New and improved PH question

[Capt.Gorilla]

Alrighty, I went out and got a gh/kh test and a nitrite test (sorry no nitrate tests were $30 for 12 uses, yikes!).

Results as follows

Gh - 60 - Soft
Kh - 30mg/l - Really low
Nitrites - 0ppm
Ammonia - 0-.25 ppm
Ph - 6.2-6.4

Contents of the tank include fake plants, small gravel, a rock and a comet.
Filter aqua clear 300; Carbon has not been changed in a while (months) neither has foam, got ammonia insert a couple weeks ago.

I want to move my cories cats in, they have been in QT for almost a
month.
Also to pop this in, I checked out their supply of bristle nose plecos while I was there. They only had 2 and neither had bristles they were a decent size though about 2" each and in a nice looking tank but I was told that they were expecting a shipment from a wholesaler in florida that carries very good plecos that they have never had problems with.
Mmmm, plecos...

 

[Allivymar]

Double check the parameters in the QT tank and see if they match the main tank; if not, you may have to acclimate em (shouldn't be, but your pH is kinda low and I'd hate to see em suffer pH shock).

Also, I hate those ammonia tests. 0-.25. Hrmph. Is it zero? Is it .25? Not accurate enough for my tastes. Its likely zero, but can't be sure. And if it wasn't, I'd suggest waiting till it was zero before adding em.

As for the bristlenose, I *believe*the males have all the bristles; the females are nowhere near as "bristly". Those may be females in the tanks if they are healthy otherwise.

 

[e-cat]

you might want too try seachems test kits they come with a reference sample of water too test how accurate the test is and the tests are usually for 2 things, like ph / alk , nitrate / nitrite, total and free ammonia. i think its safe too say your carbon isnt doing any thing any more

 

[BrianNY]

Even worse on the carbon.....Once it becomes inneffective, it begins throwing all it's filtered out back into your tank. You should change it at least monthly.

 

[Capt.Gorilla]

I checked my qt tanks parameters

ph - 6.4 (??) thats a change from yesterday
ammonia - 0ppm
gh - 40
kh - kh 20mg/l
Nitrites either 3 or 5 ppm Jinkies batman!

I don't know if I just suffered a spike but I did just yesterday add a ammonia rid insert to the mini.

I'm thinking that It would probably be safe to add them then work on the kh problem which is close to the same in the main tank.

 

[sweetsuvvyb]

Why are you using an ammonia insert, outta curiosity?

 

[Capt.Gorilla]

Aquaclear inserts for my aqua clear mini/300.

 

[sweetsuvvyb]

right...but are you just using the filter cartridge, or are you using something that's supposed to remove ammonia (which i guess i assumed by the name "ammonia rid" LOL)?

 

[Capt.Gorilla]

I'm not sure its labels as "step 3" the insert filled with small white/brown rocks.
Oh well, my corys are in the main tank, and we eating as soon as they were put in.
They don't even seem all that scared of the resident goldie about 10x the size of them.
I must say they are great cleaners, I fed my goldies and as soon as he stopped they frenzied.