Figure 8 High GH low KH help!

[TJay]

Hi! I have recently began converting my FW tank to brackish by about .002 a week, so it is now around 1.004. it has cured ich and my f8 is doing well. But now my Gh is over 21 and my kh is around 3. Is this because i am using the same test strips i use for my fw tanks or if not, what can i do to resolve the issue? Thanks in advance!

Ammonia: 0 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 15 PH: 6.8 GH: 21? Kh: 3

[bertie 83]

What is your water change schedule? F/w tests should work in low brackish. Keep the sg as is and carry out some large 50% partials to see how that works on water chemistry, or if you may have been a little slack on water changes carry out multiple small changes so you don't shock the fish, not trying to say that is the case of course.

[defool89]

Small consistent partial water changes seem to work better than a one weekly or bi weekly water change IME. I do 30%+ every 3-4 days.

[TJay]

generally twice a week at 20% wednesday and sunday but i will admit that over christmas it was maybe half that. so is this dangerous for my puffer? is this due to converting to brackish or is it the lack of wc's. Thanks i appreciate the advice

[JRC3]

Gh test won't work in BW. KH is the only way to test. I would get a liquid KH test kit and avoid those test strips.

Your F8 will be fine for quite a long time in the soft water so don't worry about making any quick decisions or changes. The first six months I had my F8 the water was between 3-4 degrees KH.

What are you using as substrate? Crushed coral or aragonite for substrate as well as adding crushed aragonite in media bags to your filter might do the trick. If not there are other things that can be done to increase KH.

Just curious, what is the PH?




Smaller frequent water changes aren't as effective as larger ones. You are just removing some of the new water you just added 3 days earlier. And 50% total is the gaol for FW and BW water changes per week.

[bertie 83]

To me it seems close to a tank crash. How does your source water compare to this? I guess it's quite a difference, keep up regular water changes until it stabilises.

[JRC3]

"Tank crash"? Why?

[TJay]

My ph is too low at 6.8 which is another issue, it comes out the tap at 6.8 with a kh of 4. The substrate is just normal aquarium sand. I really want to get the tank parameters ideal for my f8 but obviously this will take time. I'll get myself a liquid master kit ive been thinking about getting one for a while. Just incase it changes anything, the tank has only been set up for a couple of months the filter was already matured in a fw tank for over a year. To be fair it is spotlessly clean in the tank theres never any left over food or puffer poop on the substrate. (regular syphoning)

[JRC3]

If you're referring to the API freshwater master kit doen't include KH testing, you'll have to buy that small kit separate.

Once you find a way to get your KH up the PH should follow. Whatever you do don't try to alter the PH with any sort of buffers in a bottle as their results are very temporary and harmful. Stable PH is the most important thing even if it is low.

[TJay]

Thanks ive herd about altering the ph with the stuff in a bottle before, its amazing it can be sold to be honest. What are your thoughts on baking soda? im running an internal eheim filter so it would be tricky to use coral. unless adding it to the substrate would be sufficient.

[JRC3]

What are your thoughts on baking soda?.

I was working my way to that but was wanting to reccomend other options first.

I use baking powder (sodium bicarbonate) but I did it very slowly and only after other options failed. Changing KH too quickly can cause osmotic shock. Osmosis has to do with a fishes ability to maintain body fluid levels and also to release toxins. A fast change in total disolved solids will upset that process and may kill the fish.

What size is the fish tanks? How do you mix water change water?

[defool89]

Remove thee sand if its just sand.replace with.crushed coral or aragonite subtrate

[G S P Freak]

+1, I use crushed shell substrate, and several calcium-based decorations (rocks/dead coral), and my Ph is stable at 8.0. Aragonite sand is the best as it allows better dissociation of carbonate ions.

[RTR]

Low KH is non-trivial. I agree w/bertie very strongly on that. The tank is very likely to pH crash, which is very bad for the nitrification bacteria and for the fish as well. Nitrification cannot carry on normally without sufficient KH in the water, and that KH is used up by normal tank nitrification. That is why I use solely aragonite substrates in low-end BW and use dead coral and shell decor. They do help support the KH. The GH is not involved in this aspect of tank biology.

Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) is useful in supplementing KH, but should never under any circumstances be added directly to the tank. It is very fast dissolving and can result in osmotic shock to the fish. Many, many hobbyists have killed their fish with it. It should only be added to make-up water and tested before addition to the tank and fish.

HTH

[Mandalynn87]

If you're referring to the API freshwater master kit doen't include KH testing, you'll have to buy that small kit separate.

Once you find a way to get your KH up the PH should follow. Whatever you do don't try to alter the PH with any sort of buffers in a bottle as their results are very temporary and harmful. Stable PH is the most important thing even if it is low.

This is a very old post but I wanted to add that, though i had to take it out, because my ph is around 8 out of the tank. The coral rocks at lfs are very good at buffering the ph. I added a few but my ph went up over 8.3 so I took them out. It was just a few smaller pieces. So putting in 5 or so pieces would help a ph quite a bit and isnt chemicals that can harm scaleless fish.