Water Chemistry???

[Boohoo]

I have three tanks that I use the same tap water for. Please explain why I have such variations. First I will start by telling you my tap water parameters are as follows.
Ammonia~0 Nitrite~0 Nitrtate~0 KH~less than 20 GH~less than 20 PH~6.2-6.4

Now the problems begin:
Goldie Tank 10g(soon to upgrade) Cycled, Running for 11 weeks.
Ammonia~0 Nitrite~0 Nitrate~less than 5 KH~20 GH~less than 20 PH~7.0

Tropical Community 10g Cycled, Running for 9 weeks
Ammonia~0 Nitrite~0 Nitrate~between 5-10 KH~70 GH~80 PH~7.2

55g(currently fishless cycling) Day 17
Ammonia~0 Add 13ml daily to keep between 2-3ppm
Nitrite~ Beyond chart reading
Nitrate~ Beyond chart readings
KH~less than 10
GH~60
PH~6.2

Allof these tanks are very lightly planted. The goldies have 1, the community have 3 and the fishless has 6 plants. I don't think this makes a difference though. Why all the different readings when the water is from the same source? Also what can I do to prevent a PH crash in my fish less cycle? :help:

 

[Boohoo]

Bump

 

[Beeker]

You can keep testing the ph and kh. If they start to fall you can add a little, very little, baking soda to raise the ph and kh. I heard something about crushed coral but I've never used it myself.

 

[ashdavid]

I have three tanks that I use the same tap water for. Please explain why I have such variations. First I will start by telling you my tap water parameters are as follows.
Ammonia~0 Nitrite~0 Nitrtate~0 KH~less than 20 GH~less than 20 PH~6.2-6.4
:help:

Your water could have variations for many reasons. Firstly your tanks are all in differing stages of there lives, meaning your still have one tank cycling and the others are set up at different times(not that it should make to much of a difference ,except your cycling tank). A cycling tank can do weird things as the chemistry of the water changes, so I would not be too concerned about that. There is also a dirrect relation with the substrate and decorations that you use on your water chemistry .If you are using differing subsrate in all of the tanks ,that could explain the differences.The high kh in your community tank will explain the higher ph. Plants will also affect your ph and kh. Also if you add conditioners to the water this will affect water chemistry. Bio-load will also affect the water, so what I am trying to say is it is too hard say that one thing is the cause , there are many factors involved in determining your parameters. Jmo but I dont think you should be too worried as long as you keep your tanks stable(unless you are keeping fish that prefere certain conditions).

Your tap water is naturaly soft and if you want to stop Ph crashes, my first recomendation is to keep your tanks clean of waste and do regular water changes and test your water, obviously the is not a sure fire method because there is uncontrolable factors involved. The other method to stop ph crashes is to buffer the water more and as beeker stated crushed coral will do fine.

 

[Boohoo]

What else will buffer water? I have no idea where I could get crushed coral. My LFS doesn't have any.