water chemistry

Hello guys, I need a bit of help. Just finished to test my aquarium water and those were the results: Ammonia 0 Phosphate 1 mg/l KH 200ppm GH 350ppm Nitrate 40-80 mg/l Iron 0 Now the questions.. 1) Can high GH be the cause of BBA? Also should I get worried for KH and GH being so high? 2)...

Hi all, I've had my 200 L tank that well planted with low fish stock (2 acaras, about 10 rummy nosed tetras and 2-3 black neons) for about 2 years now. I've got a 1400 L/hr all pond solutions external filter and a single T5 bulb running about 6-7 hours a day as the tank gets some direct...

hello all friends Friends, I want to make liquid gh booster. I have 20 liter buckets. They are waiting until the next water change. I want to make liquid gh booster and add it to these buckets. That's why I want to prevent calcium magnesium accumulation when I add it to the aquarium...

Fellow aquarians, please take a sec to to hear me out about my tank..

 Three weeks ago I cleaned out my office tank – Fluval Flex 57L – which was very neglected since the summer holidays. Heavy cyanobacteria all over the place, removed that all, took out the hardscape, cleaning the tank...

Hey everyone, I'm new to the UKAPS community and hoping you can help me :D (and looking forward to sharing my knowledge too). I've read endless articles/videos/threads so I'll do my best to answer any common questions in the description so you have as much info as possible. I'd really like to...

I got these rocks from my LFS, the owners said they are safe for aquarium and growing plants etc. However I didn't manage to ask for the name of the rock. Fast forward, I soaked the rocks in hot water for a few hours, and there were obvious red/orange dust/powder thing that came off. Then I...

Hi All I'm new to the forum and really excited to have joined! I'm a beginner (this is my second set up and my first was a bit of a catastrophe). I had some questions regarding water chemistry and RO water. I previously used tap but my source water is extremely hard (London) and is very high in...

Hi, I am completely rescaping my aquarium. Setup info: 1. Size of tank : 54 litres (60x30x30) 2. Age of the system approximately : Complete rescape of old system (running since a year) 3. Filtration: Fluval 106 external filter containing sponges and 1 tub section filled with bio media. 4...

Hi all, I have a 30L heavily planted nano with neons and shrimp. Some months ago I was battling BBA (daily liquid carbon, direct application of hydrogen peroxide, frequent water changes) but eventually saw a long term fix after changing from tap water to RO water bought from my LFS. I've now...

Hi im moving my shrimp to a 125l from a 27l and have been using an ro filter which was 25gpd I've now upgraded to 200gpd and wanted to check as I'm still new to using RO water it's reduces to 4 tds from 450 which I presume is fine as it's about 99% and waste is at 1:1.25 when I measured. Just...

Hi all, I'm trying to breed some cardinal tetras and to do so have a small 20 litre tank with a small sponge filter, heater set at 26c and 6 cardinals in. I believe to breed cardinals I need to get the ph to between 5.5-6.0. My tap water ph comes out at around 8.5 and is hard. To lower the ph...

Hi, I wondered if anyone here had tried to use some of the homemade spectrophotometers and https://spectralworkbench.org to measure nitrate or indeed other colourmetric assay rather than a test kit. I am thinking about it but its quite a big project so before I start I wondered what I might...

I've ran air-stones at lights out, I've ran them 24/7 with co2 cranked up to compensate. The battle for good oxygen levels without de-gassing co2 always seems to take place at the water surface which recently led me to an idea/experiment. What if I create "another" surface which I can aerate...

Dear members, What I have read in various forums so far is that high GH values isn't a big deal for most plants and they grow just fine. There seem to be a difference in opinion regarding high KH values. My first question is what's considered as a high KH level? Mine is 9 dH. Is it high or...

I have had a 4ft tank for 20 years. Freshwater tropical. Always failed miserably to maintain any sort of healthy environment. So, time to start again and do it right. I bought a new Juwel Vision 260. I use both the included Bioflow 6.0 filter system and an external JBL e700 filter. Currently...

Hi All Just a quick question regarding Lava Rock as hardscape. I've read in numerous places that lava rock acts as a great area for colonising denitrifying bacteria and thus will improve water quality. . Just wanted to ask you guys if (from your experience) you have found this to be true. The...

Hi guys, I currently have a 90 gallon tank. Water is 77 degrees Fahrenheit. My CO2 runs from 9AM-7PM at about 4-5BPS, my LED runs 10AM-3PM(15min fade out), and my 2x54T5HO run 2:40PM-8PM. I dose all flourish products: excel (every other day), potassium and iron (once a week), and flourish...

Got hold of some recently fallen Oak leaves to put in my shrimp tank and blackwater species instead of Almond leaves. Just wondering is there anything I need to do to them first before putting them in the tank and what's the best way to store them?

Hi all, I live down in Southampton and have stupidly hard water! I want to try and breed and raise discus and am struggling to get my parameters correct. I have a bare bottom 100l tank which I've setup with an air filter and air stone. I have put in some moss balls from another tank and there...

Hi all I have just joined the forums but have been browsing for a while and found them extremely informative. Three months ago I decided to take the plunge into planted aquariums with pressurised CO2. I have been gradually cycling the tank using a mature filter which is now removed and my...