Good evening guys an girls, new here so be kind pls ... I have a fluval shaker tank 168l running the stock aquasky 2 and also a new fluval plant 3.0 using co2 system with good visual from drop checker. My water is on the hard side GH 4 drops KH 19 drops .. PH is about 6.5 ... I need some help on softening my water and best set ups for the lights ... they are both running at 45% for about 8 hours a day but have noticed some of my plants ( limnophila ) have closed up b4 the lights have gone off and I'm getting a bit of algea and also the plants are going a little brown on the top ... should I raise the intensity for a lower amount of hours ?
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Fluval 3.0
- Thread starter Andy124
- Start date
Hi @Andy124
The above figures suggest to me that something is amiss. Which GH and KH test kit are you using? Is it the API? And, what about your source of water? Is it tap water, rainwater or what? Are you using a water conditioner such as Seachem Prime? And, finally, how are you measuring pH?
JPC
It's the api test kit yes ... and it's tap water an yes using prime for my changes ... measuring pH with my master kit
I do have water butt's in my garden... is that OK to use straight from the water butt ?
Damm... strange indeed. With such a high KH your PH should be higher. Did you measure that at full throttle CO2 injection peak?
Also is that the KH measured directly from your tap water or after you added the water in your tank. It's good to know the baseline parameter of the source water before you add it to tank.
There is basically 3 ways to reduce that KH:
1. cut it with rain/RO water;
2. only use RO water;
3. use acid, actual acid (not the ones you put under the tongue 🤓)
Depending what you are looking for I would go for #1 or #2. Number 3 is a no go considering you are new to all this.
Having such a high KH will bring you lots of trouble growing certain plants. It all depends what you envision your tank to be and what you want to grow. Also, no matter what you target as KH value, it is important to keep that parameter stable. You don't want it to fluctuate so take the right decisions from the beginning.
Picture please as it will make it easier to assess the issue. If that setup is new and you are seing some brownish stuff on the plants and glass, that is most certainly diatoms. They will disappear as the tank matures. But again this is a shot in the dark without pictures.
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Of course i've being doing it for years, i do add 10% tap water to it though to up the nitrate level in a preventative measure against blue green algea
definitely, used it before I upgraded my tank with great results. It’s a good option if you don’t have a massive tank.
MirandaB
Member
Regarding the plants closing before lights out,is the tank anywhere near a window?
I have a tank on a windowsill and the majority of the plants will follow their circadian rhythm if they're exposed to natural light regardless of the artificial light
I have a tank on a windowsill and the majority of the plants will follow their circadian rhythm if they're exposed to natural light regardless of the artificial light
Hi @Andy124
I suggest that you take a look at the published water parameter figures from your Water Company, whoever that may be? It's possibly worth pointing out that their responsibility is to supply safe drinking water, not water for aquariums. Having said that, they do provide a lot of information (on their website) that is very helpful. Try to find figures for Alkalinity and Total Hardness and let us know what these figures are. Alternatively, you could just use rainwater to which you possibly add a remineralizer and a water conditioner such as Seachem Prime. Using rainwater as your source, you can avoid using tap water. Rainwater is very much the starting point used by @dw1305. So, I would advise that you run this suggestion past him before putting it into practice. With unusual KH and GH figures for your tap water, rainwater may be your best option.
JPC
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