Hi all,
You can ignore the pH of the tap water, it all comes from NaOH, and doesn't add any buffering (all the OH- ions are in solution). The leaf litter won't have much effect on pH, Oak or beech leaves are good, you don't need Terminalia leaves.
Whiptails won't make use of pleco caves they are too big, they really like open ended tubes (like Bamboo).
cheers Darrel
Yes, a filter bag is fine for the shell grit. It will depend on how much water you change as to how much your dKH varies, I change about 10% of the tank water a day on smaller tanks, on larger tanks (over 100 litres) you can change a smaller proportion of water.Thanks for the replies. So the message is I need to raise my kH to stop any pH swings.
To do this, I can get a big filter bag to hold all the crushed oyster shell I have (a decent handfull) in the filter, will this be sufficient to raise kH? Will it raise it slowly or quickly? What kH should I aim for? I guess I can always add more to raise it further.
How do I handle water changes? My tap water has a higher pH and no kH to it which is different to the tank water I'm aiming for, so is it a case of little and often? What is 'little', how many litres should I aim for given the size of my tank?
I have a couple of good sized pleco slate caves in the tank, is there any difference between these and the tubes as far as the fish are concerned?
What leaf litter should I get? Indian almond leaves? I've just been reading these can lower pH which I think I need to avoid. Leaf litter is new to me!
You can ignore the pH of the tap water, it all comes from NaOH, and doesn't add any buffering (all the OH- ions are in solution). The leaf litter won't have much effect on pH, Oak or beech leaves are good, you don't need Terminalia leaves.
Whiptails won't make use of pleco caves they are too big, they really like open ended tubes (like Bamboo).
cheers Darrel