Help adjusting water parameters?

Todays water readings have crazy low kh and gh and ph and I'm not sure how to fix it...
Ph 6.4 should be at least 6.8 I think
Kh 1
Gh 2
Ammonia .25ppm
Nitrite between 0 and 0.25ppm
Nitrate 5ppm
Phosphates 0.25ppm

I have acid buffer and alkaline buffer but not sure how to get them to work. The label on alkaline buffer says it reduces kh to work and if I have almost none will it do anything?

 

Do you have any fish in there? In this case, until you can work out a more permanent solution, I would add baking soda, a little at a time, until the pH is where you want it. This should also raise your KH, not sure about the GH. Then you can try one of the more permanent methods for stabilizing one of which is to put a bag of crushed coral in your tank.

 

Whoops yes there are fish in there.. 5 endlers 12 ember tetras and 3 cpo crayfish, it's my 10 gallon qt tank.

 

Ok, I would do the baking soda method. I can't remember the amounts to use so I would start by dissolving 1/2 tsp in a cup of tank water and then adding it back in. Test after an hour and add another 1/2 tsp. if needed. Keep doing it slowly like that. CindiL is the pH/GH/KH guru around here though so maybe she can help

 

Ok great thanks for the instructions! Does cuttlebone work similar to coral? I have some of that

 

Cuttlebone could help, I don't know how much though or if it works as fast as the coral. If that's what you have on hand then by all mean, throw some in! I would still use the baking soda to kickstart it though

 

Hi, what is the KH of your main tank? I would add coral or yes, cuttlebone should help.

Since you have alkaline buffer I would use that over baking soda. Mix 1/4 tsp in a little tank water and add it to the 10g, re-test KH and Ph in an hour. You want your KH to be 4-5 on all your tanks. I would not use acid buffer at this point. You may not need it at all. On your main tank use 1/2 tsp and check in an hour the same way.

 

Got a chunk of cuttlebone in there and 1/2 tsp of baking soda for now. Haven't gotten to test the main tank yet this morning

 

Ok my little one finally went down for a nap. Kh is now 5. Ph 7.6 in qt tank. Added a 1/12tsp of acid buffer to bring it back down a little.

Main tank ph is 7.6. Kh is 4 and gh is 8. Gping to add a pinch of acid buffer there too to bring ph back down a touch.

 

I think your pH is fine where it is, I wouldn’t mess with it any further.

 

Great thanks for the help!

 

Hello sup...

If you plan to keep a basic tank with easy to grow plants and some hardy fish from the local pet store, you shouldn't mess with the tank chemistry. It's difficult at best for even the experienced tank keeper to maintain for the life of the tank.

Putting chemicals into the tank water isn't a good idea, because side affects can be different for different species of fish and plants. The good bacteria that helps maintain safe water conditions can also be affected.

The easiest approach is more times than not, the best. So, treat the water with a good dechlorinator like Seachem's "Safe" and follow a sound water change routine, like removing and replacing half the tank water every few days. This will maintain constant water properties and this is more important than trying to maintain a particular water chemistry.

Old

 

Thanks! I think my local tap water varies quite a bit giving me weird swings in ph as a result of water changes.either that or the rocks or substrate release something that's messing up the ph. But in general no need to worry if Ph is slightly off the ideals for my species?

 

Right, as long as they're stable at that pH. Swings are not good and the reason why you'd be better off getting your KH up a bit. That will help to buffer your water and prevent those changes.

 

Hello sup...

If you plan to keep a basic tank with easy to grow plants and some hardy fish from the local pet store, you don't shouldn't mess the the tank chemistry. It's difficult at best for even the experienced tank keeper to maintain for the life of the tank.

Putting chemicals into the tank water isn't a good idea, because side affects can be different for different species of fish and plants. The good bacteria that helps maintain safe water conditions can also be affected.

The easiest approach is more times than not, the best. So, treat the water with a good dechlorinator like Seachem's "Safe" and follow a sound water change routine, like removing and replacing half the tank water every few days. This will maintain constant water properties and this is more important than trying to maintain a particular water chemistry.

Old

Old, Adding in carbonates and mineral salts is not adding in chemicals, it is adding in minerals that are lacking from the source water. When KH is too low and ph crashes, you not only lose your good bacteria but you will often lose fish. Its not realistic to tell people to change out 50% of their water 3 or more times a week for stability. Adding in the cuttlebone and the buffers are perfectly good for her tank and recommended often here on Fishlore.

Please take into account individual water chemistry, many people do not have ideal water chemistry and telling them to not buffer their water is poor advice as her ph has shown to drop considerably. I don't think you would feel great about this repeated advice if her fish died or she lost her cycle.

If you feel the old school method is the only way then perhaps refrain from giving this same advice in situations that clearly the water chemistry is an issue for the aquarium water. As I've mentioned in the past you are lucky to have such ideal water but many people in the U.S. and other countries do not.

You are right that the good bacteria and the fish can be affected but that would be negatively effected if the carbonates are used up.

It is not difficult for a novice aquarium owner to learn the basics of general hardness and carbonates in their water, nor is it hard to maintain with proper mineralization with aragonite, limestone etc and sometimes buffers depending on how low the source water actually is.

 

Hello Cindy...

As I said in my post, if you keep a basic tank with hardy fish, you don't need to be concerned with the chemistry of the tank water. The vast majority of aquarium fish will do fine in the vast majority of public water supplies, they have for many decades. Large, frequent water changes are the best remedy for keeping a healthy tank. Adding this and that to the water, simply makes the hobby more difficult for the beginning water keeper.

If your approach to tank keeping is to maintain a chemistry set in order to keep a specific water chemistry, then go for it. Most of us simply want to keep a basic tank full of basic fish species. I've found over the years, if I simply keep the tank water free of dissolved wastes by removing and replacing large amount of tank water weekly, I can avoid all the added steps and money on testing and over filtration and can keep and breed most of the hardier fish species.

Thanks for the advice anyway.

Old

 

But she's not changing anything "old", she's providing a buffer to prevent changes. I would like to know what your GH/KH readings are because I'll bet you've never had to deal with a pH crash before. I don't think your fish would survive it either. Yes, there are hardy fish that can survive in a range of pH's. What we're talking about here is a sudden and drastic change in pH. It doesn't matter whether they're kept in pH 6.8 or pH 8.4 but if it suddenly drops from 8.4 to 6.8 there's going to be trouble!

I never had to worry about pH or GH and KH before either because I lived in an area with lots of minerals in the water. A water change was enough to keep things stable. Now I live in an area with essentially zero minerals in the water and I have to add buffers just to keep my pH from changing between water changes.

 

Hello Cindy...

As I said in my post, if you keep a basic tank with hardy fish, you don't need to be concerned with the chemistry of the tank water. The vast majority of aquarium fish will do fine in the vast majority of public water supplies, they have for many decades. Large, frequent water changes are the best remedy for keeping a healthy tank. Adding this and that to the water, simply makes the hobby more difficult for the beginning water keeper.

If your approach to tank keeping is to maintain a chemistry set in order to keep a specific water chemistry, then go for it. Most of us simply want to keep a basic tank full of basic fish species. I've found over the years, if I simply keep the tank water free of dissolved wastes by removing and replacing large amount of tank water weekly, I can avoid all the added steps and money on testing and over filtration and can keep and breed most of the hardier fish species.

Thanks for the advice anyway.

Old

Yes, most of us do want a simple tank that only requires water changes. Unfortunately we don't get to pick what's in our water and for you to keep saying that most of the fish are hardy enough to be in any water only works if the water you are starting with has adequate minerals.

Please step back and look at the water that is being talked about here. If you have a KH of 1, basically no buffering and you change it out every other day you will still be left with a KH of 1.0. If you've read the ph crash threads on the forum I hope you will eventually realize that your advice cannot be used across the board irregardless of the source water.

Your advice will only cause people like this major issues when their ph crashes. I don't think that's what you're looking for.
superbutterfly12, I apologize for the back and forth. This is normally not the type of forum where you see silly arguments.

 

As the old saying goes, there's more than one way to skin a cat!
I enjoy my chemistry set more than I expected. I didn't like high school chem class but I get a kick out of testing my water parameters but only do the dangerous ones on weekdays. Save the more esoteric ones to be done on my days off. I think with the drpught here in California my water sources probably get changed at the water company as they try to manage the low water supply? Who knows.