Water Conditioners

[JohnofBothwell]

I am setting up a black water biotope 50 gal aquarium, and a similar 35 litre quarantine or hospital tank. I ran the 35 litre tank with sand, bogwood, and almond leaves and the ph stabilised at 6.5, with GH at 3o DH. I then added Nutrafin Aqua+ to remove any chloramines, chlorine or heavy metals. However the ph mmediately went up to 7.0, and the GH to 6o DH. Are there any water conditioners I can use which don't affect the ph and hardness. I don't want to do water changes and fight to bring the ph and hardness back down every time.

 

[techen]

I don't believe the stuff you are using can effect the ph level. However if you wait a day or two for the new water to gas off it will give you the true ph value where is testing water ph out of the tap can give a false reading

 

[CJH0825]

I use Prime and I've never had a spike in Ph.

 

[Arcticfox1977]

Started using prime for the first time.

 

[CJH0825]

I love it! It does everything that Amquel+ and NovAqua do, But all in 1 bottle. It seems to be more potent as well.

 

[JohnofBothwell]

Thanks for everyone's replies. I ran the 35 Litre tank for a week to let the Ph stabilise before I added Aqua+. My tapwater has a Ph which fluctuates between 7.2 and 7.6 but there is very little buffering capacity as the hardness is so low at 3oDH. I am hoping to change about 10% of the water in the 50 gal tank perhaps twice a week. I really don't want the Ph to be fluctuating about when I use Aqua+ water conditioner. Any alternatives would be helpful.

 

[Jan Cavalieri]

Do a little test with a quart or so of water and put in an ample dose of what you've been using, then test the hardness and pH to make sure it REALLY is impacting PH. Most solutions say on the bottle whether or not they effect PH - I don't know that they mention hardness since so few people seem to test for that unless there is a very specific fish that require it - I've got fish that "prefer" "semi-soft water" or "semi-hard" water in the same tank. Now if one of my fish had to absolututely be kept at an exact ph and hardness I think honestly, I'd buy a different fish.(really it's none of my business how particular you are - good for you )

But make sure that this is really the source of your problem before you get a bottle of Prime. I've NEVER had prime touch pH or water hardness. 100% reliable but I would think they all would be these days.

Think of all those "big store" educated betta fish owners and their dang fish - by some miracle - have been around for years and they (the fish owners and probably their fish too) - don't know what PH means. Give up worrying so much as long as everything is close. life is just not fair.

I wish my tap water was between 7.2 and 7.6 - here in Topeka Kansas it runs between 8.8 and 9.8. Now days ALL THE FISH come out before I do a water change I'm having so much trouble with Topeka now putting Ammonia in their water. That way I can use whatever additive I need to without risking spilling it on one of by dear fishes heads. Don't you just LOVE your fish!!

Best of luck!

 

[Fishmanic]

This thread is 6 years old so dont expect an answer from OP