Ph balance and phosphates

Phosphates

What's a good source of Potassium?
I have "Kent Plant..." which has Potash K2O, is that what you mean by adding some potassium?
 
Right! "Potash" is potassium is K. Other common forms of potassium are potassium chloride (KCl) --as "Nu-Salt" or other salt substitutes-- or by the bag in the water softener section at Home Depot etc. Potassium sulfate (K2SO4). And potassium nitrate (KNO3), sold as a stump rotter.

One cation. A range of anions.
 
More about water and PHO4

Measured my water today

KH - 161 ppm
GH - 18 ppm

Too much messing around with buffers???

I always wondered why I fish like to swim belly up on the surface.

As far as I can tell water changes is my only option???
 
Start those water changes. And put all that phosphate water on your kitchen garden!

Tell us, what's your initial KH reading out of the tap? That's the baseline, isn't it? All the rest of the "KH" reading you're getting is actually from the phosphates in the pH buffer.
 
R/O Water

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Just a simple suggestion .... Use Kent's R/O Right with R/O water. Tap water is good also, but not sure of the amount. You need to add back some minerals to R/O water.

Driftwood and peat will bring down the pH..
 
I was going to say the same thing, Tom........use CO2, especially with a planted tank! The rest of the advice is good, though!
 
Beyond lowering PH - Lowering Phosphates

Well I've stopped trying to lower Ph and working on phosphates.
Currently I have the following water conditions:

Tap water that is used during water changes:
Ph = 7.4
Kh = 35.8 ppm
Gh = 71.6 ppm
PHO4 = 2.5

Tank conditions
Ph = 7.4
Kh = 143 ppm
Gh = 53.7
PHO4 > 5.0

I'm using phosguard to lower Phosphates and Kent Fresh water suppliment. I'll try this for a month and see if I can make progress. Any other ideas are appreciated.
 
Better read the ingredients in the Kent Freshwater Plant Supplement. Personally, i wouldn't be adding anything at this moment.

Your test results don't make complete sense to me. How would you explain these GH discrepencies between what comes out of the tap and what's in the tank? Don't bank on phosphate testing. But the phosphates get counted as part of the KH results.

You mention Phos-Gard. I suppose you are also doing water changes? 30 or 40% every few days, until PO4 levels are close to your tapwater levels.

What other conditioners are you using now?

When you say "lava rocks from Iowa" I wonder if you mean tufa? Tufa is a porous limestone. I can't think where you'd find lava rock in Iowa.
 
Conditioners

I've stopped any other conditioners.

The stone is not limestone, maybe they're from Ohio. Although my ancestors are from there, Ohio/Idaho is all the the same to me. (Sorry if I insulted anyone!)

I change 30%/40% each week now.
 
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