I'm totally at the end of my tether. I have a Juwel Rio 240 that has had water in it and the filter running for about a week due to me being unable to get plants locally. I've done an expensive tropica order which is coming tommorow.
I've got a JBL Co2 system but it's only been run for about 5 minutes yesterday to check it was working. I have the drop checker that comes with the CO2 system in the tank although I filled it with tank water as per the instructions that came with it.
Theres a mix of laterite/tetra complete under aquagrit and gravel as a substrate. There's a lump of bogwood thats well soaked but still putting out some tannins, a resin cave and a number of interesting stones (none of which look like limestone or chalk to me - more sandstone, quartz and slate I think).
My pH test indicates the tank water is 7.6 - I should probably get a high range test to check it's not higher but it looks slightly towards the colour of 7.4 if anything. So I was surprised when the JBL test started dropping and now yellow.
I finally got my KH/GH test today in the post but it tells me that my GH is 12.3dH (220 mg/l) and KH is 5.6dH (100mg/l) which is pretty hard. I checked the tap water and it's only 9 and 3.92 respectively. So it looks like something is hardening the water in the tank. The only stuff i've put into it are are stresscoat and stresszyme.
I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do with the plants coming tommorow - I'm thinking take out the rocks and change most of the water I guess.
Really at this point if I could go back a few weeks I just wouldn't bother with the whole thing. I'm really demoralised.
Paula
I've got a JBL Co2 system but it's only been run for about 5 minutes yesterday to check it was working. I have the drop checker that comes with the CO2 system in the tank although I filled it with tank water as per the instructions that came with it.
Theres a mix of laterite/tetra complete under aquagrit and gravel as a substrate. There's a lump of bogwood thats well soaked but still putting out some tannins, a resin cave and a number of interesting stones (none of which look like limestone or chalk to me - more sandstone, quartz and slate I think).
My pH test indicates the tank water is 7.6 - I should probably get a high range test to check it's not higher but it looks slightly towards the colour of 7.4 if anything. So I was surprised when the JBL test started dropping and now yellow.
I finally got my KH/GH test today in the post but it tells me that my GH is 12.3dH (220 mg/l) and KH is 5.6dH (100mg/l) which is pretty hard. I checked the tap water and it's only 9 and 3.92 respectively. So it looks like something is hardening the water in the tank. The only stuff i've put into it are are stresscoat and stresszyme.
I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do with the plants coming tommorow - I'm thinking take out the rocks and change most of the water I guess.
Really at this point if I could go back a few weeks I just wouldn't bother with the whole thing. I'm really demoralised.
Paula