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Yeh they'd be fine. You can get nerites, I'd alwayschose them over shrimp or fish as in my book they do a far better job of keeping the tank clean. Sam

How big is the tank? If if were me, I'd probably add more of both, more some cherries. Sam

Ignore it :) neither the fish nor the plants will care. It'll also stabilise after a few weeks anyway as the substrate looses its ability to lower the PH. Sam

Dont worry about it :) I have taken to adding small Hang On Back filters to clear it but thats just personal preference. Perhaps an expensive way to sort it! :lol: Sam

No need to add salt :) You have two options add a few hard fish or add ammonia as an alternative. This page has lots of useful info :) http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?/to ... ce-center/ Sam

For a beginner, I personally would suggest an ammonia test kit and a nitrite text kit, I def until you get a used to keeping fish its worth it. Other water issues generally speaking aren't such an issue. Sam

Lots of people run tanks with undetectable levels of KH and they don't have any problems at all, with anything, fish, plants, filters, etc. So basically its nothing to worry about. Trying to raise the KH is going to be a loosing battle at least for the start, AS sucks it out pretty quick by...

In terms of the Co2, it is odd that it stays yellow even with the CO2 off. How long do you leave it? It can take several hours for the CO2 level to drop and the DC to show the resulting colour change. As for the pH, bin the test strips. They aren't very accurate. In any case, the AS will...

Its not a dodgy test kit is it? Sam

If using ADA AS then it might be worth while keeping an eye on NH3 and NO2, just to see when they've dropped to 0. Though I guess its not essential. I've used the API test kits which always seemed to work well. Sam

For the very reasons you are having :) there can be a tendancy to use tesk kits to make sure things are ok in the tank, when in actual fact the fish and plants are a much better indicator of how a tank is doing than any test kit. People can find themselves desperately trying to fix a 'problem'...

Nice one cheers James :) Sam

Can you recommend a good set of digital scales? I found these but no idea if they are any good. Just noticed them because they have 0.01g resolution. http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=49112 Sam

Right thanks Tom, so phosphate based buffers aren't in themselves bad for plants per se? Its just than people misread the knock on effect of Co2. That makes sense, well in so far as I understand the mistake people made. Thanks again. Sam

I think you're missing the point of James' post, he was joking when he said phosphate causes algae ;) high phosphate doesn't IMHO cause problems. I doubt very much anyone on hear uses rowaphos :) Sam

That seems to come up a LOT! :lol: Sam

Humm I cant seem to find anything on it anywhere, just one of those urban myths perhaps. Its bad because that's just want everyone has come to accept?! :lol: Sam

Totally random question, but does anyone actually know why/how phosphate based buffers are bad for aquarium plants? Sam

I don't understand? I don't see a question here? Are you asking if you would expect to find a difference between the two tanks? Sam

Sorry Paul whats your question here?!?! :lol: Sam

Yeh I wouldn't worry about pH to much :) Sam

Yeh, the ottos and snails sorted the brown algae issue. I'll be ripping the tank apart again soon so it doesn't really matter anyway! Yeh, what about HIV? That doesn't kill you per se, other things do! Sam

Tell me about it! viewtopic.php?f=21&t=5804 Sam

I use Ro to top up my 4ft, but only so I don't get an hardness built up. But that is easily sorted by a bigger than normal WC every so often. I must loose around 10lt from the tank all told, walls don't seem to be affected. Condensation only happens when its cold outside. Sam

Fair enough :)

Whatever is in my water (I hope) is safe for us to drink. If so, its safe to go into my tank :) Sam

Haha ;) I'd prob use rainwater rather RO, as have the system already installed so makes sense. Sam

Haha :lol: this is exactly what I'm thinking of doing in my 4ft just to rule out the possibility of there being contaminants in the water, not that I think there are but as you say means I can get it spot on :) Sam

Me too, Chris, so no worries at all completely forgotten :) I'm glad I'm not the only one who find all this rather confusing! Thank goodness for the likes of Clive and James who are there to reassure us all that its rarely anything to worry about :) Sam

Thanks Clive :) That's pretty much what I had thought, but I thought it was worth an ask all the same, especially when I discovered that some of them were herbicides! Shame, it would have been useful and easily fixed problem had it been the reason for all my plant woes. Sam EDIT - just to...

I've been looking at my water report recently, and I have to say its rather worrying! Apart from the usual elements, there is a huge long list of other things that are in my water, including several herbicides! Does anyone think these levels are high enough to affect my plants? Cheers Sam

Nice one for taking the time to do this and to share the results. Your suggestion of binning the test kits sounds good, is there anyway of us all meeting up and burning our test kits in one giant sacrificial fire? Well the box and manual at elast if not the liquids (prob not a great idea...

It sure is!

No probs :) Sam

I assume you're using the Deionised water directly? If you are you need to scrap that and get some 4dKH water from either Aquaessentials or the Green Machine. Its the 4dKH that gives the blue>green>yellow colour change. As the deionised water has virtually 0 KH in it, it'll not work :) I...

I think we are going to have to agree to disagree, my friend. Probably not even that, its just a misunderstanding. I have taken no offence and am not 'bothered' by what you said :) Sam

No offence taken so no apology needed :) but remember that there are ways and ways of saying something. There are also ways and ways of achieving the same result. If you feel that you have to use 100% RO then I am not disagreeing with that approach, but I would disagree that it is the only...

What do you mean by 'nasties'? Also, lets take a 60lt tank, a reasonable size for most people. Using EI you need to change 30lt a week. Say you only raise it to 1dKH that's 6p a week on re-mineralisation salts. So £3.20 a year. And that's assuming its only 1dKH. Say you want to go to...

Yeh I would. Also why not mix the RO with tap to get the desired hardness? Save you a fortune in remineralisation salts :) Sam

No probs :) FYI - 1 bubble every 3 seconds wont be enough, I've got a 250lt and it must be running a 3 or 4 bubbles PER second! :lol: Sam

Hi Jay, If anything this just shows the inaccuracies of test kits! :lol: Unless there are major changes in the position, flow rates or other things that might affect the diffusion of the CO2 then I would ignore this personally. The pH will rise slightly during the lights on period due to the...

Have read this thread with great interset, it answers many of the questinso people ask with CO2. Worth remembering for future reference :) This is not correct, Arron :) CO2/KH/pH is a fixed relationship. 30ppm co2 drops the pH by a fixed amount (1pH point in fact :)) regardless of the...

Hi, Can I ask a side question? How do you collect the rainwater and how clean do you keep the water butt if that's water you use? Do you filter it through carbon before it goes into the tank? I've been having problems with the plants and am leaning towards it being due to organic compounds in...

You can forget about this too :) The only time I have ever experienced a pH crash was due to a piece of proper bogwood that was removing the KH and it didn't seem to affect the fish at all. A normal tank (without proper bog wood) will run fin on 1KD. Lots of people run tanks with undetectable...

In terms of the re-mineralisation salts and the trace mix, you dont need to worry. You cant really overdose trace and to be honest the more the merrier! The whole point of EI is to give the plants more nutrients than they need so that they are never deficient. If the tank already has some...

I think most water companies have this kind of facility and by law they have to release the results of the water chemistry tests. Here's the one for Thames Water area. http://www.thameswater.co.uk/cps/rde/xc ... sl/899.htm Sam

Yep, low = soft, high = hard. Sam

Interesting, always wondered about that. Cheers Andy :) Sam

I switched to rainwater when I got my new 4ft as there was no way I was going to produce 60-80lt of RO water each week, the waste would have been absurd. So I hooked up a water butt and got a 1400lpg internal power head to pump the water out of the water butt, through a pond carbon filter (not...

Humm didnt know that :)

Have a read of this, you'll be quite surprised what carbon does ;) www.thekrib.com/Plants/Fertilizer/keslar-carbon.htm BTW is the tank open top? and where in the house is it? Sam

OH RIGHT!!! :lol: I did wonder! Haha Sam

I dont follow gareth? they die and you dump them in the loo?

Oh crap :shock: Sam

Haha fair Hugh!! Guess its all a matter of cost v benefit, re-remineralising salts are cheap if you risk losing that much stock! Sam

Just a quick comment about remineralising the RO. Use tap, the remineralising things are expensive and I found the Kent one was way off when I followed the guide. It gave me a completely different TDS from that stated. Use tap water instead, it adds all the good things back in and its dirt...

I connect mine up to the outside tap using a hozeloc connector. I wasn't to keen on putting a hope in my pipes either. Sam

I use RO cut with tap at 1:4. Remineralising salts were costing me a fortune and I see little need. I keep meaning to switch to rainwater, but want to fix up an outside plug first so can run an internal in the water butt packed with carbon to reduce impurities/pollutants, etc, just haven't got...

Yeah me too, like James I cut mine with tap water to give around 6GH and 1-2 KH. I find its far cheaper then using remineralizing salts. Sam

Thanks for the advice. The tank is EI, with each dose being 15ppm NO3, 1.5ppm PO4 and 15ppm K. 20ml AE trace. Those test results were from test kit readings taken immediately before the 50% water change. I thought K was unlikely but it doesn't hurt to increase the level a bit. So I upped...

Right oh, will keep up the extra K and see what happens. Thanks again Sam

My other thought was K, so since last week Ive started adding extra K, 15ppm each dose, but its from the granule form from AE so not sure how accurate the dose is as its never dissolved 100%. But yeh adding extra K. I also doubled the trace dose so there is more iron, it cant hurt if it...

Recently I've noticed the plants in my mid light EI 20g high tank are lacking something, and given that the tank reads 3ppm PO4 and 30ppm NO3 right before the 50% water change I'm guessing it must be a micro of some kind. I did a bit of research but cant pin it down to a specific element...