystals on an ongoing basis to bring up GH and KH.
Are their rocks i can put which will permanently increase KH and GH , but not PH, cause my PH is fine, and do i really need to increase GH and KH ?
Will these crystals affect my fish or plants ... See below list of fish, plants rocks, and driftwood)

My tank is 9 months old:

FISHIES: 38
900L x 300w x 500h
Approximately 125ltr or 32gallon

FISH:
1 x Rainbow Shark:
5 x Guppies
4 x Red eye tetra:
4 x Platys :
1 x Platy baby:
10 x neon tertas:
2 x pink widow:
6 x white clouds:
3 x clown loaches
1 x siemese algea eater
1 x sucking catfish

PLANTS: ( all going very well atm)
Anubia
Amazon sword
Elodea
Lilaeopsis
Hygrophila balsamica

ORNAMENTS etc
2 x pieces of driftwood (not sure what sort - see pic)
2 x grey rocks (were sold to me to raise ph some time ago - not sure what sort - see pic)
1 x red rock (not sure what sort - see pic)
1 x red slate looking rock (not sure what sort - see pic)
1x large mix of gravel subtrate, some black gravel that apparently raises PH which i bought some time ago.. Seemed to work.
1 x heater
1 x 650ltr per hour internal pump
1 x air pump (3 x small air stones attached to it)


WATER CONDITIONS :
KH - 53.7ppm (3 drops api tester)
Gh - 53.7ppm-71.6ppm (3 -4 drops api tester)
Ammonia - 0.0
Nitrite - 0.0
Nitrate - 5
PH - 7.2

I do a 60 ltr (50%) water change every 2 weeks and add chlorine neutraliser.

Other chemicals i use are API CO2 booster (3ml per day) for my plants.

Can anyone help me figure out if this chemical is rubbish and dont do much or something i should be considering and using?








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[J.Mcpeak]

Not unless you are chasing a specific type of water.
If you just use tap water and the GH/Kh is greatly reduced from source the easiest way to replenish it is by doing more water changes.

It seems 60% fortnight is inadequate, try for weekly and see if things improve! it will take a few weeks but that's ok! slow changes are better than bold movements. I do 30% approx twice a week and things pretty much stay where they are. Maybe once a year or if things slip away from me then I do a bigger change.

In a few years you will need to re house your clowns, I kept mine in a similar volume for about 2-3 years, it's fine up until about 10 cms then something more like 5-6 ft will be necessary. Long term these fish will need the biggest tank you can fit, 10 years from now they will be quite large fish!

Both fish and plants put demand on GH/Kh you will find it isn't all the elements being uniformly depleted but one or two only, by adding a buffer which are usually full ranging you still have a misbalance but the test will read ok.

Hope this helps, good luck

[labidis]

Hi McPeak,

Thanks for tour response.
I take it there is no need to add these crystals then.
My water levels are constant every time i check them, this is why i perform water changes every fortnight 50%
The effort of water changes doesnt change whether its 20% or 50%... So i guess im lazy and content because of the fortnightly results ate the same before and after the water changed
But if u think it will change the gh/kh, i will give it a go.

In terms of the clown loaches, yes i will be puttjng them in a bugger tabk one day.. Justt gotta get the wife to approve the size of the bigger tank first


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