OK, Now how do I deal with the real problem?

[Rocket2001]

On another thread I asked for assistance on handling high pH and with the assistance of Treedae and Menagerie..we've figured out that the real problem is hardness and Alkalinity. Now it seems logical that my tap water is the culprit since that is my water source. After testing, hardness for my tap water is 120 and Alk. is 80. (is this bad?) Would it be better to use Bottled Spring Water...i belive I can get six gallons of Poland Springs water for about $4.50 at my local warehouse store. On my 30 gal tank 6 gallons would be about a 20% water change. I could do this monthly. it just seems to me each time I do a water change with tap water i would erase any progress on reducing Alk and Hardness.

My current tank water parameters are:
Ammo- 0
Nitrites- 0
Nitrates-20ppm
pH- 7.6 (sometimes 7.8 )
Hard- 120
Alk. 210
(numbers are based on Mardel 5 in1 test strip)

The tank is just over 6 weeks old...I guess the final question is am i just obsessing to get "perfect" numbers and are things just going to regulate on their own or do I need "take action"? And if so what is the proper action...peat in the filter was the last suggestion. In my head I know "leave it alone" is right but I just want to make sure.

 

[glasstapper]

AH yes,,,, there should be a book on the ocd and fish tanks,, bad combo
the answer for me was more fishtanks, then the little stuff didn't bother me,, somewhere here i saw a thread on RO units, that MAY fix that prob. needs research though . congrates on healthy tank, you fought the good fight ...and won... this time mmmmmuuuaaagghhhh

 

[urville]

i'll try to be easy about this...

acidity and alkalinity
i'm sure you know that ph refers to how acid or alkaline water is. by measuring the concentration of hydrogen ions and hydroxyl ions. the ph is the ratio of these two
but what your measuring is the buffering capacity
thats the ability of the water to maintain a stable ph and effects the softness or acidity of the water and affects hardness.
water contains buffers in the form of carbonates, that resist flucuations in hydrogen ions, thereby reducing severe drops in ph
hard water is generally buffered better and has high alkalinity than soft or acid water which works the same only opposite.

using ro or distilled water can take out the buffers. then the acids in the water will now be able to affect your ph the same is true backwards, no acids and all buffers will cause the ph to go up
so what you need to do if softness is a problem is make the water more acid. common natural acid causes are feces, food, waste, etc
if its too acid then you need to soften they make many dose products that can help but you want to be very careful using them.
use a little wait, test, wait test, add a LITTLE more wait test wait test.
i cant even get across how many people mess this up and cause drastic sudden changes in ph because they thought it wasnt working and were impatient. also its a delicate balance and is responsible for mintaining a balanced ph that rarely fluctuates.
i could go into this more but it gets very technical so...

 

[pkremer]

When you say that these are 'problems', what do you mean? Are you just trying to get the numbers in the perfect range for your fish, or do the fish seem unhappy?

Fish can adapt to a wide variety of hardness and pH. I have never really messed with my pH levels at all, even though they range between 7.4-7.8. At first I was extremely concerned about it, but 5 months later all the fish are healthy, happy, and thriving, so I have stopped worrying about it.

Unless you are trying to get them to breed or they seem to be suffering issues from the numbers being a bit off, I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. :?

Paul

 

[shawmutt]

I use ro water in my tanks--1. because I have two completely different setups (African and Indian), and 2. because my fish seem to live longer and have less problems. I treat the ro water with different ingredients to get the GH, KH, and pH to where I want it, and also add other trace elements.

I don't mean to be disagreeable, but adding a little and testing IME will be a lesson in frustration. If you simply use the treated ro water as the new water for water changes it will change the parameters slow enough to avoid any detrimental effect to your fish.

Store bought ro water is good enough for fw fish tanks, and with a tank your size you would need to buy 10 gallons at a time (2 5-gallon containers).