To adjust KH or not.

[rich311k]

My Kh is 3. I did the air off test that was suggested in the BBA thread and found my water only went back to about 6.6 ph from 6.4, to me that meant my CO2 was not nearly as high as I thought it was. I added another bottle of CO2 and now my PH is just above 6.0. Just a tinge of green. I think my CO2 is now high enough and my plants are growing better than ever and they are pearling like there is no tomorrow.

My question is should I add some baking soda to get my PH up a bit since I don't want to hurt my fish or are the fish ok since the KH has not changed just the PH.

I am trying to stop my green hair algae. It just wont slow down. From what I have read here and elsewhere lack of CO2 is the major cause of algae.

It is a 36 gallon tank with 130 watts of PC lighting. My nitrates are 10 my phosphates are 1. The temp is 77F.

Thanks for reading this.

Rich

Please let me know what you think. The fish are in my sig.

 

[Jchillin]

Not that I dose CO2, but I have a similar problem with my kh. I also have a paltry 3dkh and 1.1 wpg. My driftwood and most of my rocks were literally covered with BBA. Since it never affected my plants or substrate...I left it alone and everyone seems extremely happy.

 

[rich311k]

My problem is everything has green algae growing on it. I am hoping the higher CO2 will help. I just dont want to kill the fish.

 

[An t-iasg]

How are the fish doing now that they've had a few days in the lower pH? My understanding is that you are changing the pH with CO2, but not the total dissolved solids. The fish would react to a pH swing involving TDS, but not if the TDS is unchanged, and the pH is changing only from the CO2. I believe this is your situation.

When I got a more effective CO2 diffuser, my pH dropped, but my KH did not drop. Therefore, the TDS didn't change and the fish was unstressed.

I got a bit stressed, LOL, by this pH drop, so I disconnected the CO2 for the afternoon. The pH did rise gradually. That was good, though - if your pH had totally crashed, it would not have risen again.

So then I realized that my tank was ok, and I reconnected my CO2 again. I don't think you have anything to worry about either. If you do add baking soda, remember that you'll also be raising your pH along with the KH, and the CO2 concentration will be decreased, which isn't what you want either. So keep your pH, KH, and CO2 the way it is now, keep an eye the algae and the fish, and I bet you will be fine!

Edit: spelling! 8O

 

[rich311k]

Thanks that is what I thought. I just wanted to be sure. The fish are acting normally I dont think they noticed. Thanks for the help.

 

[czcz]

Hey Rich,
Generally I think it is best to raise KH to provide some saftey should DIY CO2 run wild. Since you are so experienced and already staggering bottles, I do not think you should worry if you think you can keep levels relatively stable with the new bottle and the fish do not show stress. How are the fish before lights on? Do you already turn off the diffusor or increase surface agitation at night? I do not think a pH just over 6.0 is too bad considering how many experts (Takashi Amano, for example) prefer to run planted aquariums in an acidic enviornment.

Should you decide to play with the KH, suggest you start with a water sample. I know little about how buffers work, but with your water I would not be surprised if it takes a large change in KH to move pH.

HTH a little,
Joe

 

[muddlehead]

i thought that people with high light and CO2 regularly dosed with baking soda to keep the ph and kh in check to keep the water healthy for fish and productive for plants?? correct me if im wrong

 

[Purrbox]

Buffering the KH with Baking Soda or other means is only necessary if your water source has a low KH. As long as your KH is greater than the safe minimum KH, there is no need to buffer the water. I believe that's usually pinpointed as being 3dKH, but I don't remember for sure.

 

[greenmaji]

yea.. 3dKH, ~53ppm KH or alot of fequent large water changes.. for those with low KH water sorces (man I never have this problem LOL)

rich... have you removed the algae manualy from the plants leaves? you want the plants to be able to out compete the algae for the nutrents in the tank and your at a point now were acuall cleaning of the plants should give you a good bust in that department.. while your at it I would just try my best to remove all visible algae if possible (and beg ,borrow, or steal a DI filter for cleaning up after the job ROFL!) or of course you can try a big water change and try to sypon most of it out..
HTH

 

[rich311k]

To answer questions. My fish were thier normal selves in the morning before lights on. They were lined up at the top waiting for breakfast. My PH did not move at all today so it is staying stable. I have not cleaned the plants. I will try a little in the next few days. Otherwise it will have to wait until I get back from my Mom's on the 3rd. Will a toothbrush work or is something else better. Thanks for all the help.

Rich

 

[An t-iasg]

Rich - I forgot to mention that my KH is 3 also. I have checked my pH first thing in the morning, and also right before lights out, and it hasn't changed. In my previous post, when I said the pH dropped, it just went from 6.6 to 6.4 and then stayed stable. I do a 50% water change every week, and that replenishes the buffers. It's good to know that your pH is stable and the fish are fine!

I just used my fingers to clean some of my plants, like the anubias and the crypts. I rubbed my fingers over them while they were still in the tank (the anubias I did remove to clean) and then immediately gravel-vacced to collect the floating algae. With my higher-light plants, like the ambulia and the hygro, I pulled them out of the tank and rinsed under the faucet. That didn't hurt them - I have to pull them all out once a week, if not more frequently, for trimming. So it depends on what type of plants you have if you want to uproot them or not. Obviously with the crypts I didn't but the other plants didn't mind being uprooted. A soft toothbrush would work well too in tight spots or on tough leaves. If you have some hair algae, you could try "twirling" the toothbrush in the algae to catch it and lift it out. One of my anubias had really bad black spots on it and I dipped the toothbrush in Excel and then brushed the anubias leaf. That worked pretty well. The leaf looks good again, and now that I have CO2, I hope the algae will not get that bad again. I still have a tiny bit but nothing bad at all.

 

[BrianNY]

I have to agree with Joe on this one Rich. You're at the very low end of the safety threshold as far as your KH. If your DIY/CO2 goes awry it might present a pH crash.

Also, I've now had experience with every form of algae known to man . I would remove all the hair algae by hand (it comes off very easily). Then do a massive water change and clean your filters. HTH

 

[travis simonson]

Rich, I may hold the record for buffering with sodium bicarbonate in a CO2 supplemented tank. I have been using it to raise my KH up to the 12-14 range for my African cichlids and it seems to have some drawbacks for plants in that range (although the fish love it). I've been expermenting with calcium carbonate as an alternative buffer lately and it seems to be a little gentler on the plants than sodium bicarb. My guess is that the carbonate salts from calcium carbonate aren't as harsh on the plant life. I haven't had enough time to get any solid results yet, but it's looking promising. At lower levels I don't think sodium bicarb should be much of a problem though.

 

[Purrbox]

Hey An t-iasg, that's a great idea dipping your tooth brush in Excel to clean off the Anubias leaves. I'm going to have to try that. Kudos!