kh dropping

[nudge]

I'm in the middle of changing my kh in my troph tank. Aiming to get it up around 14. Last week my tank was at kh10 and i did a 40% wc, added new water with a kh of 12. Tested the water mid week and the tank was sitting at 12 tested last night and it had dropped back to 10.

Is it my buffer recipe that needs tweaking? i use baking soda,salt and epsom salt, if its the buffer recipe what do i need to add more of to keep it steady?

[livingart]

http://www.shrimpnow.com/content.php/13 ... KH-NO3-CO2

[nudge]

cool found some stuff online, epsom=gh, salt=kh, baking soda=ph. If i add more salt to my recipe wont that just max out the kh? I guess my question is why is it dropping. I've been raising everything slowly over each wc and if i add more salt to my recipe and raise the kh by so much i'm worried it will be to much of a change.

Is the kh dropping because my recipe is wrong? it seems weird that it was at 12 for 5 days then when i tested last night it dropped to 10. I'm new at buffering water so excuse all the questions :oops: . I get what each ingredient does but i don't get why its not staying stable

[alanmin4304]

GH is a German word for hardness that for some reason aquarists cling to. Anything that adds calcium ions or magnesium ions will increase the hardness. Common salt will make it salty.

[Adrienne]

What do you have in your tank in the way of substrate, decorations, plants. What are you adding already to buffer it - What does it come out of the tap at?

[nudge]

crushed coral in both filters, aragonite substate. On tank (rain) water when i tested kh with my api kit it didnt even register and ph is low very low out of tap.

I add 3/4 t bs 3/4t salt and 1 1/2 t of epsom salt in 15L water and that gives me a ph of 8.2 kh of 12. Can't work out why its dropping though. I'm not to worried about the GH its the kh that i"m trying to stabilise

[nudge]

Instead of investing in these, there is a popular home remedy that works just as well. All the ingredients can be acquired at your local grocery store: Epsom salt, Salt, Baking Soda. Common bicarbonate of soda is effective at raising the pH, not to mention it�s very inexpensive. Epsom salts (i.e., magnesium sulfate) can be used to harden the water, raising the GH. And then you could also add salt to increase the general hardness of your water. I recommend using non-iodized table salt; however, others use Potassium Chloride or even Instant Ocean®. You can read more about the differences between these salts in my article on Aquarium Salts. For a few dollars, you can mix up enough Rift Lake Buffer to last you a year or more.

Taken from cichlid forum and from what else i have read salt helps with kh.

Common salt will make it salty.

[amtiskaw]

Bicarb increases KH

[nudge]

ok regardless of what does what, why is it dropping and not staying stable?

[alanmin4304]

Always ready to learn. How does salt buffer?

[nudge]

No idea mate like i said i'm new to this i am just quoting what i read

[Adrienne]

Why are you wanting to change your kH? Generally, if your kH is dropping then something is absorbing it. Have you read this? http://www.fishlore.com/fishforum/ph/11 ... riums.html

[nudge]

From what i have read kh helps to keep the ph stable. I keep trophs and calvus the water out of the tap is soft so not suitable for tangs.

I want to raise the kh to help keep the ph stable. Most troph sites recommend kh14+ and gh 16+. If i can sort the kh out the ph will sort itself out.

[nudge]

Yeah i read that this morn adrienne thanks, i would use the premade buffers but man they are so expensive here, i was hoping to get by with the homemade recipe but i'm not so sure about this now. I add salt to the buffer recipe because every recipe i have looked up on line says to use salt bi carb and epsom.

I have no idea what would be absorbing it, with the other bufferring agents already in my tank i was hoping this would help to keep everything stable

[livingart]

have you tried increasing the flow at the water surface

decaying organic compounds will affect the KH levels

[nudge]

flow should be good its a 5ft tank with an fx5 at 1 end with the outlet pointing up to disturb the water

[David R]

decaying organic compounds will affect the KH levels

In that case, could a dirty canister filter full of muck also reduce KH?

Nudge have you talked to the landlord about putting some lime chip in your water tank? Friends of ours who moved just down the road from us had to do that as the soft water was causing problems, like turning her light coloured hair green! (something to do with the acidity and copper from he pipes?) You could fill up an onion sack with some and put it in, then remove it when you go.

I'm lucky Hannah's hair is dark because I sure as hell won't be ruining my lovely soft rainwater with limestone! :sml1:

[nudge]

nah i havent yet david, i was hoping with the aragonite sub and both filters with coral that would be enough to help keep things stable.

I have filled a bucket with water that has a kh 10 and will test it through the week to see if it stays stable.

[David R]

I could be way off as it isn't really my area of interest, but from what I remember reading when we first moved here and I was looking into it, dolomite lime is a better buffer than coral or shell because it has both mag and calcium.

[amtiskaw]

Lime chips are almost pure calcium carbonate. But that's good if you want to get KH up

Plus they're cheap as...chips :dnc1: