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I have been running planted aquariums for nearly 20 years and have created some beautiful aquarium setups. I have done this in the several places I have lived, such as Ontario, Houston, and out here in Calgary. Setting up planted tanks in Calgary was a bit of a challenge at first since the water here is really hard and has a high KH and pH. I was previously living downtown and the tap water consistently tested at a KH of around 11 (with some fluctuations per season) and a pH of around 8. This meant that to get CO2 to dissolve in these conditions I would have to inject CO2 until I reached a pH of around 6.5 to 7 (depending if the KH was closer to 8 or 11). Weekly water tests helped me maintain the appropriate level of around 30ppm CO2. **** wish that OCO CO2 meter didn't fall through on kickstarter**** Things were fine and dandy for the 7 years I was living downtown. This summer I have moved to MacKenzie Lake to a house close to the lake itself. In setting up my tanks again and getting them ready for plants, I discovered that both with the rough KH test kit from API and my Hanna digital KH test kit, I am getting reading from the tap of 0.5 KH. Using a CO2 indicator with 4KH water, I have to bring my pH down to 6 or lower to get any colour change. After about a month of playing around I am starting to see better growth and less die off of my plants with a pH of around 6. Though based on charts, I am still insufficient in CO2 if my KH is 0.5. While I know my fish will adapt to lower pH, it presents a challenge to adding new fish that are at stores at pH of 8 and also to have invertebrates who need to maintain their shells which leach calcium in pH's less than 7. I am going to push the system a bit further to ph 5.8 to see if I can finally get pearling on my plants like I am used to them doing back at my old apt downtown. I have also been unsuccessful of transferring my bloody mary shrimp into the new planted aquariums with CO2 running even with hours of slowly adjusting them from such a change in pH. They seem fine for a few days then they die off. I am baffled as to why my KH is so low. We have a water softener, but it isn't running and water isn't even passing through it since the shut off valve is preventing water from flowing through it. Even if it did, there isn't any salt in the softener. I find that our water smells a bit swampy every time I shower. I could start adding baking soda or buy Calcium carbonate or potassium carbonate to add to the tank during water changes to raise the KH, but then there is the much added time during water changes of adjusting and testing the KH. I miss just doing a water change and letting the pH controller do its thing. I know MacKenzie lake is fed through city water supply, I wonder if they adjust the KH and other parameters in this community? Any incites into why the drastic water chemistry difference?
