gh and kh in fresh planted aquariums

[racerchick]

i need help. i have a ppm of 340.1 for kh and 17.9 ppm for gh. is this good or bad. i have a dwarf indian puffer and cardinal tetras and rummy noses and an algae eater? my ph is between 7.4 to 8.0 and phosphates of 1ppm and ammonia and nitrites and nitrates are perfect.


does any one have info to help me out?

 

[J double R]

that's a pretty high buffer, do you use CO2 in the tank at all? You can bring that kh down by adding peat moss to your filter.

 

[dundadundun]

gh seems low too to me.

what's perfect for ammo, trites and trates?
ph seems high but doable if necessary but lowering that kh will bring that back down.
what's "algae eater"? stock seems a little odd. i'm not sure they're compatible.
phosphates are fine, mine are usually ~4ppm or higher.

kh can be lowered with filtered or distilled water but gh will need amending at that point. it's probably good to do that at this point anyways.

 

[tanker]

Try not to mess too much withthe water. Your KH and GH is a little high, but do-able. This in turn is causing your high PH. If you really want to lower---either mix some RO water in during water changes (expensive), or use some peat, in the filter (better).

PS---Do not buy any of those PH down stuff from LFS--Because of you buffers (high KH) the PH down will not work very well.

 

[jpappy789]

That GH is pretty low actually. Might want to look into a premixed product such as Barr's.