Water chemisty.

[ralliart314]

checked my water today and its very soft.i have african cichlids with lots of rocks.argonite for the grave the ph is 7.8.how can i get the water hardness to the appropriate hardness 4 them.

[alanmin4304]

What is the hardness and what hardness do you want?

[David R]

And more to the point are the fish happy and healthy?

[ralliart314]

the fish seem healthy as,my powder blues wont stop breeding,just thought it might be why my electric yellows are now breeding

[David R]

If the fish are healthy then there's nothing wrong with the hardness IMO. Better to keep it stable than have it fluctuating.

[ralliart314]

altho its been raining today lots,so have collected 6 buckets of rain water that im going to use in my tank today

[alanmin4304]

the water will not get much softer than that.

[ralliart314]

rolleston water is pretty soft it comes from a underground spring,we got good water quality but its real soft,i read bout putting coral sand in the filter

[ralliart314]

just tested my kh, it took 16 drops to get the water to turn from blue to yellow is this good for african cichlids,im getting gh text tomorrow

[SamH]

just tested my kh, it took 16 drops to get the water to turn from blue to yellow is this good for african cichlids,im getting gh text tomorrow

Compare the 16 drops to the chart your test came with (may be on the side of the bottle). Tests can be different so we need to know kH not 16 drops.

[suphew]

I'm a bit confused, you say your water is very soft, but plan to add rain water (very soft) to try and help, wont this just make it softer?

For a quick fix you can use baking soda to bring the hardness up, longer term you could add some shell grit to your filter or put some coral rock in the tank. The argonite gravel will be helping but you really need to have water flow over/round it

[ralliart314]

I have lots of water flow got 2000lph going threw my tank so im fine their.i dnt undastand the instructions dnt say much it doesnt say how to convert the drops.its a api test to

[alanmin4304]

Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate so how does that alter the hardness?

[ralliart314]

I read on a website use baking soda and red sea salt to give the water calcium.

[suphew]

Through some complicated chemical process it increases the carbonate hardness or KH, it's really common to use in marine tanks but works just as well in fresh water, most pH buffers are sodium bicarb based. A google will give you the chemical process if you can understand it :lol:

http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/downloads/KH-GH-test-instructions.pdf

According to the API test instructions online your Kh is 16dkh (1 drop per dkh) which is really high (your water is very hard), I'd first off suggest you test again to make sure it correct or ever better get some one else to check it using their kit to make sure yours is okay. If you find it is this high, get the rain water water changes going, regular small changes are the way to go. Once you get it down a bit you'll need to work out if is going to stay at the level you want or keep going up, if it keeps going up we'll need to work out whats doing it.

Do you add any chemicals?

[suphew]

I read on a website use baking soda and red sea salt to give the water calcium.

Quite possibly, the Kh levels (increased from baking soda) and calcium levels are closly related, but I don't know what is in red sea salt to know if it contains signicant amounts of calcium.

[Jennifer]

Bicarbonate creates temporary hardness by reacting with calcium cations (if they are present) to form solid calcium carbonate but the reaction doesn't work as well in the presence of high CO2.

[ralliart314]

Dont use any chemicals at all.only stress zyme and stress coat.i undastand the test nw.do u recomend shaking test afta every drop.

[ralliart314]

Am i right when i say malawi mbuna cichlids require a kh between 10 and 14.

[suphew]

I haven't kept them myself, but a quick google suggests an ideal range of 10-12

[oO SKIPPY Oo]

Dont use any chemicals at all.only stress zyme and stress coat.i undastand the test nw.do u recomend shaking test afta every drop.

i have a gh and kh test kit - on mine it recommends to plug and shake the bottle each time you add a drop

[alanmin4304]

If hardness is a measure of the calcium cations (mainly) then if they are locked up as calcium carbonate they are no longer available as a free ion to create hardness.

[ralliart314]

retested water after and it took 5 drops to turn from blue to yellow,so that seems pretty good to me between 3 and 6 is what cichlids are rated for,rift lake cichlids are between 11 and 22

[suphew]

If hardness is a measure of the calcium cations (mainly) then if they are locked up as calcium carbonate they are no longer available as a free ion to create hardness.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbonate_hardness

http://fins.actwin.com/aquatic-plants/month.9601/msg00121.html

http://fish.mongabay.com/chemistry.htm

[alanmin4304]

My point was that hardness is a measure of calcium ions (usually) but baking soda produces alkalinity and acts as a buffer rather than increasing the hardness. If you want to increase the hardness you need to add calcium ions (usually)