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Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

Hi,

John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.

I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.

With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.

I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.

If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.

I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.

I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.

Thank you
Darragh Sherwin

KH, GH and PH - A Question

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07 Jul 2008 15:18 #1 by AndyT (Andy Taylor)
I've tested the water from the tap in my soon-to-be new address in Galway in advance of moving my tank and stock there.

I got:

KH: 3
GH: 10

PH: 7.2

Test kit was the Tetratest 5 in 1 strips so it may not be 100% spot-on.

Ideally, I would like to get the PH down to 6.6 or 6.5 as all my fish and plants are soft-water loving and are in soft-water at the moment.
I will be injecting CO2 @ 30ppm. The substrate will be ADA Amazonia II, heavily planted. Hardscape in bogwood.

Now I know that the Aquasoil will soften the water but I don't know how much.
What would you expect in terms of PH drop in this set-up?
Do I risk a PH crash if I don't buffer to raise the KH?
Is a GH of 10 too high for soft water plants to thrive?

Thanks,

Andy

170L Bowfront Community Tank : Heavily planted : CO2 : T5 lighting

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07 Jul 2008 18:37 #2 by Peter OB (Peter O'Brien)
You will definitely need to get the KH up if you intend on injecting C02 into the tank, it has the potential to crash as it is.

Not sure if the GH will have any effect on the plants, i'm sure someone else can advise on this.

Smoke me a Kipper, I’ll be back for breakfast.

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07 Jul 2008 19:14 #3 by adamireland (Adam Jackson)
IMO the only way your going to find out how your system is going to work is to set it up..

over the period of the tank cycling and bedding in you will soon find out what the tank is going to level off at..

if you find its dropping the ph too low you could run water over crushed coral shells. and increase or decrease to what you want.

a KH of 3 will give you enough of a buffer to stabalize your water.

a TDS meter would be a good thing to buy..

how long do you have between setup and plopping your fish in? and what kind of fish are they?

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07 Jul 2008 19:52 #4 by AndyT (Andy Taylor)
adamireland wrote:

IMO the only way your going to find out how your system is going to work is to set it up..

over the period of the tank cycling and bedding in you will soon find out what the tank is going to level off at..

if you find its dropping the ph too low you could run water over crushed coral shells. and increase or decrease to what you want.

a KH of 3 will give you enough of a buffer to stabalize your water.

a TDS meter would be a good thing to buy..

how long do you have between setup and plopping your fish in? and what kind of fish are they?


Good advice, Adam. I appreciate that it's all theoretical until the tank is cycled. My feeling is that it'll even out ok, with the amount of bogwood that i'll be using and the Aquasoil, I should be covered for water softness.
I've never had to deal with low KH so i'm unsure about that.

If I can get the tank set-up and filled this weekend, I'll have 3 weeks of cycling until the fish have to go in.

Any recommendations for a TDS meter? Can they be bought locally?

170L Bowfront Community Tank : Heavily planted : CO2 : T5 lighting

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07 Jul 2008 20:11 #5 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)
The aquasoil will lower the ph and running Co2 at 30ppm will drop the ph from 7.2 - 6.2.
At the moment the tap water here is ph7.8 and in my planted tank with Aquasoil Amazonian and Co2 roughly 30ppm the ph in the tank is 6.1. So i dont think you will have any trouble with the soft water.
My kh from the tap is 0-1dh. I try to buffer this to 2dh to avoid any crashes. I would prefer to have it at 4dh but trying to get the ph below 7 and add some kh is tricky. You should have no worries with a kh-3.

I have never seen a TDS meter sold locally. I'm sure one of the shops can get one in for you. I use one by Hanna with no problems in 3 years.

Darren.

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07 Jul 2008 20:20 #6 by russell (russell)
Replied by russell (russell) on topic Re:KH, GH and PH - A Question
Hi Andy,
Trial and error is the only way. there are so many permiables.
Kh-Gh-Ph-Water temp. remember that water movement is required. once the surface is broken you drive off the Co2!!!. High temp depletes oxygen!!!, and so the circle goes on, it's a delicate balancing act. Dosing Co2 is o.k providing you don't bring it down to low. leave enough room for error!!! Ph can crash with an inbalance of any of the above.
I have my R.O rigged with a split tap that allows me to add a minute ammount of Pre Membrane water that mixes with the R.O and for the past 9 months has given me a Ph of 6.5 I do not use Co2. perhaps I am lucky. But please go ahead and set it all up let it run for a few months with no stock and only change 1 peram at a time and let it settle for a few days before making another change.

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07 Jul 2008 21:22 #7 by adamireland (Adam Jackson)
there are plenty of shops online that sell them.. about 30-40 euros

i managed to convince the company i bought my ro unit off to sell me his and hasnt got a name on it..

so much easier to monitor :)

sounds like you will be fine.. just monitor it closely when your fish go in.. because your PH will be below 7 any ammonia you get in your tank will be ammonium and bareable for your fish.. have some salt (no cakeing agents) on hand incase you get a nitrIte spike which will counter the effects and save your fish (1 tablespoon per 50L):)

good luck with the move..;)

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07 Jul 2008 21:29 #8 by AndyT (Andy Taylor)
Thanks all for the advice.

@ Russell, unfortunately, I don't have the luxury of time with this move. The new tank will need to be cycled, planted, stable and aquascaped over the next 3 weekends as I have to move and re-home my stock at the end of the month.
I'll just have to be as methodical as possible in anything I change and hope for the best.

I'm off TDS Meter shopping.

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07 Jul 2008 21:59 #9 by adamireland (Adam Jackson)
seachem stability.. include that in your shopping list.. :D

its been a life saver for me in the past..

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08 Jul 2008 00:56 #10 by sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie)
Hi Andy, an idea might be to use the water from water changes to fill up your new tank, its mature and stable plus bacterially sound, it might help with the maturation of your new tank i do this when i have on occassion moved tanks to great effect, anyway slow and easy does it, if all fails just use a lot of buckets an bring all your water with you from the existing tank and by using this and carefully monitoring your water changes as it matures in it new location you should be fine.. it is an emergency move measure though so be careful
Seamus

Fishkeeping the Only way to get wet and wild

currently 25 tanks, and breeding is the aim of everything i keep
location:Limerick

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