Water condition

[xxAlexxx23]

Is there any way that i can possibly bring down my pH, gH, and Nitrate?? Everything else seems to be alright in the tank.

 

[neonslights]

water change?

 

[xxAlexxx23]

water change?

that was the first thing i did but still same thing

 

[Lajos_Detari]

Why do you want to adjust the pH and GH?

For nitrate, just do water change unless your tap water has high nitrate.

For pH and GH, it's better not to adjust them as it's hard to control them and any big swing will kill your fish.

Reverse osmosis will bring your GH down but you have to replenish the water with some minerals(Seachem may have).
Using peat moss can bring the pH down.
But it's too much work to adjust them and ensure there is no big swing.

It's better to keep fish that are suitable for your tap water ph and GH.

What fish are you keeping and normally what is your tap water pH and GH?

 

[Colin_T]

What fish are you keeping?
What is the pH and GH of your water supply?

 

[Essjay]

Nitrate should be kept below 20 ppm. If your tap water level is higher than this, there are things you can do.

GH can only be lowered by mixing tap water with pure water such as RO water. This mixture must be used at every water change. It is easier to keep fish which come from water with the same GH as your tap water.

 

[Metalhead88]

I'd suggest not messing with gh or ph. These numbers are mostly determined by your tap water. Safely altering these requires a lot of work and understanding.

What are current ph and gh levels? And what fish do you keep? It's best to stock according to the water that you have.

As far as nitrate goes - water change is the name of the game. It should be under 20.

 

[xxAlexxx23]

55 gal tank with a bunch of cichlids in there and the water is very hard was looking for a way to get it down but as far as nitrate goes no matter how many water changes are down it doesnt go lower than 20 ppm

 

[seangee]

Are your cichlids African or S American. If African there is no such thing as water that is too hard .

 

[Metalhead88]

In order to help, we need some more details.

What species fish do you have and how many? African cichlids like hard water. If you do not know, post a picture of the tank.
Exact GH?
Exact pH?
Exact nitrate?
How often do you change water and how much do you take out?
Exact nitrate of tap?

After answering these questions, we can help guide you in the right direction. Depending on the fish you keep, you may not need to do anything at all.

As far as nitrate go, bigger and more often water changes is likely in the future. But we need to know what you are doing now so we can give advice on how to adjust.

Please answer all questions and we can help.

 

[xxAlexxx23]

In order to help, we need some more details.

What species fish do you have and how many? African cichlids like hard water. If you do not know, post a picture of the tank.
Exact GH?
Exact pH?
Exact nitrate?
How often do you change water and how much do you take out?
Exact nitrate of tap?

After answering these questions, we can help guide you in the right direction. Depending on the fish you keep, you may not need to do anything at all.

As far as nitrate go, bigger and more often water changes is likely in the future. But we need to know what you are doing now so we can give advice on how to adjust.

Please answer all questions and we can help.

They are African Cichlids
GH - 300
pH - 7.8
Nitrate - 20ppm
Every 2 weeks do a water change of 25% including gravel clean up.
Nitrate of tap is 20

 

[Byron]

There is nothing at all wrong with the GH and pH for African rift lake cichlids [I've assumed by "African" you mean rift lake species, not the soft water Central Africans like kribensis]. Just about ideal in fact.

Nitrate is an issue though. Cichlids are now known to have difficulty with nitrate, and it should never be above 20ppm. The problem with having it in the tap water at 20ppm is that the nitrate that is likely to be occurring within the aquarium from the fish is going to increase overall nitrates. Not overstocking (many rift lake tanks are naturally somewhat overstocked to begin with), not overfeeeding, weekly substantial water changes, regular filter cleaning and substrate vacuuming every week can all help keep naturally-occurring nitrates low. Live plants would also help (by using ammonia/ammonium which means less nitrite/nitrate).

Nitrate in the source water starts you out with high nitrates, and these will not lower as the additional accumulate. There are methods to deal with nitrate in the source water, and members who have gone down this road will be able to advise. @seangee and @AbbeysDad have, probably others.

 

[AbbeysDad]

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