Help Please Having A Few Issues

[chrispierre]

Hey Guys we are having a few issues with our new tank. We have had our 125L tropical tank setup for just over a month now! Fish and plats seem to be doing very well and we believe we have completed our cycle! Now with the problems:

1 we have very bad water in our area our ph is 7.5 and Kh is off the scale about 220ML! we done some research and thought best way to get the KH down would be to purchase some RO water from our local aquatics shop and mix it with our tap water very gradually to drop the kh! However when we got the water home and done a KH test the test came out the same as our tap water at home! So we phoned the shop and they said this was normal?? Is this true or should ro water be zero KH? the reason we want to try and lower the KH is because we have allot of plants in the tank and we have read that if the KH is too high the plants can't use the Co2 which we are adding into the tank via a c02 kit we purchase (we are also monitoring the c02 to make sure it is at a safe level for the fish)

2 our next problem is we purchased a tetra o2 test just to make sure the o2 is ok in the tank! In the instructions it said to test first thing in the morning when the O2 is at its lowest and in doing this the result was the lowest on the scale! So we also tested in the afternoon and got the same result! I checked the dates on the test and is all ok. So we are worried that maybe we are not getting enough o2 into the tank! Currently we have a fluval U4 internal filter in the tank on full power blowing bubbles into the tank and we also have a fluval 206 external filter! We plan to stop using the internal once the external has established! So do we need to purchase an air pump to put more o2 in the tank? We haven’t had any fish loss so far we have 4 gourami , 2 Ancistrus , 5 Platty and 2 catfish.

We test the water every 2 days for Nitrite, Nitrate and ammonia and all is good. We maybe going into information overload in some areas but we really just want to get everything right and safe for our fish and plants to grow healthy.

Any help would be much appreciated
Please excuse my bad Gramma and spelling.

Chris

 

[ShinySideUp]

Hey Guys we are having a few issues with our new tank. We have had our 125L tropical tank setup for just over a month now! Fish and plats seem to be doing very well and we believe we have completed our cycle! Now with the problems:

1 we have very bad water in our area our ph is 7.5 and Kh is off the scale about 220ML! we done some research and thought best way to get the KH down would be to purchase some RO water from our local aquatics shop and mix it with our tap water very gradually to drop the kh! However when we got the water home and done a KH test the test came out the same as our tap water at home! So we phoned the shop and they said this was normal?? Is this true or should ro water be zero KH? the reason we want to try and lower the KH is because we have allot of plants in the tank and we have read that if the KH is too high the plants can't use the Co2 which we are adding into the tank via a c02 kit we purchase (we are also monitoring the c02 to make sure it is at a safe level for the fish)

2 our next problem is we purchased a tetra o2 test just to make sure the o2 is ok in the tank! In the instructions it said to test first thing in the morning when the O2 is at its lowest and in doing this the result was the lowest on the scale! So we also tested in the afternoon and got the same result! I checked the dates on the test and is all ok. So we are worried that maybe we are not getting enough o2 into the tank! Currently we have a fluval U4 internal filter in the tank on full power blowing bubbles into the tank and we also have a fluval 206 external filter! We plan to stop using the internal once the external has established! So do we need to purchase an air pump to put more o2 in the tank? We haven’t had any fish loss so far we have 4 gourami , 2 Ancistrus , 5 Platty and 2 catfish.

We test the water every 2 days for Nitrite, Nitrate and ammonia and all is good. We maybe going into information overload in some areas but we really just want to get everything right and safe for our fish and plants to grow healthy.

Any help would be much appreciated
Please excuse my bad Gramma and spelling.

Chris

I'm no chemist but I think you may be panicking over nothing. You say your kH is 220ML, do you mean 220 mg/l of CaCO3. If so you have moderately hard water and will give good buffering for your pH, i.e. you pH will be more stable. Your reading of pH 7.5 means your water is a little alkali (so steer clear of loaches plus others)

You say your tank is heavily planted AND your fish seem healthy -- this points to there being plenty of oxygen in the tank.

Maybe a little less reading about your tank and a little more enjoying of your tank may be in order as it all seems ok to me.

 

[chrispierre]

Hey Guys we are having a few issues with our new tank. We have had our 125L tropical tank setup for just over a month now! Fish and plats seem to be doing very well and we believe we have completed our cycle! Now with the problems:

1 we have very bad water in our area our ph is 7.5 and Kh is off the scale about 220ML! we done some research and thought best way to get the KH down would be to purchase some RO water from our local aquatics shop and mix it with our tap water very gradually to drop the kh! However when we got the water home and done a KH test the test came out the same as our tap water at home! So we phoned the shop and they said this was normal?? Is this true or should ro water be zero KH? the reason we want to try and lower the KH is because we have allot of plants in the tank and we have read that if the KH is too high the plants can't use the Co2 which we are adding into the tank via a c02 kit we purchase (we are also monitoring the c02 to make sure it is at a safe level for the fish)

2 our next problem is we purchased a tetra o2 test just to make sure the o2 is ok in the tank! In the instructions it said to test first thing in the morning when the O2 is at its lowest and in doing this the result was the lowest on the scale! So we also tested in the afternoon and got the same result! I checked the dates on the test and is all ok. So we are worried that maybe we are not getting enough o2 into the tank! Currently we have a fluval U4 internal filter in the tank on full power blowing bubbles into the tank and we also have a fluval 206 external filter! We plan to stop using the internal once the external has established! So do we need to purchase an air pump to put more o2 in the tank? We haven’t had any fish loss so far we have 4 gourami , 2 Ancistrus , 5 Platty and 2 catfish.

We test the water every 2 days for Nitrite, Nitrate and ammonia and all is good. We maybe going into information overload in some areas but we really just want to get everything right and safe for our fish and plants to grow healthy.

Any help would be much appreciated
Please excuse my bad Gramma and spelling.

Chris

I'm no chemist but I think you may be panicking over nothing. You say your kH is 220ML, do you mean 220 mg/l of CaCO3. If so you have moderately hard water and will give good buffering for your pH, i.e. you pH will be more stable. Your reading of pH 7.5 means your water is a little alkali (so steer clear of loaches plus others)

You say your tank is heavily planted AND your fish seem healthy -- this points to there being plenty of oxygen in the tank.

Maybe a little less reading about your tank and a little more enjoying of your tank may be in order as it all seems ok to me.

Hey ShinySideUp thank you for your reply! Yes sorry you are correct our KH is 220 mg/l of CaCO3 it was very late last night lol! We did read that this kh is only moderatly hard etc! But we have had a couple of plants die on us admitadly ones that say on the lable medium difficulty! I do know what your saying that we should not read too much into things but my partner is a perfectionist and just wants to try and get things perfect!

The main reason for wanting to lower the KH is for our plants!

Also back to the oxygen problem I have noticed this morning that one of our plattys was at the surface very still I thought he was dead but he started to move a little after a while!

We have quite alot of surface disturbance as we have two filters running for a while but when we remove the internal would a air pump be a good idea?

 

[ShinySideUp]

People here generally agree that adding an airpump is only good for aesthetic reasons and does nothing for water-quality/oxygen/etc. In general surface agitation is quite enough to cause gas exchange allowing the water to dispose of co2 and so decrease concentration. If you think your fish are not getting enough oxygen it may be that your co2 supply is too high or is not being turned on and off at the right times; you must only put your co2 on when the lights are on as at night the plants have no use for it and concentrations rise to the detriment of your fish. If you have questions on co2 however you must ask someone else. I thought about using co2 put decided the downsides exceeded the upside of quality plants, in my case my emphasis is on my fish not my plants; having said that my plants do very well.

 

[chrispierre]

So does anyone know if I'm correct in saying that RO water should have Zero KH?