Arinon
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
The story so far…
Tank: 75 gallons
Substrate: 2 parts PFS to 1 part Black Moon Sand
Temperature: 78-79
Source water is well water through a water softener using softening salt. Parameters as tested on Day 0
PH: 7.3 NH3: 0.0 NitrIte/NitrAte: 0.0 gH: ~40ppm kH: ~60ppm
Day 1- 6 Zebra Danios added @6 inchs of fish
Day 4- pH: 7.8 NH3: 0.0
Day 7- pH: 7.8 NH3: 0.0
Day 8- 5 SAE added @~13 inches of fish Added small piece of local driftwood (soaked for a couple weeks then boiled)
Day 10- pH 7.9 NH3: Trace
Day 14- pH 7.9 NH3: Trace
Day 16- 7 Peppered Cory Cats added @~20 inches of fish. Added a few Hornwort and a Java Fern
Day 19- pH 7.9 NH3: 1.0 NO2: 0.5 25% PWC Added a large handful of gravel in a stocking from established tank.
Let me start by saying that if I didn’t have any testing kits I would be perfectly happy with my progress so far. Haven’t lost any fish, and they appear quite active, are eating and exploring, and school occasionally but not all the time. So I get the impression that they aren’t very stressed. But sinse it looked at this point like I was heading into the second part of cycling and more water changes I wanted to do another round of full testing. Here is where things get depressing.
Day 21- pH 8.0 NH3: ~0.8 NO2: ~2.5 NO3: ~2.0 gH: ~40ppm kH: Off the scale!!!
The carbonate hardness was well over 200, I stopped added reagent at that point. Ok back to the source water. Tried both directly from tap and standing overnight.
pH 6.2!! NH3: 0.0 NO2: 0.0 NO3: 0.0 gH: ~40 ppm kH: Off the scale again.
So now I’m just confused and unsure what I should be doing. Clearly I will have to keep changing water but I’m a bit concerned about what could happen. I’m using the Hagen Master and NO3 test kits and I’m reasonably confident that they are reading correctly. I have an RO unit for drinking water and the tests behave as expected on that, or on mixes with the source water. The softner is still working and has salt in it but I’m not really familiar with what it actually does or is supposed to do to the water chemisty aside from the obvious. I’ll have to test the well water tommorow and see what is going into the softner itself. I don’t really wanna use that as the source water as it’s from outside faucets that freeze in the winter.
The other weird thing is my pH is pretty high given all the rest of the factors. Seems to me it should be lower. I do have some rocks in the tank, all of which passed the ‘vinegar test’ fine, but I’m no geologist so they may be doing something I don’t want as well.
Any pointers guys?
Tank: 75 gallons
Substrate: 2 parts PFS to 1 part Black Moon Sand
Temperature: 78-79
Source water is well water through a water softener using softening salt. Parameters as tested on Day 0
PH: 7.3 NH3: 0.0 NitrIte/NitrAte: 0.0 gH: ~40ppm kH: ~60ppm
Day 1- 6 Zebra Danios added @6 inchs of fish
Day 4- pH: 7.8 NH3: 0.0
Day 7- pH: 7.8 NH3: 0.0
Day 8- 5 SAE added @~13 inches of fish Added small piece of local driftwood (soaked for a couple weeks then boiled)
Day 10- pH 7.9 NH3: Trace
Day 14- pH 7.9 NH3: Trace
Day 16- 7 Peppered Cory Cats added @~20 inches of fish. Added a few Hornwort and a Java Fern
Day 19- pH 7.9 NH3: 1.0 NO2: 0.5 25% PWC Added a large handful of gravel in a stocking from established tank.
Let me start by saying that if I didn’t have any testing kits I would be perfectly happy with my progress so far. Haven’t lost any fish, and they appear quite active, are eating and exploring, and school occasionally but not all the time. So I get the impression that they aren’t very stressed. But sinse it looked at this point like I was heading into the second part of cycling and more water changes I wanted to do another round of full testing. Here is where things get depressing.
Day 21- pH 8.0 NH3: ~0.8 NO2: ~2.5 NO3: ~2.0 gH: ~40ppm kH: Off the scale!!!
The carbonate hardness was well over 200, I stopped added reagent at that point. Ok back to the source water. Tried both directly from tap and standing overnight.
pH 6.2!! NH3: 0.0 NO2: 0.0 NO3: 0.0 gH: ~40 ppm kH: Off the scale again.
So now I’m just confused and unsure what I should be doing. Clearly I will have to keep changing water but I’m a bit concerned about what could happen. I’m using the Hagen Master and NO3 test kits and I’m reasonably confident that they are reading correctly. I have an RO unit for drinking water and the tests behave as expected on that, or on mixes with the source water. The softner is still working and has salt in it but I’m not really familiar with what it actually does or is supposed to do to the water chemisty aside from the obvious. I’ll have to test the well water tommorow and see what is going into the softner itself. I don’t really wanna use that as the source water as it’s from outside faucets that freeze in the winter.
The other weird thing is my pH is pretty high given all the rest of the factors. Seems to me it should be lower. I do have some rocks in the tank, all of which passed the ‘vinegar test’ fine, but I’m no geologist so they may be doing something I don’t want as well.
Any pointers guys?