Search results for query: "tap water"

One week in. Wood sunk after 2-3 days in the tank. Tested water again today and ph had dropped to about 6.8, GH to 3 and KH to maybe 2.5 so overall a slight softening of the water. Visibly there is a bit of a tint to the water, and a bit of scum on the surface but nothing dramatic. Certainly...

There are some talks about using salicylic acid as an algaecide, so I thought it was pertinent to add this testimonial. This is a tank where almost nothing happens and nothing changes. Eventually the floating plants go through a bad phase, then they pick up again and that's it. It is now more...

The general consensus for a high tech tank is to change 50% or more using the following regimen, week one - every day, week two - every other day, week three - every third day, week four - twice ang once a week thereafter. However, as far as I am aware none of your chosen substrates leach...

Hi, I've been reading lots of prior threads but I'm not finding an answer I am confident in. I have used a pre mix from Aquarium Plant Food UK for years, this is a complete fertiliser containing N. My tank has struggled in recent years with bad plant growth and unsightly algae/deposits. The...

Thank you. Do you have a video on this?

Anyone else having similar experience on these?

Thanks guys, I am using tap water, which is around 2 degrees KH and 4 degrees GH according to my JBL kit. I add 1 teaspoon of MGSO4 (which is part of the EI kit) with every water change, to bring the MG to at least 8ppm (again, measured with my JBL kit). Could this be related to Ca deficiency? I...

Hi, I would stop the Seachem dosing. If you're dosing the EI with the values reported, then you're OK for NPK+MICROS, don't dose extra stuff, it's just noise. The only thing left is Ca and Mg. What water are you using for the WC? If RO or rain water, remineralize with Calcium and Magnesium to...

Sure you can, if you have a conductivity/TDS pen. Measure 500 ml plain RO. Add 300 ml soil to it. measure 500 ml hard tap water with lots of added macros. Add 300 ml soil to it. In both cases; what would the soil do and therefore the conductivity? I assume the outcome would be a result of the...

Hello everyone. Thank you for having me on this forum and I apologize in advance for the long post. Also, if this post belongs to a different section, I'm kindly asking the moderators to move it (thank you!). I'll start with my tank specs and then will be adding my questions, so please bear...

Looks like Diatoms to me, they should disappear naturally over the next couple of weeks as your tank matures. Light intensity looks good (from the photo) for a new tank, just keep the photoperiod stable, and keep an eye on the plants, if they begin to look to like they are beginning to suffer...

Hi all, Pretty common, added to <"control plumbosolvency">. There are a lot of insoluble phosphate compounds, but I'm going to guess yours probably is plant available. New growth chlorosis is a pretty good indicator of <"iron deficiency">. Have a look at @keef321 's photos in <"Cloudy...

I think you may have a point here. I have to say I never really added phosphate as our tap water is very high in it, but maybe it's not as available to plants..? Since adding my macro mix containing phosphate the plants started to pick up slightly, looking stronger and bigger leaves etc, but...

My tap water is actually not too bad. Out of the tap I get; TDS 60 GH 3 KH 3 PH ~ 8 In my tank for whatever reason, the water chemistry changes a bit TDS 140-180 GH 6 KH 5-6 PH ~7.6 ( 6.6 during CO2) Im wondering if its even worth me setting up an RODI system and remineralizing. Would be nice...

It is quite possible that it is Diatoms but difficult to tell without a photograph, if so, snails and shrimp will eat it or manual removal, i.e. agitation and sucking up during a water change. What was your light setting before? Your plants may well be now not getting enough light but possibly...

Hi all, Good. Diatoms are <"incredibly effective"> at obtaining the smallest trace of orthosilicic acid (Si(OH)4) from water, so silicate levels in water tends to be a bit of a red herring. Ramshorn Snails (Planorbella duryi) are effective at removal. cheers Darrel

Definitely Chilean Myrtle. Cut some down in December and have been ‘seasoning’ since. Just put some in the tank I have in mind to float for a bit and see what leeches of them and to see if it does anything to the water parameters for a month or so. Day 1 - untreated tap water, ph7, GH 4, KH 3...

Glad to know the plants came ok! looking forward to seeing them in the tank. 👍

Day 23 At some point I shall move to more sporadic updates but I am still very much in a “high octane” phase with the tank so daily updates continue for the time being. I grabbed some TNC Complete. Takes the pressure off the ol’ noggin for a bit. The results of the aged/degassed tap water test...

I don’t think this will be a problem. I’m willing to bet my tap water is as soft if not softer and I keep Cardina and Neocardina in my tank and they both breed. I’ll post a photo tomorrow. I top off with rainwater (your dad’s recommendation) but water changes are tap water.

Hi all, quick update. Overall the tank is up and running well and all the plants so far have survived. Some doing better than others! I’ve got algae issues and this seemed to have correlated with either a water change that may well have had a lot of silicate in the tap water (I live in an area...

You are braver than me. I know my limits, I've spent the last fifty odd years failing to learn French. I scraped a pass in O Level mathematics in 1978 - or thereabouts - and even physics! But I didn't study/sit chemistry, did get biology, but enjoyed art history more. Seriously, I find a...

Thank you, Darrel, for your opinion, Java Ferns was in a closed bin bag for 2 days, so it might be it. I am more worried for bucephalandra. My water is from RO because in the building where I am living, they are adding salts to remove hardness, but it is not ok for an aquarium, so I have to do...

1 litre of TNC Complete is £16.50 on Amazon, used at their recommended dosage, 1ml/10 litres (I have heard some folks double or even triple dose, depending on plant mass) will last 40 weeks, so not too expensive. Are these your new additions? If so, they will have been grown emersed and...

Hi all, The damage to the Java Ferns (Microsorum pteropus) looks like drying damage, either from drying out during the tank move? or being "burned" by an <"oxidising agent"> like hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), <"sodium hypochlorite bleach or glutaraldehyde">? That could also account for the white...

Thanks, I went and got 25litres of RO today to start slowly changing the water parameters. I just did a top up today with it and the TDS started to drop slightly, shrimp who are left are grazing and looking ok, nice and bright, as far as I can tell, but you know.... I'll start small water...

The tap water conditioner I use says it “detoxifies” heavy metals. How it does that and to what extent, I have no idea.

I had some difficulty with tap water at my location. It started fluctuating between a a few hundred and several hundred TDS from the tap. I ended up swapping to remineralised RO because I wanted really stable parameters for shrimp. It’s a bit of a faff but I fill four 20 liter camping water...

Doesn't it? Seems odd to climb quite so high and so suddenly. Ive been using tap water thats been dechlorinated and left for days but I will start topping off and doing small changes with RO or something. Definitely keeping a beady eye on the measurements now, I just need to be mindful of...

Hi all, Not sure whether this belongs here or in the ferts forum so feel free to move/ask me to re-post if necessary. For context, I’m in the process of rehabilitating my tank after several years of neglect (journal here). Despite having had several tanks with plants over the years I have...

Hi all, Just want to get your thoughts as I have a spate of deaths in my tank after feeding my fish baby brine shrimp (BBS) I've recently introduced 6 pygmy cories into my tank. Two days ago I fed them some baby brine shrimp. Today I found two of them dead with signs of bloat. Strangely all...

Thank you for your reply it's much appreciated, I keep the tank well fertilsed and use root tabs for the swords and they seem to be growing well. Will TNC complete contain enough Iron or should I be adding that separately? I have only really been using the easy carbo to help with algae forming...

Your tank currently looks very attractive. I would think your water is in reality very hard, I used to live down the road from Canterbury. The the Amazon swords will using biogenic calcification to get CO2 so regular water changes will be very helpful to supply CO2 indirectly, to stop your...

I find you can cut all the bigger leaves off, trim the long root/rhizome back to make it manageable and push gently into sand, I use a cheap Streptocarpus fertiliser tablet 7-10-25 NPK buried as deep as I can go close to the plant, and find, about 3 months later, you have a pretty good set of...

Day 18 12th w.c. done. A big one today - 40-50%. Nitrate testing 50-100ppm post water change. I really struggle to tell the difference between the reds, but the 1/5 test was a solid dark orange, about 20ppm. Tap water is testing at 10ppm. Replanted most of the surviving crypts. I think I’ll get...

Hi all, Granite, and similar quartz rich igneous rocks <"Igneous">, won't change your water chemistry - <"Aquarium sand and diatoms...">. The easiest way to tell is just by shape. Basically any rock that is a <"rounded pebble or cobble"> won't, only old, really hard rock, forms water <"rounded...

Hi all, Iron (Fe) deficiency is one we see quite frequently, probably because it is one of the few nutrient deficiencies that is easy to diagnose. It does, a map here: <"Some handy facts about water">. It is: <"Consistency Deficiency">, using this product...

As others have said, it is an indicator plant, so quick to tell you something is amiss, your location is UK, a county or city helps because folks here will often know your water hardness. If using tap water hard water presents one major challenge, lack of accessible Iron. 20 ppm of Nitrate...

Yes I realised that and my tap water is very hard, as it is in London where I kept fish for many years. I currently soften my water, cutting it with rain water when available - an issue in the summer - and DI water from the tumble drier - which doesn't get much use in the summer. I take my KH...

Thanks Paul, that's nice of you to say :) Yes, my two old anubias have been reduced to rhizome and (very) green roots. I've not yet diagnosed what knocked them back, the old light should have been sufficient but I did neglect to clean algae off the leaves so perhaps they just weren't able to...

I'm transitioning my tank to 'hopefully' keep neo's and chili rasboras but finding it quite difficult to find definitive parameters. Some websites give wild ranges like 14C to 30C. I've done my best to create a table below with the parameters I 'think' are correct. the midpoint column is where I...

Alrighty, it holds water. But it doesn't hold 70L of water. I filled 56L with a centimetre or so gap at the top. Mkay. Stand built, and it juuuust fits next to my first tank for now. I'm going for a peninsula-style setup because the location I'd finally like for this tank means it will be...

Hi all, There will be, but it is a very low value, the parameter that is important is that iron (Fe) is plant available as ions - Fe++(+). Yes and no, if you have phosphate (PO4---) and iron (Fe++(+)) ions in solution they will form <"iron phosphate and precipitate out of solution">. At this...

Thanks, yea water parameters will fluctuate and where I live water PH is 7.5 approximately, not sure if its a good or bad start. I have also heard about a Dark start method, considering that option too. What do you mean by "... it will eventually stop "working" (messing) after a few months".

Don't forget that aquasoil messes with your water parameters. It will lower you KH and GH, and pH incidentally. If your tap water is hard, it will eventually stop "working" (messing) after a few months (depending on how hard your water is).

1. Size of tank. 2. Age of the system approximately. 3. Tap water parameters. 4. Filtration and Media. 5. Lighting and duration. 6. Substrate. 7. Co2 dosing or Non-dosing. 8. Drop Checker. 9. Fertilizers used + Ratios. 10. Water change regime and composition. 11. Plant list + Invitro/Emersed...

documenting my progress to keep myself accountable Tank: 266 litre Rena, 120x40x60cm (ext.) Occupants: synodontis ocellifer (George) synodontis nigrita (Talbot), synodontis petricola or lucipinnis (2), Congo tetra (3m 2f) Day 5475(ish)/Day 7 - The Story So Far The tank has been looking very...

pH is just really difficult to measure accurately even with high-tech expensive kit. Just for some perspective when I drop my Cambrigeshire tap water pH from 8.3 to about 6.5 (inferred from alkalinity measurements) I do it by adding a pretty good slug of reasonably concentrated hydrochloric...

my kh reading is 1 from my tank

My ph readings are 6 for ro water. 6.5-7 for my mix, are they not correct?

Try measuring alkalinity (KH). That is much easier to measure reliably than pH and there is a direct relationship between the two. If your pH really is 3, then a small drop of bromothymol blue (one of the typical reagents used to measure KH) added to a small amount of your tank water will...

Yes I do but that has nothing to do as to why my ph is dropping, Plus I use ro water mix with tw. to mineralise as I need soft water.

Hi all, @john6 I think you should get similar tap water to @bazz ? Mixture of limestone aquifer water and abstracted from the river Trent? cheers Darrel

Assuming pH meter is working correct. Its very unlikely. Esp since you have RO/tap water blended as already mention. As the cure would be add some kH ie tapwater. Take glass of RO and tapwater wait 30 mins and take there pHs would be my first step

Yep, just put it all in at the same time. That’s my approach. Unless you are growing very specific or sensitive plants, everything will just adapt. It will take time for culture grown plants to adapt to underwater life and you may as well just get started. Nope. ‘Cycling’ is for the benefit of...

I've spent many hours reading the very informative threads and comments by Darrel, Dr Tim, the planetcatfish threads and others. It seems that how/if people choose to cycle their tanks can be somewhat controversial, and unfortunately, it was all a bit overwhelming and I have been left more...

My tank is new so is the live stock, they are all healthy. But I am new to shrimp, I have cherry shrimp and Amano Shrimp. While doing my research I read that these shrimp shed their shell and new shell starts developing in their body. For which they need constant source of calcium. But if it's...

When you wash your hands with real soap from your tap water that has not been softened, do you get froth/lather or scum. The latter will indicate hard water and former soft water. Calcium and magnesium are seldom added to aquarium ferts, the assumption is that they will be in your tap water...

Hi all, What do the <"snail shells"> look like? I use <"their appearance"> as an indication of when I need to add a <"bit more tap water">. With shrimps it depends on the species Cherry Shrimps like harder water and Bee Shrimps softer water. It won't, none of the fertilisers will, mainly...

Hi much appreciated developers and supporters of this nice spreadsheet! I've come accross a situation and I think it's need a little rework or I'm totally lost at what I should fill in. What I did: downloaded version v1.3.1 went to tab TankAndDosing entered the following details in the screen...

Thank you. I now know my answer. I often fear that too much light will increase chance of algae grow but i guess it stalls plants growth too. I'll increase lighting and co2, and introduce more cleaning fish and shrimps. In Hanoi tap water is about 7.5 pH and 3 - 5 kH depends on regions too.

Hi all, hope you're well. This tank is my second "aquascape", if you can call it that, and a bit of a diversion from my lovingly designed 100L riverbank paludarium. (first journal here, if you're interested!). This tank is intended to be completely taken down very quickly with minimal fuss...

Thanks for this analysis, great stuff!

OK, so: Natural tap water = 280ppm Amended tap water = 303ppm Current tank water = 429ppm Every week you are adding an additional (303-280) = 23 ppm TDS to the tank. With 10% water changes you are only removing 2.3ppm of this addition every week. If no minerals or ferts were consumed by...

Thank you that's very helpful I just tested it and it's around 280

25% water change per week sounds good. The quarter dose of ferts is a good idea too, but after a few weeks when the TDS of the tank has lowered you may have to up this a bit, depending on how the plants react, if there are any deficiencies etc. For example the iron tends to precipitate out of...

A brief summary: Due to the excessive addition of Mg, the Ca : Mg ratio has shifted in favour of Mg. A favourable Ca : Mg ratio is 4:1 to 2:1. Now I would first do a 25% water change without Mg. Then measure the TDS. One day later, do another 25% water change without Mg and measure the TDS...

Ok, thanks for the advice. Would I need to do the same with the TNC Iron and the TNC Complete as well? Substrate is Unipac fine silver sand. Hardscape is driftwood and what I believe are river stones? I bought them from the lfs and I explicitly asked for stones that would not alter the water...

OK another update as I've done a TDS reading. TDS of tank is 429. This seems high to me. TDS of tap water with proportionate amount of weekly ferts/dechlorinator added is 303. Is a large water change in order? E2A: Could high TDS be due to the recent changes I've made after the shrimp...

I tested the KH and GH from the tank I took the seed media off. It has a gh of 8 and kh of less than 1 My plan is to drain tank by 95% - refill with our less than 1dkh tap water, and then re-seed the filter with some donor filter media and just (try and) leave it Sent from my iPhone using...

Hi all, edit what @bazz says, but I've written this so I'll post it. You can get water parameters from your water supplier, usually you just go to their web site and put your <"postcode in">. This map might also help <"Some handy facts about water">. They will be cr*p, but that is just...

Thanks for the info; I plan to get a reading and water change done this weekend

Difficult to know for sure what it consists of, so cannot really advise one way or the other, their website is a bit sparse for information. How big is your tank/water change, and what are the parameters of your tap water? Calcium Sulphate and/or Calcium Chloride, Magnesium Sulphate and...

A +1 to the TDS meter. In my opinion, others may disagree, I think they can be very useful tools to understand how the quantity of 'stuff' is building up in your water. For example, I have water from my tap with a TDS of 200 to 280. Can be higher with ferts and de-chlorinator in too. If I...

They are handy to have around for tracking the TDS of the tank over time, and even the ultra cheap ones seem reasonably accurate. In your case I would compare the TDS of the tank water against a sample of your tap water with added ferts in your normal ratio. If the tank water has significantly...

The note about chlorinated tap water and the potential need for more frequent carbon filter changes is a great tip—especially since, as you mentioned, TDS spikes won’t always reveal that issue. And the point about chloramine removal limitations in many 4-stage systems is definitely worth...

Hi all, So the additional ppm TDS value, above the tap water value, are ions etc. from fertilisers etc. The tap water value just tells you that you have hard, alkaline tap water <"GH,KH, water report and Chatgpt">. Have a look at <"Some handy facts about water"> A "dissolved solid" is a...

Hi all, I think, for most of us, the chances of not fulfilling a plants sodium (Na) requirement (if it has one) are really, really low. Anyone who has hard, alkaline tap water will be supplying ~20 - 30 (ppm) mg / l via that source. cheers Darrel

Hi all, 5-7 ppm CO2 in water diffusing into air would indeed mean 4000 ppm, which matches my calculation sheet, below in 'set 5'. 4000 ppm is roughly 10x more than ambient CO2 and outside any healthy range... Please note: 1. Diffusion takes time, which can be speed up by lots of (surface) flow...

Hi all, All sorts of things will be happening, we are in <"unknown unknowns"> territory, but I don't see <"that as a bad thing">. Have a look at Stephan Tanner's article (linked below). That tells you that you have plenty of nutrients. It is one advantage of the <"Duckweed Index">, you don't...

Thanks guys, very informative!

Good question, someone with a more scientific background than my good self should be able to say categorically, but in hard water as in an alkaline garden sequestered iron is important - when I use a fertiliser for water column fertilisation it normally has 0.2 which is a lot more than 0.08 (my...

Sounds sensible. I am going to do the same :) Good luck Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks all, I feel a lot more confident with all of your answers now. I’m doing 50% water changes each day to rid of the ammonia that I put in and just letting plants grow. I’ll wait until I want to add livestock but with my tap water caridina look a lot better so I’ll look at buffering the GH...

Hiya I'm not sure of the species but they were simply labelled "Amazon sword" so I do believe they are Echinodorus grisebachii. I've not grown these before but I have heard of their potential to grow to massive sizes. I'm thinking that being limited to a little cup will keep them somewhat...

Interesting idea, what species? I haven't used Amazon swords in last 30 years, because, when I did - Echinodorus grisebahii, the classic large commonly sold sword - even without CO2 in London tap water, under good illumination, 3 T8 fluorescent tubes, showing my age again, on a three foot tank...

I mean the tank looks good. Plenty of places to hide and no predators. What was the reasoning behind having a sponge filter? I think having some flow helps imo. You seem to be doing everything right. Have you added any new blood into the shrimp line? Its worth mixing and matching sometimes...

Lots of folks here aren't that keen on testing, and actually, for very good reasons. However, if you want to get a grip on the water chemistry, and I'm no chemist, I've a few 'sort of' faux pas here to prove it, I've found the API reagent drop, test tube tests, pretty 'believable'. Some dip...

Hey! I was just about to start a thread on a very similar theme, so perhaps this is useful to people here, instead of another post on the same subject I am in the middle of cycling my tank via a dark start method. Our tap water has a very low PH, about 6.4, both GH and KH are less than 1...

Hi there, I live in North London so the water is quite hard. I've attached the Water Quality Report. It says my total hardness as CaCO3 is a mean value of 265 mg/l. E2A: The Alkalinity as CaCO3 is a mean value of 201 mg/l.

We need to know your water KH and GH parameters. If you're using tap water these should be available in a report from your water company. There are some requirements for cherry shrimp both in terms of KH (alkalinity, relates to pH) and to GH (particularly calcium). I don't see that you have a...

I'd be jumping for joy, which at my age is probably not advisable, but then with tap water like that, a nice restorative cup of not too strong black tea is a wonderful colour and taste. I think I would also be filling black tubs to have a go at breeding a huge range of tetras and catfish, the...

Hi all, Welcome to UKAPS. Pretty much. The reason is that it is very easy <"to add compounds to water">, but very difficult to remove them. Just <"plant it and wait">, once the plants have grown in it is "cycled". Have a look at <"Using Amano Shrimps to get rid of Bio Slug Wood Snot">. Yes...

Tap water to die for. Another option for you is to add approximately 1.25g CaSO4 and1g MgSO4 to 15l (50%) of water change water giving you 4 dGH. 0.3g KHCO3 will give you an increase of 0.5 dKH (or thereabouts) on top of your very low tap water KH, all of which is pretty much ideal for Caridina...

Hi guys, This is my first post here, I’m relatively new to the hobby, I’ve had a 30 liter nano tank with shrimp in the past. I’m trying to do a fishless cycle. I added 2ppm ammonia 7 days ago and it hasn’t gone down yet, after some research I think I worked out why.. My tap water parameters...

Its interesting that only some of the plants were affected. However. I wont be doing the cold water thing again. Proper dim moment.

Hi mate I reckon cold tap water. Contrary to most hobbyists' perception Bucephalandra is very sensitive to changes in water temperature and all sorts of additives!

I bleach dipped my collection of buce as I was suffering from Cladophora algea. I used a 1 in 20 concentration for 1 to 2 mins, followed by rigorous washing and a huge overdose of tap safe (dechlorinator) whilst left in a jug. Some plants (1 in 5 batches) have subsequently melted and I wanted...

I can't disagree. As I said, I wouldn't dream of using it. Apart from fertiliser, food and CO2 I add nothing to my tanks, I don't even use white spot treatments any longer, I find UV works a treat. Thanks for the very sensible additional observation. I add dechlorinator to tap water, when I...

Yep I wouldn't dream of pouring it into my aquarium no matter how dilute. So we basically agree. Andy I am not a scientist, and certainly not a chemist, that I concede right away. But honestly I wouldn't think about using it if livestock is present or some species of plants, glutaraldehyde is...