sirval
Xiphophorus
seller
Posts: 18
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Post by sirval on Sept 22, 2012 11:55:01 GMT 11
Hi, I have to add Aquasonic carbonate hardness generator about 3 times a week to my 5ft tank. I am guessing it is bi-carb soda & some bits, though exactly what those bits are is anyone's guess.
Do you think your Buffer/salts mix will do the same job - or perhaps better?
Would love to just add once a week in my weekly water change rather than test and add 3 times a week.
Thanks.
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Post by Admin on Sept 22, 2012 12:43:02 GMT 11
Firstly, tell us a little about your tank, size, stocking density, filter, substrate,decorations, wc schedule and how long has the tank been set up.
Ph and kh are not the same thing, what are you trying to achieve. Harder water or a higher stable ph? If your ph is dropping out it can be from a few diff things.
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Post by Admin on Sept 22, 2012 12:47:25 GMT 11
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Post by neilmar on Sept 22, 2012 13:42:21 GMT 11
if your looking at buffing your water, and if you have African Cichlids well this is the salt for you, i have been using this salt for a fair while now, and it works wonders in my tanks, i think it better then the malawi salt, i love it personally and very highly recommend it,,,
cheers neil
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Craig
Tropheus
Posts: 400
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Post by Craig on Sept 22, 2012 20:51:09 GMT 11
Good response from Dean Sirval, interested to know what you keep fish-wise and why water parameters are so difficult to maintain? Cheers Craig
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moy
xenotilapia
Posts: 669
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Post by moy on Sept 23, 2012 12:55:30 GMT 11
Hey Dean do you have any made up at the moment? I am after 1kg.
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sirval
Xiphophorus
seller
Posts: 18
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Post by sirval on Sept 29, 2012 22:27:01 GMT 11
Firstly, tell us a little about your tank, size, stocking density, filter, substrate,decorations, wc schedule and how long has the tank been set up. Ph and kh are not the same thing, what are you trying to achieve. Harder water or a higher stable ph? If your ph is dropping out it can be from a few diff things. Hi again, finally back at the computer. Tank is a 5 foot tank (264 litres), well planted and running an Aquis 1000 external canister filter at one end and an Aqua One 1100 external canister filter at the other end, no charcoal in either. I do a 60 litre water change once a week. This tank has been running for approx 3 months but my 4ft tank ran for about 15 months previously - same issue. I have about a quarter of an inch of gravel taken from my old 4 foot tank as part of the procedure of transplanting pre-established bacteria which I then covered with about 1.5 inches of sand. This is the level the sat at after filling in the gaps left by the pebbles. Of course it is now all over the shop with the constant aquascaping activities of the fish. I have 2 large driftwood pieces (one is a hollow log which would comfortably house my large featherfin catfish twice and 3 smaller driftwood pieces, a large piece of petrified wood and until a few day ago a large chunk of clean quartz (no noticeable impurities). I have removed the quartz (as of Thursday 27/09/12) and replaced it with a 3.1 kg piece of Texas Holy Rock. I read on the interwebernet somewhere that the wood will reduce the KH & PH levels whilst the Holy Rock will raise those same levels. My hope here has been to produce a kind of balancing act between the wood & the rock. The fish I keep have evolved as I have learned more about the hobby. SOme have gone back to my LFS and many initially were regarded by my friends not so much as pets but more as sacrificial victims. After angsting about the problems with much amonia & nitrite testing, and the PH seemed ok, my LFS did a water test for me and told me the issue was my KH. When testing using the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals kit, I was told I wanted to keep my KH levels a blue colour when adding 2 to 3 drops. Mine only stayed blue for one drop and changed to yellow on the second drop. Fish I keep are: 1 large Featherfin catfish - Named Great Cthulu 2 Long Nose whiptail catfish - Rommel and Zigfried 1 Gold Spot Pleco called Graham - the same size as the Featherfin 2 Bristle nose catfish 6 Cories of differing types 2 large Hoplo catfish 2 Keyhole cichlids 2 African Butterfly cichlids 2 small Blue Acara cichlids 1 small Macaw Cichlid 1 Lionhead cichlid - want to get him girlie lionhead 2 large Angelfish 4 Blue Rams 1 Gold severum - medium size 1 Green severum - somewhat smaller 2 small Geophagus Redhumps 2 Red Jewel cichlids - small 10 Cardinal tetras 10 Glowlight Tetras 2 large Pearl Gouramis which are survivors of the original purge and of course bought prior to my slow development of interest towards cichlids. The LFS man said to watch my Rams as they my be harrassed as the other guys grow larger. If that be the case I will pass them onto a friend. Anyhow, that is my set up. My aim is to keep my KH up to safe levels (50 - 100ppm is what the test kit says it should be at) and the ph at 7ish. Thanks.
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Post by Admin on Sept 30, 2012 1:14:50 GMT 11
Just a quicky to give you some sort of response (it's late and I just got home from work) I'll give you a more detailed answer tomorow.
You basically have way too many fish in that much water, as they produce waste the acid in the urine and breakdown of solid feces is lowering your ph. With stocking levels that high you really need to be doing multiple wc a week and probably 100l at a time.
Decomposition of plant leaves also lowers hardness values as does the wood. The Holey rock will help a little but not be a cure.
Try 1 tbspn Epsom salts, 1 tbspn bi carb per 20 liters and see how that effects your hardness holding capacity.
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Post by joller on Sept 30, 2012 9:50:20 GMT 11
keep any eye on aggression, i think this is a very problematic mix of fish, and as they grow you'll find you will definitely have to remove probably about half of the fish to avoid health problems like hole in the head
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sirval
Xiphophorus
seller
Posts: 18
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Post by sirval on Oct 1, 2012 12:11:11 GMT 11
OK - thanks for the advice.
I will start off by giving the 2 gouramis, 2 bristlenose, 4 rams and 10 glowlights to a friend who currently only has 2 angels and 1 bristlenose in his 4ft tank.
Will give the epsom / bicarb mix a go.
Cheerio for now.
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