Best Way To Increse My Kh?

[dave_paton]

Hello again, just wondering the best way to increse my kh? i no my api test kit recomends the 'API PROPER PH BUFFERS" but i dunno as i have been misled in the past so this time finally im researching on here before i hand over my cash.
Any replies will be much appreciated.
Thanks
Dave

 

[OldMan47]

I'm sure API would love you to buy some of their product. You don't say why you want to increase the KH or what your water parameters are. It would also help us help you if we knew what kind of fish you have and thus what hardness might be appropriate.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Hi dave, if i recall correctly dave is currently cycling with fish following poor advice from the lfs, can't remember which fish he has though.

have you measured your KH dave, what reading do you get?

good for you for doing some research before just going out and spending money, you can generally buffer your tank with baking soda or crushed coral, neither of which are expensive or hard to come by.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, you are correct MW, Dave is cycling with fish, after the bad advice.

We know that Dave has a KH/GH API kit but Dave has never posted any stat numbers of his tank on any of his threads, so we don't know tap water levels or tank levels of any of the tests. He may have posted tank size, can't remember.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[wolfwolf]

The bogwood in my tanks keeps lowering my kH. I change 25% of my water every week and I still need to use Kent pH Stable. It raises the kH. I add it about once a week. It is cheap. I think my $6.59 tub will last me about a year. Not bad.

Mix the powder in a small cup of tank water and add it to the tank. no problem.

 

[backtotropical]

Using powders to buffer the pH is a bad idea when you already have fish.

Powders can make the pH / kH swing around like theres no tomorrow and the fish won't appreciate it. Don't get me wrong, they can be very useful if used correctly, but the threat of forgetting to add it one day and returning to a tank full of dead fish as a result always deters me from using powder buffers.

Coral gravel / coral sand is a much more stable and less risky method in my opinion as it will only increase the pH / kH gradually. Also, when it becomes exhausted, it will do this gradually too. Much safer for the fish IMO.

Good luck with whatever you choose. Let us know how you get on?

Cheers

BTT

 

[dave_paton]

Ah ok my KH is 3' and hardness is 8' German degrees.

I have two gouramis and four gold barbs, the lfs said i need to buffer my kh up a bit to get my ph to remain more stable, is this correct?? im trying to gain as much info as i can to try and redeem myself from my first mistake, of a fish in cycle.

Sorry guys but i found this site a bit to late

Thanks for everyones replies

Tank is 140litres
PH: 6.4 at the moment after last night water change. came up from 6
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrite:0
kh: 3'
gh: 8'
Temp: constant 26'

 

[waterdrop]

Dave,
To me you sound like a good candidate for crushed corel use, but to be conservative I'd wait for comments from MW, BTT and oldman47 and any other experienced members.

I'll limit my comments to what I've learned here on TFF as the way to go about using it. First I would find a package of crushed corel (corel and beach shells broken down to a certain rough size) at a LFS as this is another of those things where I might not trust a source that might have let other things get mixed in. Usually the bags are considerably bigger than what you need but at least you'll have a lifetime supply in the garage!

Use gloved hands to protect yourself from the sharp edges and rinse it in tap water in a bucket to clear the dust and smaller particles.

I believe it is ideal to find a space in your filter for it and you can decide if you want to put it in some sort of mesh bag to keep it separate from other media in that space, personally I think that's a good idea but its one more step.

I would only start with a small mound that takes up part of your palm, not a full palm-full at all, but not a tiny amount either. Sorry, that's the way I've seen it described.

Of course you should be keeping regular pH and KH reading results in your log, so you know what it does to your tank. Be aware that it can take one to two weeks sometimes before much change shows up but eventually it show up. Both KH and pH should be raised.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yup basically just confirming what waterdrop said.

you'll get a bag of crushed coral from an lfs, if you have trouble sourcing any look for a shop that specialises in african cichlids who should sell it.

the reason we say use crushed coral instead of powder's is that it releases gradually into the water. when you put powder in the KH and pH will rise rapidly, this can be bad for the fish, with the crushed coral it will release slowly over time and over a few weeks it'll bring it up to a better level. much safer for the fish. also once it's in the water you don't need to worry about it, with powders you need to remember to add it every week. the coral will eventually run out and need to be replenished but it's not a regular weekly thing, more like after 6 months. you'll know when to change it when the pH starts top drop off again so I'd advise that you monitor this weekly once the tank is cycled and running smoothly.

you can either put the crushed coral into the filter or just straight into the tank.

depending on what you're using as a substrate it can look nice sprinkled into it. just gives some other textures. if you don't want to do that though then put a small amount into the filter, this can be put in loose with other media or if you don't want it mixing up with the other media you can cut the foot of a pair of tights and tie it up in there.

as waterdrop said start off with a small amount, make a small mound maybe 2cm across and 0.5cm deep (by no means accurate measurement, just a guide to the sort of amount we are talking here) and add this to the tank. monitor your pH and KH every day afterwards, it will creep up and then stabilise. If you see no effect on the pH and KH after a week then add a small amount more and monitor again. Once you've got it climbing just wait for it to stabilise, leave it at that for a week then add some more, wait for it to stabilise again and so on until you reach your target KH and pH. It may take a bit of adjustment to get this right, but cos you've got fish in be sure to allow it time to settle at each point.

 

[wolfwolf]

As stated above I use a powder that is added about once a week. My pH has never measured below 7.0 or above 7.5. My understanding is that pH will not swing as long as the kH does not get to 0. (I think that came from Bignose) The powder I recomended raises the kH not the pH.

 

[waterdrop]

As stated above I use a powder that is added about once a week. My pH has never measured below 7.0 or above 7.5. My understanding is that pH will not swing as long as the kH does not get to 0. (I think that came from Bignose) The powder I recomended raises the kH not the pH.

I don't think anybody was saying that what you are doing is particularly bad. Its a fairly slight distinction - just mainly that for most people it is too easy to forget a week or two at some point and find that pH has moved too fast. Corel guards against that forgetting because it is slow.

I've had some discussions in the scientific section with monkey_biz, which get into the further question of whether these powders also raise TDS or have other effects. I still wouldn't feel completely qualified to summarize in this area. Using corel has a pretty long history of being a "known thing" in fishkeeping.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[dave_paton]

Ah thats great!!! i will go to the fish store tomorow and try to get some crushed coral, thanks alot to waterdrop and for conformation from miss wiggle.

I think i am learning that the less chemicals the better, and that anything in a bottle or powdered form is no good, as mother nature does not shop at the lfs.

I have finaly got some true advice rather than falling for the lfs sales team, lol i used to be really bad at that. I have a natural colored substrate which is like a brown/red/charcoal even some white pieces of gravel in their aswell so i think if i add the corel around the gravel i think it would blend in quiet well.

Thanks alot for the advice

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Ah thats great!!! i will go to the fish store tomorow and try to get some crushed coral, thanks alot to waterdrop and for conformation from miss wiggle.

I think i am learning that the less chemicals the better, and that anything in a bottle or powdered form is no good, as mother nature does not shop at the lfs.

I have finaly got some true advice rather than falling for the lfs sales team, lol i used to be really bad at that. I have a natural colored substrate which is like a brown/red/charcoal even some white pieces of gravel in their aswell so i think if i add the corel around the gravel i think it would blend in quiet well.

Thanks alot for the advice

lol, no mother nature does not shop at the lfs!!! I'm definatley all for natural tanks where possible. It is important to remember that because our tanks are enclosed systems they are not as nature intended so you do sometimes have to step outside the confines of natural methods, but it's all about learning when to do this and when to avoid it. But yeah in general I use as few chemicals as possible.

 

[dave_paton]

Thanks miss wiggle ur a legend!!

 

[waterdrop]

Ah thats great!!! i will go to the fish store tomorow and try to get some crushed coral, thanks alot to waterdrop and for conformation from miss wiggle.

I think i am learning that the less chemicals the better, and that anything in a bottle or powdered form is no good, as mother nature does not shop at the lfs.

I have finaly got some true advice rather than falling for the lfs sales team, lol i used to be really bad at that. I have a natural colored substrate which is like a brown/red/charcoal even some white pieces of gravel in their aswell so i think if i add the corel around the gravel i think it would blend in quiet well.

Thanks alot for the advice

lol, no mother nature does not shop at the lfs!!! I'm definatley all for natural tanks where possible. It is important to remember that because our tanks are enclosed systems they are not as nature intended so you do sometimes have to step outside the confines of natural methods, but it's all about learning when to do this and when to avoid it. But yeah in general I use as few chemicals as possible.

Good one Dave: "Mother Nature does not shop at the LFS!" I can hear the whirring sound as MW files that away to give as future newbie advice.

I completely agree with MW that we try for natural tanks but have to intervene because of the enclosed nature. Implicit in MW's statement I think is the smallness of an aquarium. Years ago I had the idea that a well-run aquarium could be an entirely closed little ecosystem - I think there are still many who come into the hobby with this idea. However, I have since come to realize that each fish in the wild actually needs and benefits from an environment that can only be provided by a space that is usually quite large, huge in fact. Certainly there are exceptions, like betas in puddles, but for the most part fish have access, even in small streams, to vast expanses of green plants, water, substrate, interesting food, fresh air being churned into the water, brilliant sunshine and inky black nights. By most standards, our attempts at matching that are feeble and artificial and too small, even in the largest of tanks.

Not to say our mini-environments are not good! In fact, aquarium fish live a longer life, statistically, than the same species in the wild (mostly because of a lack of predators and reliable food) but its just a thoughtful thing sometimes to stand next to a marsh or stream and think about the scale/size involved in a natural habitat!

~~waterdrop~~