Fine Tuning Water Chemistry

[mozzer]

Maybe this was unnecessary, but I've been a bit bored with my tank (26g BF) lately.

My low light plants seemed like they could be doing better and I feel like I should have been able to keep some fish longer than a year or two. I considered the following possible reasons:

1) No nutrients in the water (e.g., KH=1-2 and GH=1)
2) Small swings in pH after PWC with tap water

My tap water pH is 7.5. My tank pH is 7.5 an hour or so after a PWC and about 7 or 6.8 at the end of the week. So, I decided to add 1 tbp crushed coral/aragonite mix.

After 1 week, my tank pH is 7.5, KH=3, and GH=2. I'm hoping the KH will continue to rise, but I don't want the pH to rise any higher. I used to dose dry ferts, but I found they weren't really needed although maybe I need to add the micro to increase GH.

Thoughts?

 

[aqua_chem]

For the sake of clarity, can you explain what you're trying to accomplish? Is the pH change over the course of the week what's bothering you?

 

[mozzer]

Oops, I can see where my point might not be clear. I'm trying to increase KH and GH. My plants could be doing a bit better and my fish could live a little longer. Maybe they were stressed by the pH swings of adding tap water at pH 7.5 when the tank pH was down to 7.0 at the end of the week. I feel like my buffers were low enough at KH=1 to barely keep my pH from crashing.

It's possible that the pH has stabilized at 7.5 since adding the coral/aragonite, and I don't really want it to go any higher, but the KH and GH could stand to rise more.

 

[Cthulhu]

Raise GH to at least 5.

 

[BBradbury]

Your Plants

Hello mozz...

The easy to grow (typically dark green) aquatic plants just need a steady dose of clean tap water to maintain good mineral levels and a good stock of fish in the tank. Just feed the fish a varied diet and maybe dose a little Seachem's Comprehensive according to the instructions and just when you change out the tank water. Lighting is important, but a shop light fixture with a couple of 6500K, GE aquarium plants bulbs is all you need. This lighting is $20.00 at most hardware stores.

Pretty simple.

B