Water Testing

mojo298 said:

ph loweriing add some live plants.

Click to expand...

I've not had live plants drop the pH... only raise it.

mojo298 said:

GH raising add some coral gravel or calcium based rock e.g white texas holey rock. only idea i have to lower Kh is try RO water

Click to expand...

these two actions become contradictory. You can't drop KH and raise it at the same time. Calcium based rock tends to raise the KH more than the GH.

mojo298 said:

oh and if your keeping discus they prefer a quiet enviroment as loud noises e.g someone playing a drum kit can cost lives in discus keeping as my cousin found out after spending hundreds of pounds on discus and deciding to play a drum kit i always give this warning now to anyone who buys and keeps discus as i have seen the costlyness of excesive noise around discus

Click to expand...

not sure I'd agree with this... I used to have tanks of Discus and a toddler that used to bash on the front. I always thought it humorous to watch a Discus try to swat a toddlers face through the glass. What Discus cannot handle is stress. If the drum kit was stressing the Discus, then that was a death sentence. I could see it as common that Discus could get spooked by noisy and active environments... but trust me when I say that a quiet (but stressful) environment will kill them just as quickly as a noisy and stressful one.

Bob1, a GH of 0.00 is likely unimportant. If you wish to drop the KH and pH, the easiest solution in my experience has been a R/O filtration system. This allows you to take KH to a lower level (or 0.00) and then you are free to adjust the pH using peat, leaves, driftwood, etc. Do not obsess over pH. Many of the domestic bloodlines of Discus are pretty pH tolerant within a certain range. Some Discus breeders have had success with pH as high as 7.6 and I've even heard of one with a pH of 8.0! (Though that may be a rare situation).

I'd aim for a pH that matches the breeders grow out tanks if I were you.

I hope that helps.

It's very unusual to have GH zero with a high KH. If you really have GH zero, I'd add some Equilibrium to get GH to about 3 with a good balance of calcium and magnesium (plus potassium and iron) so you can also have some plants. Equilibrium will not increase your KH.

http://www.seachem.com/Products/product ... brium.html

Most plants will do fine at KH 11. Consider using Excel as a carbon source and keep watts per gallon below 1.

Now, as for your fish...

So, why is your KH so high? I'd really look into that. Check your municipal water report. When one measures KH it reads as carbonate / bicarbonate, but it's also picking up a lot of other stuff.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alkalinity

PH, by itself with nothing more, is not quite as important as we've been led to believe. Changes in pH may or may not be important depending on the reason for the pH change. If its caused by varying CO2 levels from ambient to zero due to its consumption by your tank (even without plants), it's unimportant. If it's due to CO2 injection below the partial pressures that are toxic to fish, it's unimportant. However, if the pH change is due to sudden changes in osomitc salt concentrations or if ammonium gets converted to ammonia, then indeed pH matters.

As mentioned, diluting your tap water with RO water will reduce KH, but I wounldn't yet go that route until I had figured out why your KH is high in the first place. For example, if it's only due to your KH test reading a high level of phosphate (you're not adding phosphate buffers like Discus Buffer, are you?) then you might be good to go just the way you are.