The Puffer Forum

hello! im hoping someone can answer my question.i have gravel in my 10 gallon and 30 gallon tank, both are at ph of 7.8.. 10 gallon is at 80 alkalinity, and my 30 gallon is at 240... what to do??
add substrate? ok, then can i add substrate, such as crushed coral to my gravel or do i have to replace it with coral or can i buy a rock of some sort to buffer up? and how is the 240?? high, low, just right?












low... help!?

I woulsn't worry too much about your tap water. You should have decent city water in chicago.

The most important parameters you need to focus on are ammonia, nitrite, nitrates, and pH.

You can find the vital characteristics of F8s here and GSPs here

You may want to use crushed coral or aragonite sand as your substrate to buffer your pH for your tanks to the required 8.

In your PM you asked me if you would have to recycle the tank after changing the substrate. You would not. Most of your bacteria should be in your filter media. Changing half of the tank at a time over the course of a week or so would minimize any drastic drops in bacteria, but since you don't have any fish in the tank yet, you don't really have to worry about any spikes.

If you didn't want to change the substrate entirely, you could remove some of it, and then just add the aragonite or crushed coral to what you have.

thanks!! im on it.