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Water chemistry

Sin in Style

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
12
Made this account in 2005 looking for info on Apisto breeding. Since then I have moved and water parameters are wonky so I was hoping to get experienced suggestions.
PH 6.5 out of tap - 7.6 after gassing off 24hrs.
GH 0
KH 2
My LFS is PH 7.4 with GH 4 and KH 4

With that said I had issues acclimating fish from anyone online and LFS even with dripping. So I have resorted to using dry ferts/chemicals to raise my GH and KH. I keep planted tanks so I had them anyway. After using them for close to a year now I find it a serious pain to do with them every week. I went from squirting a premix into a 75G every 3-4 weeks for a planted tank to dosing a water change bucket twice a week using a food scale and measuring 2 powders.

CaSO4.2H2O - 9.76 grams
MgSO4.7H2O - 7.68 grams

results in GH 4 / KH 2 / PH 7.6

So I want to setup more tanks, a lot more tanks, with a lot more apistos, Is it possible to do this without the boosters? Is it possible to make it easier?

Appreciate the time everyone, so glad this forum is still around in 2020 :)
 

dw1305

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Messages
2,755
Location
Wiltshire UK
Hi all,
PH 6.5 out of tap - 7.6 after gassing off 24hrs.
GH 0
KH 2
.............So I want to setup more tanks, a lot more tanks, with a lot more apistos, Is it possible to do this without the boosters? Is it possible to make it easier? :)
You should be able to keep the more black-water species in your tap water, you can reduce the pH with Alder "cones" (Alnus glutinosa) or Indian Almond Leaves (Terminalia catappa). I like some "structural leaf litter" in the tanks.

If you want to raise the dGH your "dry salt" method is probably about as good as you can get. You don't need to be accurate with the measurement, to the nearest 1/2 gram is fine so anywhere around 8 g for the "Epsom Salts".

I don't normally worry too much about dKH/dGH, I use a conductivity meter to give me a conductivity datum, I keep the water in the range 80 - 150 microS. The 80 microS figure is just what the rain-water reads normally, because it is all limestone here and even the rain-water has some buffering.

cheers Darrel
 

Sin in Style

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
12
appreciate the info. Guess i'll just keep doing what i'm doing.
never thought of using a conductivity meter on fresh, always thought that was a salt water thing.
 

dw1305

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Messages
2,755
Location
Wiltshire UK
Hi all,
appreciate the info. Guess i'll just keep doing what i'm doing. never thought of using a conductivity meter on fresh, always thought that was a salt water thing.
You need a <"low range"> meter <"for freshwater">, sea water is about 53 milliS (53,000 microS).

Have a look at this thread on the <"UKAPS forum">. If you want to raise the dKH, you can use potassium bicarbonate (KHCO3). The potassium ion (K+) will be mopped up by your plants, whereas a sodium ion (Na+) wouldn't.

Adding 1.8g KHCO3 to 25 litres of water raises it by 2 dKH.

cheers Darrel
 
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