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Peat has a negligible effect on pH and hardness unless your tap water is fairly soft already. IME the only way to reliably lower the pH and hardness in a plant and fish friendly way is to use water with a lower GH and KH - ie. RO water.

Why would you want to increase GH and KH? I used to use pure RO water and only ever added a bit of RO salts occasionally (1/2 teaspoon to 25l) if anything as if you're dosing ferts you will be adding everything you need through them IME.

Probably. Best way is to test the water thoroughly before you start - test GH, KH, pH at least. I'd also test Nitrate, nitrite and ammonia (the last two just to be safe) and, as I said before, run the water through carbon at least. If the tiles are still new then your KH will be above 0, it...

It's fine to use. I used to before getting an RO unit. All I did was syphon it out through carbon and floss just in case. You don't want to use the tap if it's right at the bottom unless you have to as you will pull more of the settled debris out with it - if you want to use a tap fit another...

BTW with the amount of fertilisers salts most people add I think you'll still be fine to use that water, just keep up your water changes afterwards with tap water.

I've used seachem equilibrium and Kent RO right and both add a decent amount of GH with no KH and little rise in salinity. However you don't really need them. I used to add a teaspoon full of RO salt to 25l of water just to add some minerals back for the plants when keeping soft water fish if...

Cut back feeding and maybe dosing if you're currently using EI (though you shouldn't really need to do this) and skip a water change. Your tank might then need a few weeks of higher maintenance to get it back on track and looking perfect but nothing should come to permanent harm.

The HMA filter could be allowing something to dissolve in the water that is causing the higher nitrate reading. That doesn't mean it has to be nitrate, there could be something else causing a false positive. No evidence to back this up, just a possible idea.

If you're maiing up the 4dKH water using a test kit then it won't matter what the TDS of the starting water is really as long as it's 4dKH when you're done.

Mine was used from a shed roof and no problem. It wasn't a new roof though but a couple of years old. This is one reason why I used carbon as I drew the water out to help reduce any slim possibility of any contaminents.

I used to use it and just filtered it through a length of pipe with carbon and floss in it just to be safe. I'm going to be experimenting with using rain water in my koi pond soon too to reduce the GH in there. I only stopped using it as the water butt was at the end of the garden and in...

If you're mixing RO with tap then you don't need to RO right - it will just increase your GH. Increase the amount of RO to reduce KH and GH and if you want it very low then use pure RO.

You don't need to buffer the KH to inject CO2. The myths about pH swings from injecting CO2 are just that, myths. As long as you keep your tank nice and clean even very soft water will keep suitable fish happily. You might want to buffer the KH if you have a heavy fish load or a dirty tank as...

If it isn't broke and it's working for you then keep going but for the poster the best bet might be to go without first. As Clive says pH swings due to CO2 injection aren't an issue for fish. However a tank with a huge bioload and very low KH could suffer pH swings due to the effects of...

Please bear in mind the more you mess with the water conditions from your tap the more you will need to measure and keep on top of it. Personally I used pure RO for planted tanks for years and just added a teaspoon of GH booster per 25l of new water so there was some trace GH. I left the KH at...

You shouldn't need to boost your GH - balanced trace elements fertiliser will supply all you need plus the 1.5dGH is plenty for what the fish and plants need. You need to check your KH as this is the thing that influences your pH. With a pH of 5 I wouldn't be surprised if you have almost 0dKH...

Best not to use it from a felt roof but if it's tiled, and especially old tiles, then you will be fine. I used to use it but switched to RO as the water butt was at the far end of the garden and when it snowed, rained or got really cold I didn't do many water changes... I filtered the water...

I've used a water butt to store my RO water in and never had problems using it in planted tanks and delicate soft water and Tangyikan Cichlids. If you're worried then stick an airstone in the days before you use the water to stir it up and test for ammonia maybe, but I wouldn't expect a problem...

Good point! Sorry about that! Basically Alkalikity isn't the best name for a KH test kit and really it should be called a KH kit. A pH test kit measures acidity and alkalinity, yes. Once you understand what GH, KH, pH and TDS mean then you can see that ion exchange softeners don't really...

pH is the measure of acidity and alkalinity. 0 is very acidic, 7 is neutral, 14 is very alkaline. For tanks we go from extremes of around ph 5 as very acidic (though I've run tanks lower than this!) to around pH 9 as very alkaline. Hardness is broken into two components called Carbonate...

The amount of water you change depends entirely on what kind of tank you are running. My current tank with Tangayikans only gets 10-20% water changes every few weeks whereas when I was running the same tank with EI, high planting and CO2 injection Is changes closer to 50% each week at first...

I use RO salts (Kent's RO Right) as I find it much easier to just add a teaspoon full to each 25l container of RO water and add it straight to the tank. If you add tap water back to RO water then just make sure you know what your tap water contains and add the same amount each time to each...

Get a TDS meter to check your RO unit is working right. Easy and accurate.

As George's link says it's not the nitrates that lower the pH but an active biological filter that produces an acidification. Regular water changes will more than deal with this though, no need to add bicarb.

You only gave people a day! RO is the way to go though if you want to reduce the hardness of the water - peat and other things have limited and relatively temporary effects IME.

Sorry for not replying earlier. I've used rainwater a long time ago and filtered it slowly through carbon and it was fine. Just make sure that the roof it's coming off isn't going to add anything nasty to the water (i.e. cement based tiles that harden the water or fresh roofing felt) and that...

1. I would imagine that general tank biological activity and your peat substrate are using up the KH. 2. Maybe. However I run tanks with 0dKH - but the fish can all cope with very acidic pH if it goes that way. Rams will be fine and it sounds like your others ones will be ok. There are a lot...

No worries. Just by way of letting you know a lot of my knowledge about TDS comes from apistos and koi. A lot of koi breeders are lowering the hardness of their water to match that of the mudponds in Japan. Those ponds with lots of large (and very expensive koi in) have a TDS of 30ppm...

GH doesn't effect the pH directly but it will add to the TDS. I've run tanks at much lower TDS than that for soft water fish so I'd up the amount of RO water. In fact I run all my tanks on pure RO and just add a bit of remineralising salts for the plants. Just keep going as you are but up the...

Leaving water for a while may help to dissipate chlorine but it won't do much for chloramine. If you have this in your water supply you may well want to use a dechlorinator to ensure it is removed and the chlorine and ammonia is locked up so it cannot harm your fish.

As a big bale of peat is so cheap I changed it whenever I cleaned the filter out. Cost next to nothing and the old peat just went on the garden so nicely recycled! I guess it was roughly every 2-4 weeks.

Because RO doesn't just remove hardness and alkalinity, it removes everything, including nitrates, metals and loads of other things. I prefer to use it for all my fish. I add salts to add the alkalinity and hardness minerals that they require.

You really need very low TDS water to start with. When I've made it in the past I've just put ordinary garden centre peat (Pure peat, not compost) in my filter in a very fine media bag or the end of a pair of tights. A guy I know who used it for lots of killifish used a large water and added...

While I use RO water for all my tropical fish (including my Lake Tangyikan cichlids), you really don't need it for normal community fish unless you're breeding some of them. I have never seen any hard, scientific evidence that fish suffer when kept in harder water than normal. However I prefer...

To check if your tank's safe to add fish all you need is the nitrite test kit. After a week or so ammonia should drop off the scale anyway and once the nitrite level reacher 0 too then it will be safe to add fish. This should be after 2-4 weeks and the longer the better IMO as it lets the tank...

When my planted tank was running I waa doing weekly 50% water changes with RO water remineralised with a teaspoon of RO right and it was perfect conditions for Biotoecus, Apistogrammas and other delicate SA so I reckon a few weeks with some large RO water changes if you can will drop the pH down...

Your ammonia and nitrite test kits are accurate enough for testing as a tank matures and you should see the difference in the readings once your tank is matured. Nitrate test kits are rather inaccurate though but the nitrate reading isn't needed to check if your tank is mature.

You need to check Nitrite (NO2-) too as this is toxic too and needs to be 0 before you add stock. In fact I usually just check for nitrite as after a week or so if the nitrite is 0 then ammonia should be too.

Definitely tghink it might be the wood! Try it in a bucket and see what happens - you won't lose anything apart froma couple of days of wood sitting in a bucket! :lol:

Please don't take this the wrong way but a lot of people who say things like this or that they're lightly stocked are actually way overstocked in reality. In your case I suspect it's the wood that's causing the issues though. It will depend on how large an affect the wood's having. I would...

Well the wood is something to check out. It can drop the KH rapidly and acidify the water depending on what wood it is. Can you put it in a bucket and see if it drops the KH? Would tell you what the problem was! If a tank is really overstocked it can deplenish the KH too.

No need to apologise mate, I'm just curious as I don't understand why your KH is so much lower in your tank than the tap water. I would lay off buying any new fish for a while until you're sure there are no problems. Do you have any large pieces of wood in the tank or do you use peat in the...

Can you give me some more details of your set up? What substrate are you using?

The only way that pH would have killed the fish is if it wasn't slowly acclimnatised to those conditions. Rams and other SA dwarfs love soft acidic water. I run my softwater tanks at 0dKH and the pH is around 6 without CO2 and 5 with it and the fish are fine (I don't necessarily recommend this...

They are also claimed by some to have an anti-bacterial property (something peat is also claimed to do). For this reason I wouldn't use carbon if you have them. If you want leaves with less tannins then use some beech or oak leaves (I have used Red Oak - an american species often grown in...

Sounds like it's probably your gravel. You might want to take some out and test it with vinegar or a stronger acid (I use brick cleaner). If it's got calcerous material in it it will fizz. However it's not the end of the world and weekly 50% water changes will reduce the effect of it on your...

While it probably isn't causing the problems you are seeing a pH that high is higher than normal. What is the pH of the water out of your tap? Have you got anything in the tank that is calcerous and is raising the pH and KH? The likely suspects are gravel, stone or fake concrete ornaments...

Actually I think George might be referring to a range of tests Jeremy Gay did on the accuracy of test kits in PFK. They can show widely ranging results from the same sample water as you need to be incredibly accurate with the drops and water amounts to get accurate results with liquid test kits...

If you're putting food in and not getting a nitrite reading then your tank is mature enough to stock a few fish. If you think about it then adding fish will not change this (as long as you keep on adding similar amounts of food) just because the fish are eating the food! You're still putting...

Re: GH Concern ! Well your GH is climbing as something is adding Calcium and Magnesium to the tank water! Usually rising Gh and/or KH can be linked to calcerous substrate or decorations in a tank, but if you have two identical tanks apart from adding the fertiliser that seems unlikely. If...

Just set up your tank and plant it and be patient. Your tank will cycle slowly and will be perfect for your little BNs in 4-6 weeks. If you want to speed things up a bit then I have put a bit of food in every couple of days to provide some ammonia rather than using anything complicated! Other...

You don't cycle tank water at all. What cycling refers to really is a functioning bacterially active filter and tank. In your case, if I've read your post correctly you are picking up a tank that has previously had fish in it but is now empty with an integral filter? In this case I would...

Those readings say something's happened to the nitrification cycle in your tank or you have dumped a load of waste in the tank somehow. Are there any dead fish hidden away somewhere? Has the filter stopped working or is it really dirty? Sounds like daily 50% water changes and checking the...

Not at all mate. I like this technical side of things! Checking my RO water is still the main use of my TDS meter but I'm going to be messing around with the water in my koi QT system soon.

Your best bet is to measure your TDS differential at first. This means measure the difference between the water coming into your tank (Tap water I assume?) and the tank as it stands. Remember TDS is effectively everything that is in the water so it will naturally go up over time with the...

Bear in mind Matt that if you're dosing with salts my experience was that they upped the TDS very quickly! I'm not saying don't use the TDS meter but don't worry if the readings are higher than you expected!

RO water has lower levels of all these things. The TDS is the measure of everything dissolved in the water (with the inaccuracies we have discussed before! :lol: ) Will they build up in the tank? Well they shouldn't as your water changes should be of sufficient size and quantity to prevent...

A tank can be said to have 'cycled' if there is no ammonia detectable. If you plant heavily and the plants are growing well then they can consume any ammonia before it can rise to dangerous levels. However you must make sure that there is no detectable ammonia or nitrite. What I meant was...

They'll be fine. Stable CO2 while the lights are on will help prevent algae problems and will ensure your plants do well. Going above 30ppm is dangerous for the fish. Personally I turn CO2 off at night to give the fish a rest and prevent CO2 building up at night; others run CO2 24/7.

I keep wild caught and captive bred dwarf cichlids and various killifish under similar conditions and they do great. I do use RO for them as they prefer soft water, but that will depend on your chosen species.

Rapid changes in pH don't stress fish at all. Rapid changes in TDS can as they effect the osmotic balance of the fish. In practice though there is no danger adding slightly different water to a fish tank - in fact it can act as a spawning stimulus for many species. I have even found this with...

The pH doesn't remain stable. The pH fluctuates throughout the course of the day. On my tanks the CO2 switches off overnight and then comes on an hour before the lights. This causes the pH to drop about 1. Then the lights come on and the plants begin to photosynthesize and use some CO2 which...

There may be an issue with osmotic balance for certain species but soft water fish are adapted to deal with very low levels. TDS tests in wild locations can be almost unmeasurable and even koi mud ponds in Japan have levels as low as 30ppm. My tanks run higher than that with straight RO water...

I also remineralise my RO water with remineralising salts. I use a mixture of RO Right and Equilibrium. Why do I use (and have to buy) them instead of adding a small amount of tap water? Well I keep all my tanks at 3-4dGH and 0dKH and want this low hardness for the fish I keep. I also...

Interesting stuff Chris. You're dead right about the change in TDS measurement being a good indicator of the real change in TDS and possibly useful. I been thinking that the TDS differential between tank water and input water might be a good indicator of conditions in our tanks (once you...

Post away mate!!! (I've still not taken any sorry!!!) The error in the way we measure TDS is a measurement erro, not a random sampling error. It is caused by the fact that we actually measure the conductivity, not the real Total Dissolved Solids. So everytime you measure the TDS of the...

There's no need to aerate the water during lights off. This is just unecessary expense IMHO. Just turn off the CO2 half an hour or so before lights out. pH fluctuations are perfectly normal when adding CO2. They also do not affect the fish whatsoever. The only way CO2 will affect the fish...

The best kind mate!!! I will try and take some readings today and post them up here.

Unfortunately not mate! That would only be partly true if it was on a range of totally independant readings with vastly differing conditions. 10 readings on the same tank would be measuring the same system with potentially the same consituents causing the error. The error here is caused as...

You'd have to do subsequent specific tests to identify the constituents of the TDS to know what's there really. I agree a high TDS in a planted tank isn't necessarily a bad thing, although the work being done with the effects of low TDS water on koi are making me think about that a bit more...

Effectively the conductivity and TDS are the same for us as the way your meter works is to measure the electrical conductivity of the water to work out the number of dissolved ions in the water and then use that to give a TDS level. This is actually only accurate to within 10%. As to what is a...

TDS measures much more than the hardness of the water. TDS means Total Dissolved Solids but actually this is a misnomer as it measures everything that is dissolved in the water, including some gases. The TDS will rise rapidly when adding fertilisers, though the water may well be very soft. My...

Have you moved most of the biological filter media over too or just a little bit of media? If the former then you can stock instantly whereas if it's the latter then I'd try adding some food to provide some ammonia and see if you get an ammonia/nitrite pike before stocking the fish. I'd move...

Why do you need to raise the GH and KH? Unless you're keeping hard water fish then most of the usual aquarium fish prefer nice soft water? I only add a little minerals to raise the GH a bit; my KH is 0.

Chris I never thought you were doing any of the above at all. I love a good debate too and have found, especially since starting teaching, that you don't really understand anything until you have to explain it to someone else. Also bear in mind with this hobby that lots of people will tell you...

I do understand your reluctance but you're worrying about something that doesn't effect the fish. pH is a symptom of various things in the water that the fish are sensitive to, not the actual thing they are sensitive to. If you inject CO2 with a solenoid to turn it off you are 'subjecting'...

I do understand your point of view but believe me I have some very rare and precious fish that I keep in these conditions. The actual conditions many fish in the wild experience are similar to these and the levels of hardness in SA waters are even lower than this! There is no 'risk' involved...

As it persists it is more of a problem than chlorine. If you ask your water company they should be able to tell you if they add Chloramine to your water supply so you'll know if it's going to be an issue.

Chloramine presists because it is bound with an amine molecule. It's also why adding a cheap dechlorinator can give you ammonia as the dechlorinator removes the chlorine molecule and liberates the amine part. I'm not sure how long it takes to degrade naturally.

Such a small amount won't really need a dechlorinator unless you have horrific levels! Even if you want to play safe you could just put a bit in the tank before adding the water. Chlorine doesn't evaporate but does come out of solution and back to being a gas. Chloramine is more long lasting...

Sam's dead right here. The KH in all my tanks is 0 and I've never had any losses due to the pH. pH is the symptom of problems, not the cause. Something happens which causes problesm in the fish, they die, you test the water and the pH has dropped too and instantly it was a pH crash that...

I'd use a little hot tap water to raise the temperature and the hardness in one go and quickly!!! I've used hot water for years with no problems.

It doesn't really matter as long as you have some. 2dGH perhaps a little bit low - I tend to add RO Right to my RO water during water changes to give me a dGH of 3-4 - however if your plants are fine and showing no problems then I wouldn't worry. Some plants, such as Vallis, may suffer in very...

They will be absolutely fine. Even with 50% water changes you won't change the water parameters that much. A slight raise in hardness will mean that you'll be adding slightly softer water every water change. I add pure RO water with no or very little remineralising salts, to my tanks eveyr...

Why do you want soft water? Commercially bred tetras will be fine in tap water which is hard and after a while the calcerous parts of your gravel will release less minerals into the water anyway. The only reason to have soft water would be to breed them or to keep trickier or more sensitive...

Quite a few people on here use a Python or similar that simply fixes onto the tap. It syphons the water out of the tank via a long hose and then you switch the flow to add the tap water to the tank. IME using hot tap water is no problem - I have even used it with shrimp (Both with an old...

Glad you're letting the plants get going before the fish - it's a big key to getting off to a good start IMHO. You'll also be able to run higher CO2 if there are no animals in there which is always good!!! You'll also find that after a while the tank will be cycled with the plants in here and...

Your plants will be fine Paula. I'd simply keep up the usual tank maintenance and see how the water parameters settle down after a few weeks. The best way to test stuff in the tank IME is with the strong acid - you know straight away whether there's anything calcerous in there.

Sorry I mis-read your post - thought you said some of them rather than none of them were limestone or chalk. Rather than add them to water and check the hardness you'd get quicker results testing them with acid. I have used brick cleaner and if they fizz then they are releasing carbonates...

Once you've removed the Limestone and chalk you should find the hardness should rise less even if there's some calcerous material in the gravel. As I said in my first post the water parameters you have now will grow your plants fine.

First of all I don't think your current tank water parameters (pH, GH and KH) will cause any problems for your plants! You really need to use some 4dKH water in your drop checker. Using 4dKH water means that when the solution is green the CO2 is at 30ppm which is perfect. The drop checker...

Fair enough if you can get it for free. Let us know how you get on.

Those mineral values look pretty similar to tap water. I'd save your money... If you want to add more minerals then add trace elements in a fertiliser. Much more cost effective. There are lots of reasons why mosses do well in wild streams and the make-up of the water is only 1 of them. I...

I'm afraid that domestic test kits simply aren't accurate for this kind of measurements. The best bet is to use the fish's and plant's health as your guide to your nutrient levels or use an EI kind of dosing to make sure you are supplying slightly more than the plants need so that they will...

I've used it in the past before I had an RO unit. The fish loved it (I'm a firm believer in using soft water for soft water fish) but the weekly trips to the top of the garden (even in the depths of winter) became tiring!!! All I did was make sure the water butt was well cleaned and put some...

I've cycled tanks in 2 days with old media that was dry but used previously but never that fast with 'virgin' media. I'd keep adding ammonia daily for another week as the worst thing you can do is waste a week's time in planting. If you add fish and plants and it isn't fully cycled then you'll...

What substrate have you got and what water changes are you doing? How much are you feeding? Have you recently replaced the filter? Basically stop dosing TPN+ (it does contain tiny amounts of ammonia that the plants will usually use in no time at all I believe), stop feeding and do 50% daily...

Before you start messing with the water get a set of good test kits and find out what you've got at the moment! If your snail shells were looking ropey then maybe you have soft water already.

A drop checker is a glass or plastic container that holds a small amount of 4dKH water with indicator solution in. There's a very in depth article here. Basically the solution is only changed by CO2 so it gives a reading that is only influenced by CO2. 4dKH solution will be green with 30ppm CO2.

In a word, No! In case you want more than one word... What you do need to do is check the fish's responses and use a drop checker to make sure you don't add too much. If you do want to check the pH then measure it before adding CO2 and then an hour or two after. If you're adding 30ppm CO2...