timbruun

So I tried the equilibrium in a pail before hand to see what happens with my GH. Is it supposed to work right away? I waited up to an hour testing the water regulary and shaking the jug but my GH never really rose. I ended up adding a bit of epsom salt (MgSO4) also and that worked right away. So does anyone have experience with equilibrium? I don't want to be adding too much GH now that I went through all this trouble. Or does the API kit not test it properly and needs magnesium also? On another note after all this work my water parameters are dead on and everyone in the tanks looks so much happier than before.

Your best bet is to just pick a complete kit off here or other local sites. You won't need a huge CO2 tank either with only a 20 gallon. A 5 pound cylinder would be plenty and would last quite a while. If you want you could get bigger and it would just last longer. Once you have CO2 you things will take off with enough light and ferts.

I'm not adding CO2 right now. Might use excel at a later date but that shouldn't affect it. If the CaCO3 dissolves, will it turn my water back to what it was prior to adding it? Talked to Henry and he carries the seachem equilibrium for pretty good price. I'll be trying that for GH and other minearls then just using baking soda anyways since he was saying it's not bad and he uses it all the time.

Now after more research it sounds like using baking soda (NaHCO3) for KH is not a good idea since plants don't really like the sodium. And using Epsom salt (MgSO4) for GH will work except it won't be bringing up the calcium enough which shrimp need. Gypsum (CaSO4) will bring the calcium up and so will limestone, which is calcium carbonate (CaCO3). So limestone sounds like the better option since it will bring up GH and KH at the same time and somewhat same rate. Only issue is it's a little harder to dissolve in water which I'll have to try out. I can get calcium magnesium carbonate from allseasons which is beneficial with the magnesium anyways. Then I can add trace elements,probably seachem trace, to bring up the last extras and the water should be good to go. I will also try and get some calcium chloride (CaCl2) to bring up the GH in my other tanks, otherwise I'll probaly just use the epsom salt. I was told by allseasons that if I wanted to use calcium sulfate/gypsum then most garden centres carry what is called garden plaster which is the same thing. I tried looking it up and I can't find anything called garden plaster. Does anyone know anything about this also? Any input on all this? Kind of a steep learning curve for me.

Ok. So I just did some testing here while watching the olypics . And Baking soda will bring my KH up very easily. Epsom salt as long as it has no additives will bring my GH up. pH comes up along with KH. Is there anything major I need to worry about otherwise? I was looking at equilibrium and replenish by seachem since they say they add other essentials. Have to read up some more and see what they actually are. And I also found out that my RO source really isn't that good. The KH, GH and pH weren't that far off the tap at that source. KH was still quite high, GH was still 0 and pH was around 8.

I was considering that too. I will need to still bring my GH up anyways. And if I can get it right with distilled then I might try crystal shrimp in the future.

So I'm going to be using distilled water for my shrimp and was wondering where the best place in edmonton is to buy calcium carbonate and calcium chloride to add to my water. Where are you RO people who reconstitute the water to what you need and where do you get it?

Plants will take up ammonia also. Were you doign daily water changes on that tank also? It could be that the daily changes are what's keeping the ammonia at 0.5.

If the tank is cycled than if should take care of 0.5 ammonia really without too much of a problem. Try stop the daily water changes and see what happens with the parameters. If you're doing daily changes than you're adding 0.5 ammonia daily also. So just keep an eye on it and make sure it doesn't get any higher. Also make sure you're not feeding too much. That will cause problems also.

I'm pretty sure I've actually got a used python that I don't use hidden somewhere. You could get that off me if you're interested. Prime is supposed to be much better at making the ammonia that is there less harmful to the fish. Does this tank have any fish in it? Is it cycled? Are you cycling it? You could get some mature/cycled media from someone and that would give a huge headstart and take care of the ammonia fairly quickly. Which I also could supply you with. If there are no fish in the tank then just use up your BA's conditioner and start with the prime when you're done.

Leave the carbon out of your filter. You should be using prime with every water change already. Unless you are using a different water conditionner, but most find Prime to be the better one to use. I wouldn't use any chemicals to remove ammonia other than prime. Right now you should just monitor your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and keep them as close to zero as you can by doing water changes. Obviously you won't be able to get the ammonia below 0.5, but if it gets higher than that then do a water change. I don't think this would have cause any problems with your ornment but you still need to make sure your water parameters are under control. 0.5 is quite high coming out of the tap.

I've heard of doing the tupperware with paper towel and keeping it moist. Then just keep it on your tank lights. Shoudl have enough heat. Sounds like you're doing things right to me.

Calcium would be to bring up the GH and leave the KH. At least that's the plan, since my GH is 0. I'll have to grab some from before my softener here and try it. I've tested water from 5 mins away from the tap and the KH is still high and GH is 0 still. pH is a tiny bit lower. I've actually taken from 3 different wells, RO water and distilled water and testing them all to see what they all come out as. But really, in the end with my big tanks I'm stucking using my tap water. It's only the small tank I'll be getting distilled for. Going to be finding the right combination between my tap and distilled either friday or saturday.

If you're ammonia level isn't going down with water changes I'd test your tap for ammonia to see if it has any in it. As for the white is it not usually from hard water deposits?

Now I've read that calcium chloride will raise GH without raising KH. Calcium Carbonate will raise both which I don't want. Is that right?

I've been learning alot about my water now since I found out shrimp are alot more sensitive than my fish are. My GH is 0,which I've read I can raise with aquarium salt. Is that safe? Will it work? Harm anything? My KH is at 40 drops with the API kit which is 40dh or 716ppm, same as mg/l. Only way I've found to bring that down is either distilled or RO. I can get enough distilled to do my snail/shrimp (also 3 Endler and 2 fry) tank and mix it mostly distilled and enough tap to keep the pH and KH where it should be then add for GH. Now my pH is at 8.5 which should also come down when using the distilled. I'll have to play with that and see what comes of it. So using the distilled with my tap and salt I should be able to create an ideal setup for shrimp and snails. But with my africans in the 90 gal and piranhas in the 55 gal I won't be able to get enough distilled to keep those where they prefer. How hard is it on africans and piranhas to have such a high KH? The GH I will bring up with salt in those tanks also. pH is ok for africans but a bit off for the piranhas. The africans are happy enough that I currently have at least 4 holding and have had a few in the past but my piranhas have always been really skittish and now I'm wondering if it's because my water is so far off what they prefer. Does temp come into play here at all? I have all my tanks at around 78-80F. Which I've read I should lower for the shrimp a bit. And do these parameters have any effect on plants? Sorry for the long post and any help is great. Thanks

Interesting. Might have to go pick one up and give it a try. Where's the best place to get one? Price?

Pretty sure it's the API kit. I'll check when I get home. pinkish, yellow blue box i think that has KH and GH in it. Just looked online and yes it's the API. And yes the KH and GH are right in drops. As soon as I put a drop of GH in it's already green tinge. And it takes from 38 to 40 drops of KH to change it to yellow from blue. Thanks for the site. If I go by that then my KH is 22 and I shouldn't be higher than 15. So I can mix with my distilled to get that down. What is the best way to get the GH up? And it looks like I should bring my pH down also. Which the distilled should do somewhat I'm hoping. I can possibly mix 3/4 distilled and 1/4 tap and see what the KH and pH come down to. Unless I use complete distilled and bring the pH, KH and GH up? Would that be better? And I guess I should turn my temp down since I have it around 79-80 F. And now that I looked up the api test kit 1 drop converts to 17.9ppm. So my KH is 716pppm. Which is 40 dH.

I guess it's more for quick water changes and obviously not for sucking up waste and debris.

Anyone? Lost another shrimp today.

Well I'm probably going to just tear the tank down and clean everything up really nicely within a day or 2. Then keep on top of it better this time around. Try to make sure algae doesn't become a problem again.

Is there a reason you only use 1.5 knox instead of 2 whole? I made some tonight. So we'll see how it goes when I stick one in with them.

Awesome. I'll try that out for sure.

I'm actually on well water. I live 30 mins south of edmonton. How do you make the snello?

I'm avoiding the adding critters. The algae isn't really getting worse but it won't clean itself off the rocks is my problem.