Very High Carbonate Hardness!

[Creature Seeker]

Hello,

My cement background which has been sitting in my tank for about 2 months now kept buffering my ph. I tried added some ph neatruliser but not much was happening so I checked my carbonate hardness and found it to be 150 which is off the scale. My GH is 80 and my ph is 8.

My understanding is that the higher the carbonate hardness then the better the tank is at holding a stable ph, but if my cement background is causing this high ph and high carbonate hardness won't the ph continue to rise?

Is a KH this high dangerous for the fish?

I'd appreciate it if anyone could help.

Thanks

...

 

[xoedusk]

Hello,

My cement background which has been sitting in my tank for about 2 months now kept buffering my ph. I tried added some ph neatruliser but not much was happening so I checked my carbonate hardness and found it to be 150 which is off the scale. My GH is 80 and my ph is 8.

My understanding is that the higher the carbonate hardness then the better the tank is at holding a stable ph, but if my cement background is causing this high ph and high carbonate hardness won't the ph continue to rise?

Is a KH this high dangerous for the fish?

I'd appreciate it if anyone could help.

Yikes! Sounds like a mess.

First, are those measuremets of KH and GH in degrees or ppm? Did you really count 150 drops! Eep!

Adding pH stabilizers, which usually contain phosphates, will cause many "KH tests" to be wrong. Many KH tests measure alkalinity. Phosphate will affect your alkalinity reading.

So I think adding more pH stabilizers will keep increasing your KH reading.

Please someone correct me if my facts aren't straight - I'm still learning this stuff.

 

[Creature Seeker]

Hello,

My cement background which has been sitting in my tank for about 2 months now kept buffering my ph. I tried added some ph neatruliser but not much was happening so I checked my carbonate hardness and found it to be 150 which is off the scale. My GH is 80 and my ph is 8.

My understanding is that the higher the carbonate hardness then the better the tank is at holding a stable ph, but if my cement background is causing this high ph and high carbonate hardness won't the ph continue to rise?

Is a KH this high dangerous for the fish?

I'd appreciate it if anyone could help.

Yikes! Sounds like a mess.

First, are those measuremets of KH and GH in degrees or ppm? Did you really count 150 drops! Eep!

Adding pH stabilizers, which usually contain phosphates, will cause many "KH tests" to be wrong. Many KH tests measure alkalinity. Phosphate will affect your alkalinity reading.

So I think adding more pH stabilizers will keep increasing your KH reading.

Please someone correct me if my facts aren't straight - I'm still learning this stuff.

The results are in ppm. I had to add 4 drops to get my GH which was 80 ppm (moderately hard) and I had to add 15 drops to get my kh which is 150 ppm.

So should I stop adding ph stablizers and wait a week, then test? I still feel the kh will be high as the cement background is still acting as a buffer I think. Is this high KH harming the fish in any way?

Thanks for replying,

...

 

[xoedusk]

Can't comment on if the high alkalinity is affecting your fish - don't know much about its effects on life. Do they appear happy/healthy?

Personally, I would not add any more pH stabilizers. Let your weekly water changes take them out so the alkalinity comes down gradually. But of course keep an eye on the pH.

Others may recommend something different.

 

[Creature Seeker]

Thanks you for replying.

The water changes don't really make much different as the cement is still buffering it back up again and because the Carbonate Hardness is so high the ph won't go down at all.

Would adding an extra external filter full of peat help?

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[xoedusk]

Thanks you for replying.

The water changes don't really make much different as the cement is still buffering it back up again and because the Carbonate Hardness is so high the ph won't go down at all.

Would adding an extra external filter full of peat help?

...

I was thinking the H2O changes would get rid of the high phosphates.

How high does your pH go when you don't add the buffers?

Don't know much about peat; only that it can lower pH. Not sure what else it may do. Ultimately it's up to you and your fish.

I hope others can comment on what's going on.

 

[Liam]

The cement will keep adding to the KH. Small frequent water changes are all you can do if you keep the cement. Small frequent water changes are best as your water hardness and PH wont be changing too much with each water change, water parameter stability is very important for the fish. It depends on what fish you have whether the hardness is a problem or not. A ph of eight is not ideal for most fish, but many people keep soft water fish in hard water with a ph of over eight here in London.
If you put a peat filter on, the acids in the peat will react with the alkali in the cement and the cement will keep leaching kh and the ph will probably rebound upwards. The peat would cause a lot of instability in the hardness and ph, which is far from ideal for any fish. If you have soft water preferring fish then can you remove the cement and then slowly with water changes equalise the hardness and ph of the tank with your tap water.

 

[InaneCathode]

Only thing i would recommend is to take out your cement background and seal it. It's basically a giant block of lime and carbonate, it wont ever stop buffering your water...

 

[Creature Seeker]

Thanks for all your replies, they are proving very helpful.

How could you seal the cement? I've heard of people soaking cement background in salt for two weeks to leach out all the nasties, would this work?

Taking the cement out is a very large task though as it is sealed (with sealant) to the back of my tank because it has some bouyancy in it. Removing it wouldn't be a problem, but I wouldn't be able to stick it back in as the tank needs to be dry to use sealant. I've heard of using underwater ones, but when I tried them originally they were terrible. I wouldn't wanna lose the background altogether as it took me months to construct and I'm very fond of it (I shall post pictures if it helps).

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[Creature Seeker]

Right I've left it almost a week now without adding any ph buffer and the ph was stuck at 8. I shall be getting a a high range ph test kit tomorrow.

My stats now are:

PH 8
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
GH 80
KH 150

So if the ph remains stable and will not rise anymore it's just the KH I'm worried about.

Does anyone know if a high KH has any affect on the fish?

Thanks,

...

 

[InaneCathode]

Right I've left it almost a week now without adding any ph buffer and the ph was stuck at 8. I shall be getting a a high range ph test kit tomorrow.

My stats now are:

PH 8
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
GH 80
KH 150

So if the ph remains stable and will not rise anymore it's just the KH I'm worried about.

Does anyone know if a high KH has any affect on the fish?

Thanks,

...

I'm pretty sure high KH doesnt really affect most fish. Maybe sensitive ones.
As long as your tank stays stable at 8 i don't see a huge problem. Maybe for the more pH sensitive species, but most fish can live at 8 as long as it's stable...