General hardness freshwater advice

[Patrice]

I'm having issues with the GH. I have soft water at 60 GH, and PH at 7

In they aquarium, its at 100 GH and 6.5 PH. I think its because off the plants, supplement and fluorite substrate.

What you can help me with is, can I add crush coral into the filter. I want to do it this way, so i don't need to add any product every time i change the water.

One more Thing you could help with. How mush do i add in a 30 gallons and how mush will it affect the hardness.

Tell me if i'm wrong, when I have to do a water change, will it need prepared water before adding it to the fish tanks? Like, having a spare thank and filter with CC and maybe limestone.

I'm always open for other suggestion.

 

[jsoong]

First off - why do you want to raise the GH? 100 is fine for plants.

What is the KH? If it is low, the pH might be unstable, in that case, adding cc is a good idea. But if your pH is stable, you might be better off not messing with the water.

Normally, you add any amount of cc. It gradually dissolve into the water, until it reaches equilibrium. Assuming there is nothing else in the water, the equilibrium point is around pH of 7.8, KH is in the 200 range. Since we have other things in the water, and the saturation is temperature dependent, your actual final pH & KH will vary. It is best to test by soaking some cc in a cup of tank water for a week or so & see where you end up.

If you don't like the equilibrium pH/KH, it is not really very practical to dose cc to achieve a different pH/KH. Using NaHCO3 with each water change is a better option.<Although more prone to error ... so really worth it if you actually need to doctor the water.>

If you have cc in your tank, you will need to be careful with pwc, since it takes some time for the cc to dissolve into new water, the pH will fluctuate with adding plain tap. In general, doing less than 10% pwc is OK, anything more, & you should pre-treat the water. <Or in an emergency, doctor the change water using NaHCO3.>

 

[Patrice]

First off - why do you want to raise the GH? 100 is fine for plants.

What is the KH? If it is low, the pH might be unstable, in that case, adding cc is a good idea. But if your pH is stable, you might be better off not messing with the water.
>

Your right, i don't like playing with any setting. But i'm looking through my option before adding more fish.

My KH is at 40. PH look stable. I just buy the full automatic co2 system. This should help stabilize. my water in the day.

I do have plants (mostly dying) but the GH is for fish purpose. I need the GH to be ok to add shrimps and neon tetra. When the aquarium has bine very very establish, im gona remove neon tetra and add dwarf puffer. For now I have a dwarf pleco Plecostomus for cleaning algea.

I guessing I should leave the GH alone for these type of fish?
OK for 10% water change. but with small fish. I hope, I don't need to change the water often.
Sorry for they annoying questions. I just don't want dead fish and plants anymore. making sure everything is ready for thems.

 

[ldaniel]

there are a couple of things you can do, I would stay away from the crushed coral. if your tap water is really soft then there's nothing you can do, just add chemicals each time you do a water change.
if your plants are dying then I would bet there something beside your general hardness that's messed up.
calcium chloride and magnesium sulfate will both raise your gh up. but again you'll have to add it periodically

 

[jsoong]

KH is on the low side, but not too bad, even for CO2. So you would need to really decide if doctoring is worthwhile.

I would think that GH of 100 is reasonable even for shrimps & such. (although I am no expert.)

Depending on how you fertilize your plants, it might be more control to add the minerals directly. If you are going high light & CO2, you would be adding fertilizers also. Most EI type regime add Ca & Mg on a schedule, and KH boosters (basically HCO3) as well in softer water. So if you are up to doing daily dosing & weekly 50% "reset" pwc, you can certainly achieve any set KH, or GH you like.

This will get you started on EI:
EI light: for those less techy folks - Aquarium Plants

The cc route is more a set & forget, low tech way of doctoring inadequately buffered water. As long as you are willing to let the water stay at equilibrium with cc, the pH, KH & GH are more stable. It might not be "ideal" levels, but certainly less risk of swings or dosing errors of other methods.

 

[Patrice]

I added some cc in a small plastic filter, that I put in they aquarium, just to see what will happen. Amazingly, the pleco went straight into it an stay there.

Still, now i know my option take a risk, and add some coral or leave it alone and see if all go well. Im gona go with leave it alone.