Water too soft and pH too low

[caudelfin]

Our city gets it tap water from the river. It is very soft. Coming from the faucet I measure D 2.5. The tank pH measures with my test kits below 7.0 usually around 6.7 to 6.8. I would like to bring up the hardness to at least D 5 or higher. What do you recommend? And the pH could come up also, will it do this if the hardness is brought up. There seems to be a correlation between the two. Need some help here.
caudelfin

[mentallylost]

Crushed coral or limestone will raise them for you. They have chemicals that will do it too. But I have never used them.

[Fishyfanatic]

I would use the cc like you said in your other post. Although, are you using a hob or canister? Crushed coral is easier to use in a canister.

i have the exact opposite problem, my tapwater pH is too high and very Hard... lol, lets trade water.

[greenmaji]

baking soda.. and yes if you put something in to raise the KH the PH almost always goes up.. CC will probably need to be used very sparingly or youll have the opposite problem.. Limestone takes a while... baking soda is almost immediate so putting it into an established tank is most likely not a good idea, unless done very slowly.. I would use it on the water for water changes, to get the KH up to 5 before its put into the tank...
If you want to take a more natural approach then using limestone to decorate the tank might bring up the KH and PH slowly..

[greenmaji]

curious why you think its too low though? the ph is good.. and the KH would be fine unless you were wanting to inject co2 and then it would drop you PH to only 6.5 or so... Just below a ph of 7 is good.. ammonia doesnt get toxic under 7.. I would be careful with this if I were you.. it sounds like you might be wanting to fix something that isnt broke.. .. If you were wanting a KH of 18 and PH 8.3 I would just think you were wanting to spawn some mumbas or something but you are wanting a ph of 7 when a ph of 6.7 is actually better for the fish that would do well in 7. Im just confused as to what your concerned about with the ph and I wouldnt think that the buffering capacity would be much better with only 2.5 points of KH..

[caudelfin]

I am not sure what is happening here, I wrote a reply and it disappeared SO I will start another.
I have 3 tanks, one up, two on the way. The 29 gal is up with a good fish load of Platys, Swordtails, and some Zebra Danios. The reason I want to raise the KH and pH is because someone told me that to breed properly these live bearers needed a pH of 7.0 or higher and the low Carbonate hardness D 2.5, sometimes it drifts down to 1.5 should be a KH of 5 as the lower figure 2.5 would or could cause swings in the pH. So one reason I came here is to get some good advice.

I do have hob which could contain the cc along with Ammo Chips, Silicate remover and Phosphate remove. I do not like to use carbon unless there is something toxic that needs to be removed from the water.

Now the 20 gal tank is to be a planted tank with a few Tetras in it to supply the necessary ammonia. No filtering is planned on. The plants will take care of that. I will use the pump in an under water canister, perhaps a Duetto 100 just to push the water with the ammonia around through the plants. I want to have a hardness the plants will need along with a pH that they like. I will be using between 20 and 40 lbs of Eco Complete Aquarium Substrate. Some say you can get by with 20 lbs others say use 40 lbs. It is expensive, I would like to get by with the 20 lbs. Also I have a Hagen Nutrafin CO2 Natural Plant system standing by if needed along with a Penguin 30 or 60 should a filter become necessary along with some increased lighting wattage. But I really do not want to use a filter.

The 90 gallon, I am not sure what fish I want, perhaps if I can find them some Kribes, or even maybe Angelfish, but I have not had much luck getting good angelfish in this area. They all die with good water parameters in a few months. Perhaps poor fish from the dealers, perhaps the wrong food or something else that I am doing wrong. Kribes or other small colorful and somewhat peaceful Cichlids would be good.

I just lost a Blood Red Parrot Cichlid that was about 10 years old who lived in the 90. I think that I had too much nitrate in the tank and almost by the time I noticed he was not eating, very unusual for this fish, it was dead. This tank will have a large Filstar Canister and a Emperor 400 with Bio Wheels and a Marineland Magnum 350 canister with Bio Wheels and it will be used mostly for cleaning and polishing the water and providing a wet-dry bio-converter.
Caudelfin

[Fishyfanatic]

I'd go with crushed coral or limestone over anything else. It's natural and easy to control. Right now it's in my 150 gal tank and keeping it VERY stable. You just put it in the tank and don't have to think about it for about 6 months. As far as adding the other stuff to the filter as well, there really isn't a need for it. Why are you wanting to add the Ammo Chips and Silicate remover and Phosphate remover?

[greenmaji]

they might not have divulged that the buffing capacity is usually lost from bad maintainance, ammonia buildup "Old Tank Syndrome".. and live barers do better in harder water they are very easy to spawn so the soft water would not be a problem there.. most people would envy that tap water you have!!

[caudelfin]

Originally Posted by Fishyfanatic

I'd go with crushed coral or limestone over anything else. It's natural and easy to control. Right now it's in my 150 gal tank and keeping it VERY stable. You just put it in the tank and don't have to think about it for about 6 months. As far as adding the other stuff to the filter as well, there really isn't a need for it. Why are you wanting to add the Ammo Chips and Silicate remover and Phosphate remover?

The advice that I am receiving is excellent. Thank you all. Question, why do you want add ammo chips, Silicate remover and Phosphate remover?
Answer, the tank is overloaded with fish, there could be an ammonia spike at any time thus if Ammo Chips are in the filter, no worry. Silicate remover because I tend to have Brown diatoms, a form of algae perhaps, this is caused by Silicon in the tank, so I want to keep it out. Phosphate remover, in a fish only tank Phosphates feed the algae, I have no algae eating critters, so no phosphates little or no green algae. Keep their foods out and the algae tends to disappear IMHO. But I have added a tablespoon of the cc to the tank. As I test every few days for the next few weeks I will know what is going on in my tank.
Thanks Everyone.
caudelfin

[greenmaji]

I would stop at a KH of 3 or just above if I were you caudelfin.. JMHO