View Full Version : What the heck do I do with KH 12 water?
Starry
05-14-2003, 8:38 PM
I hate Waterloo!!!!!!!!! The water comes out of the tap at KH 12. After about a week and a half without a water change, it goes to about 9 or 10. pH around 7.6-8.0, depending on whether I'm having a good day, and depending on what colour my eyes are seeing. So, I made up my trusty Jell-O CO2, with 1/2 tsp yeast. It's going nuts, little steam of bubbles, as if I had a bubble wand in there. This would normally cause me to increase the surface agitation to increase the pH a bit, but now I'm not even budging below 7.6.
Anyone have any suggestions? Normally I keep CO2 around 25 ppm, but now I'm barely at 10. The algae is really having a blast, and the plants are not. I jsut added a new diffuser actually, a bell-type contraption with a sponge top, but I doubt it if will work well. The CO2 just collects in a huge pocket.
In the Big Al's catalogue I saw some peat plates. Can I just bury these under the flourite and have the plants root in them? Kind of like a portable foreground. Would they disintegrate? I actually only need temporary softening, for, say, four months. Then I'm back in Brampton. (for the record, moving sucks!)
I'm using a sponge filter, so I can't think of a way to add peat to that. Anything else I can do? I'm desperate.
morleyz
05-14-2003, 10:33 PM
Since it's only for a few months, just buy some RO water and mix it with your tap water to get your desired KH. Shouldn't be too costly, and would certainly be effective.
Starry
05-15-2003, 6:34 AM
I considered that before, I don't know why I forgot. But the good news is, this morning pH=7.0, kH=11-12. So that gives me CO2 around 35 ppm (eeeeek). Good stuff :) My new contraption is more effective than I thought!
What about adding a tea bag to your filter. Just make sure to get something without additives like a plain greentea tea bag. That would help make the water a bit more acidic and would be a cheap alternative until you get a better water source. Plus the tannins help the plants as a bonus. Well mine like it anyway.
Amazing what a reactor will do for absorption isn't it??!!
BTW, I would stay away from peat IN the tank. Gets messy when you try to move planted plants, cause it breaks down over time, into little, teeny pieces. Not to mention the tea like hue that your tank will take on til you get rid of the tannins. Back in the day I used it to condition water for Discus, but I would put it into a nylon bag and put it into a HOB filter. Worked great, but alas the **** tannins would darken it up.
And Starry, I figured out why you REALLY move so much......it's harder to hit a moving target, eh??!!!???!!!!
:rolleyes:
Len
fishlips
05-15-2003, 4:45 PM
What about rain water? Ours is acidic.
Starry
05-15-2003, 8:30 PM
len - Thanks for the peat info. I've never really looked into it before. I think I'll be OK now, 35 ppm is good enough
fishlips - I never considered rain water, but I'm sure it's quite acidic here too. Good thing I won't have to resort to that. Thanks
Starry, crappy water?
Stouffvilles water, out of the tap: KH - 15, GH - 17, pH - 8.2
Not bad if your raising cichlids, pretty hard for raising plants. Oh well, one more week and your home :)
Faramir
05-16-2003, 8:36 AM
Originally posted by Matak
Starry, crappy water?
Stouffvilles water, out of the tap: KH - 15, GH - 17, pH - 8.2
Not bad if your raising cichlids, pretty hard for raising plants. Oh well, one more week and your home :)
The only real problem with hard water is getting enough CO2 to dissolve in it.
Starry
05-16-2003, 5:17 PM
Originally posted by Matak
Starry, crappy water?
Stouffvilles water, out of the tap: KH - 15, GH - 17, pH - 8.2
Not bad if your raising cichlids, pretty hard for raising plants. Oh well, one more week and your home :)
Try again. I've been here two weeks, not moving back till august. Just one of the perks of being in a co-op program, I get to study all through summer :)
So what do you do about CO2?
My water is softened so my KH is 15, GH is 0 - 1 and pH is about 7.4 after CO2. Can you get your hands on some softened water? Then again, lugging around kilolitres of water every week is not an attractive proposition.
Blow the wad on compressed CO2 and crank it up? Once you layed down the big bucks for the initial set-up, the rest is fairly cheap. C'mon Starry, you know you've always thought about going compressed. :D
Starry
05-21-2003, 7:26 PM
I think you missed the important key point that I'm a STUDENT. Considering I live on my own as well, it's hard enough to make ends meet without spending $$ on compressed CO2. Besides, my landlord might evict me :) The seond reason - I would be the laughing stock of AC for going pressurized on a 10-gal. And third - my CO2 is great now, thank you very much :)
I was gone over the long weekend and I can already tell that things are looking up. I even have a tiny white root on my beloved Barclaya that's supposedly in a coma :)
Originally posted by Matak
My water is softened so my KH is 15, GH is 0 - 1 and pH is about 7.4 after CO2. Can you get your hands on some softened water? Then again, lugging around kilolitres of water every week is not an attractive proposition.
Blow the wad on compressed CO2 and crank it up? Once you layed down the big bucks for the initial set-up, the rest is fairly cheap. C'mon Starry, you know you've always thought about going compressed. :D
Starry, there's no reason for you to go pressurized with a 10 gallon tank. How far are you away from your old place? The water there was softer, right? Can't you import some of that water, say 5 gallons a week? That would be a 50% water change in that little tank and would aid in your parameters, at least until your next move. Or am I missing something here?
Or couldn't you add an extra bottle of CO2 and see how it affects your numbers? Never thought I'd be suggesting 2 bottles for a 10 gal. tank.
Len
ChilDawg
05-21-2003, 7:52 PM
Originally posted by Starry
I hate Waterloo!!!!!!!!!
Isn't that what Napoleon said?
There are a lot of things that you can do with water that is so full of Carbonates...but I see that you are trying to make do until you move back, so converting a whole bunch of tanks isn't worth it...still, there could be some really nice Tanganyikan tanks with some Val and Java Moss in it for you...
Sorry Starry, I missed the ten gallon part.
Starry
05-22-2003, 9:11 PM
Wow, did I write in invisible letters or something? It's great to see the outpouring of support and suggestions, but
my CO2 is fine, great, awesome, perfect now!
thanks to my new diffusing contraption :)
ChilDawg
05-22-2003, 9:15 PM
Awww...but it's a problem for us to solve, and you took it away from us! :(
Glad to read that the CO2 is fine...I better read the whole entire thread next time, I guess!
wetmanNY
05-22-2003, 11:29 PM
If you run an airhose in your water for 24 hours before using it, you may find the atmospheric CO2 has diffused into your CO2-depleted tapwater, and that the pH has dropped and stabilized. (Your Waterloo water company apparently "shocks" the water with slaked lime, what the reefkeepers call "kalkwasser.")
Then you can use it in the tank with less struggle, no? As it is, your limed tapwater is just sucking up all the CO2 your diffuser can produce...
Starry
05-24-2003, 8:13 PM
Originally posted by wetmanNY
If you run an airhose in your water for 24 hours before using it, you may find the atmospheric CO2 has diffused into your CO2-depleted tapwater, and that the pH has dropped and stabilized. (Your Waterloo water company apparently "shocks" the water with slaked lime, what the reefkeepers call "kalkwasser.")
Then you can use it in the tank with less struggle, no? As it is, your limed tapwater is just sucking up all the CO2 your diffuser can produce...
Well, I haven't done a water change in about a week and a half, and my pH is about 7.4, KH 12. It's constantly aerated, because I'm using a sponge filter. And this is with my new CO2 diffuser. I really doubt if it would go lower than this without added CO2. The lowest I got it before was around 7.8 or so. I have to fix up the diffuser a bit now. It's a bell-shaped one with a sponge top, but it's not really attached to anything so it floats onto its side and a lot of the CO2 just rolls out. I have to put a suction cup on it when I get around to it, then I'll be set. Even as it is, the plants have been growing like mad, which isn't necessarily good because then I have to find the time to trim :) Well, thanks for the suggestions guys.