Urgent: Please help: Buffering capacity question

S

SomethinFishy

AC Members
Dec 29, 2005
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SF Bay Area
Hey everybody

First of all, I love this board- have been cruising it extensively since last year and joined up last month. You guys have answered most of the questions I had. Y'all rock!!

Now to get to my question, all 5 of my aquariums have zero buffering capacity. pH is ~ 6.4 and total hardness is >250ppm; nitrite levels 0, nitrate ~0-20 (I use Mardel 5-in-1 strips currently and am planning to get a masterkit soon). How do I increase buffering capacity, and decrease the total hardness? All the aquariums except one have driftwood in them. Can I add shells etc. to them- or temporarily should I add baking soda?

The fish are all doing fine except the 2 blue rams & a rainbowfish (out of 3) in the 55 gallon are suddenly hanging out at the top and not swimming all over as they usually do- in fact the rams were always in the middle & bottom strata & now they are not.

Specs: 55 gallon, Eheim 2213, Community

26 gallon, Penguin 170 (coldwater), Goldfish

15 gallon tall, Eclipse hood (coldwater), sunfish

10 gallon, Penguin 100, Community

Eclipse system 6 (6 gallons), Guppies

Thanks for all the help.
 
SomethinFishy said:
Hey everybody

First of all, I love this board- have been cruising it extensively since last year and joined up last month. You guys have answered most of the questions I had. Y'all rock!!

Now to get to my question, all 5 of my aquariums have zero buffering capacity. pH is ~ 6.4 and total hardness is >250ppm; nitrite levels 0, nitrate ~0-20 (I use Mardel 5-in-1 strips currently and am planning to get a masterkit soon). How do I increase buffering capacity, and decrease the total hardness? All the aquariums except one have driftwood in them. Can I add shells etc. to them- or temporarily should I add baking soda?



The fish are all doing fine except the 2 blue rams & a rainbowfish (out of 3) in the 55 gallon are suddenly hanging out at the top and not swimming all over as they usually do- in fact the rams were always in the middle & bottom strata & now they are not.
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i don't see a reading for your KH (buffering cap.) your PH is slightly acidity, i always suggest crushed coral for the long term fix. baking soda will help, here is an article that is very good reading:

PH GH KH link

when you say total hardness, you mean General hardness right? (GH) so you've got slightly acidity hard water (lack of buffering), i believe RTR uses Aragonite for his buffering (if i'm wrong, RTR, please spare me, hehe) but i've only experimented with CC and it works good for me.

as far as your fish go i would start doing gradual water changes, that should help with your PH being low, provided it's not that low out of the tap.
 
SomethinFishy said:
Now to get to my question, all 5 of my aquariums have zero buffering capacity. pH is ~ 6.4 and total hardness is >250ppm; nitrite levels 0, nitrate ~0-20 (I use Mardel 5-in-1 strips currently and am planning to get a masterkit soon). How do I increase buffering capacity, and decrease the total hardness? All the aquariums except one have driftwood in them. Can I add shells etc. to them- or temporarily should I add baking soda?
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Your buffering capacity is determined by your KH, carbonate hardness, not your GH (general hardness). Your pH is fine and unless it keeps dropping on you, it is not a real cause for concern.

What we need to know is your KH and it would be best if you bought test tube kits as soon as you can so that we can get a more accurate reading.

Are you using tap water for your tanks? Do you have readings on the water you are using? We'll need those as well: ammonia, nitrite, nitrates and pH. I noticed that you don't list ammonia in your readings. We really need that.

Also, your water change routine: how much and how often.

The fish are all doing fine except the 2 blue rams & a rainbowfish (out of 3) in the 55 gallon are suddenly hanging out at the top and not swimming all over as they usually do- in fact the rams were always in the middle & bottom strata & now they are not.
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I think you should look into possibly other problems instead of your GH or your KH and pH. Rainbowfish come from many different types of water and a 17dGH isn't going to affect them at all unless they were suddenly dumped into it. It it were going to affect them, it would affect all of them and not just one.

How big is the tank that these fish are in? Are they displaying any other problematic symptoms?

Roan
 
Thanks for the replies. Will read up on the link.

I will get the test tube kits as soon as I get off from work. Should I go ahead and change 25% water anyway? All my aquariums have the same water chemistry, more or less.

Roan, the rainbowfish and the rams are in a 55 G planted tank-its not heavily planted yet but will be when it grows in.

The 55G is my newest tank- its been up since Dec. and was set up with all the gravel from a 10G tank. The first fish were zebra danios. The 3 rainbowfish have been in the tank for a month with no problems and I added the 2 rams a little more than a week ago.

The substrate is 1/3 Fluorite with 3/4 Florabase with gravel as top layer. There are a few pieces of driftwood, none too large.

Also, is using only the Eheim 2213 underfiltering it? :confused: I have a Fluval 404 I could add- it just seems that would add too much water current to the tank. Since, I'm trying to go for a planted tank I thought using both the filters would be counterproductive. However, if the experts say otherwise I can add the Fluval :)
 
As long as the pH has been stable there, it's fine. Continue doing your regular water change schedule, or increase it--more water changes are better than too few.
 
As OG said, as long as the pH is stable . . . you can never have too much fresh water :) Sure, change it out as often as you want. Rainbows LOVE fresh water.

If all the tanks are the same in chemistry (GH etc.,.), then I doubt the problem lies with that.

We won't know until we get your KH number, though.

IMO, although I'm sure some may argue with me, you can have as many filters as you want on a planted tank. Just don't allow a lot of surface aggitation as that will release too much CO2, which your plants need.

BUT, let's get your KH readings before you start futzing with filters, kay?

DId you QT those gouramis? Maybe they brought something into the tank with them.

Roan
 
I had a similar problem, not sure what was causing it, my PH was low about 6.4 in 2 of my tanks. Both were planted but only one heavily. My Fry tank did NOT have flourite gravel and the PH stays over 7. Out of the tap my PH is about 7.5

Although my PH was pretty stable it would drasticaly change durring water changes which I felt might be stressful to my fish.

I felt it was likely due to having lots of plants and bogwood, and possibly from the flourite itself!

I added crushed Coral Gravel into my Whisper 10i filter and the PH stays at EXACTLY 7 now (well it matches the color exactly ont he test tube test), I tried cuttlebone but the crushed coral seems to work the best. The cuttlebone however did disolve compleatly!

I wanted to raise my PH because my mystery snails prefer a higher PH like around 8, I felt 6.4 was stressful to them. My otehr fish don't seem to care that the PH is around 7 now, in fact the guppies seem to be doing a little better.
 
Thanks for all help. I have printed out the online Petsmart AP Freshwater Master Kit pricing and will pick it up on the way home. Hope my fish will be fine till then.

:hang:
 
Well, bad luck went to 3 different stores and could only get the AP Freshwater Master test kit which does not have the hardness test!! Will try some other LFS tomorrow.

Readings from the tank using the new water test kit:

pH between 6.2-6.4
Ammonia=0
Nitrite= 0-0.25
Nitrate= ~20+ but <40

Some of the readings are ranges bcoz I could't match them exactly and that was the closest I could get; probabaly will take some time to establish recognition of the colors!


"DId you QT those gouramis? Maybe they brought something into the tank with them "

Roan, those are 2 German blue rams, not gouramis,and no I did not QT them, do you think thats whats wrong with the fish, they're :sick: ?

I get all my fish from a LFS which is pretty good. Not that they don't get ich etc. but they're particular about informing you about disease.

Now the cories are dashing to the top more frequently and the bristlenose pleco is just hiding in 1 corner and not coming out for food as he used to do :(

Also, when I look at the water from below (and believe you me I looked at that tank from every angle), there is a film on the surface like a faint rainbow 'oil spilled on water' effect? What could that be? I looked everywhere to see if there was a dead fish anywhere but couldn't see any.

Water hardness test results tomorrow.
 
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