New Library Article - Cheat Sheet for adjusting water parameters

[jayc]

The following chart is a general guideline of adjusting water parameters, usually during setup of a new tank.

 

Someone asked for a guide on adjusting water parameters. As I don't recall one being made on SKF, I thought I'd start a little Cheat Sheet for adjusting water parameters.

The following chart is a general guideline of adjusting water parameters, usually during setup of a new tank. While it is good to know how to adjust a certain water parameter to suit your fish or shrimp, it's often a better idea to keep these parameters stable rather than constantly changing it. Changing water parameters will stress the livestock. 

Some species of fish or invertebrates may have more specific requirements so please review each individual species for their specific needs before adjusting water  parameters.

	Too High	Too Low	Comment
pH	Reduce pH with: Reverse Osmosis (RO) water. Add Rain Water. Check for Rocks that might be increasing pH. Treat water with peat moss. Add more driftwood. Increase CO2 levels.	Increase pH by: Adding conditioned Tap Water. Add a pinch of Sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) (bicarbonate of soda) Adding Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3) like shell grit, coral grit, cuttlefish bone. CaCO3 will raise GH & KH. Add some limestone rocks.	Similar to KH adjustment.
TDS	Reduce TDS by: Diluting with Reverse Osmosis water. Diluting with Rain Water.	Increase TDS By: Adding Calcium & Magnesium either as standalone chemicals or by purchasing premixed products like Salty Shrimp Bee Shrimp Mineral GH+ or Mosura Mineral plus Ultra. Mixing with tap water, assuming your tap water's TDS is higher. However this option of raising TDS is a very distant second to the above. Only use this method in an emergency.	Water softeners do NOT reduced TDS.
KH (Carbonate Hardness)	Reduce KH by: Diluting with Reverse Osmosis water or  Diluting with Rain Water.	Raise KH by: Adding a pinch of Sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) (bicarbonate of soda) Adding Potassium carbonate (K2CO3) Adding Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3) like shell grit, coral grit, cuttlefish bone. CaCO3 will raise GH & KH. Adding a premix product like Salty Shrimp Bee Shrimp Mineral GH/KH+ will raise KH slightly.	Note: KH is also naturally reduced by the nitrifying bacteria.
GH (General Hardness)	Reduce GH by: Diluting with Reverse Osmosis water. Diluting with Rain Water. Remove any coral, cuttlefish bone or shell grit. Check for Rocks that might be increasing GH.	Raise GH by: Adding Magnesium Sulphate (MgSO4) will raise GH without altering KH. Adding Potassium carbonate (K2CO3) Adding Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3) like shell grit, coral grit, cuttlefish bone. CaCO3 will raise GH & KH. Adding a purchased premixed products like Salty Shrimp Bee Shrimp Mineral GH+ or Mosura Mineral plus Ultra.	Water softeners are NOT recommended to reduce GH.
Temperature	Reduce Temps with a: Chiller. Fan blowing across the water surface. Cool the room with an Air Conditioner.	Raise Temps with a Heater.
Nitrate (NO3)	Reduce Nitrate by: Performing more water changes. Diluting with RO or Rain water. Add more plants. Reduce feeding amounts. Add Purigen or Macropore.	Do nothing	Only accounting for Nitrate.  Ammonia and Nitrite should always be zero.
Ammonia(NH3) / Nitrite(NO2)	To reduce NH3 and NO2: Do partial water changes.  Add (more) aquatic plants, as they take up ammonia as nutrient. Remove any organic matter that shouldn't be there. Reduce the frequency or quantity of food. Add beneficial bacteria to the water.  Lower your tank's pH.  Try increasing aeration of the water. Use Ammonia absorption media. Some water conditioners can detoxify ammonia & nitrite as well as remove chloramine.	Should always read zero.	This assumes your tank has been cycled. However, you are experiencing a spike. If you are still cycling a new tank, treatment will be different. Cycling a new tank essentially requires patience and maybe addition of beneficial bacteria (either from bottle or from old filter media).

 

 

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Edited September 3, 2016 by jayc

[jayc]

Please let me know if I have missed anything out in the table. Or if there are other methods to increase or reduce a parameter.

Edited August 9, 2016 by jayc

[NoGi]

Good stuff.

When you are in edit mode, I think it's control or shift and right click that brings up additional table formatting options.

[jayc]

15 minutes ago, NoGi said:

I think it's control or shift and right click that brings up additional table formatting options.

Thank You! 

CTRL-RClick did the trick. Table amended.

[zn30]

@jaycMaybe add ammonia to the list even go as far as testing water for metals. What I can see is great as it is, good job well done always great to have a quick handy guide. @NoGi is there a possibility to make up a quick reference guide area on the forum or even make up mini posters?

[jayc]

1 hour ago, zn30 said:

add ammonia

Ammonia added.

[NoGi]

Anything is possible given availability of funds lol e.g. infographics

But we can promote this to the library if it's ready

[Kaylenna]

Plants also absorb ammonia.  https://www.theaquariumwiki.com/Plants_and_Biological_Filtration  mentions that many aquatic plants prefer ammonia over nitrates.   Pretty impressive rates too.

Edited August 11, 2016 by Kaylenna

[zn30]

Thanks @NoGi agree funding is always the stopper in volunteer groups, your doing a great job with what you have at your disposal. @jayc a quick add well done. @Kaylenna  I always have duckweed at the top of my tanks to manage anything that might spike however tests always show I'm maintaining the correct parameters. Interesting reading thanks.

Edited August 12, 2016 by zn30

[jayc]

5 hours ago, Kaylenna said:

Plants also absorb ammonia

 

1 hour ago, zn30 said:

duckweed

 

Good point Kaylenna. Completely for got about it.

That's why I asked for inputs. ?

 

I'll add it now and include duckweed as Zinc (zn30) mentioned.

[Kaylenna]

Duckweed, elodea, willow moss were the names I recognized from the list (and I had).  Milfoil and hornwort are on there too as all the ones I know are aquarium friendly.  Mind you, I highly doubt the list is comprehensive, so there there are likely lots more that are also excellent ammonia absorbers.  I just pointed out the article because I prefer natural (and lazy!) methods of keeping the tanks healthy.  And because I like plants.

(I've got wads of willow moss if anyone wants.)

By the way... in the same article, but somewhat off our topic, the writer mentions " Aquatic plants, then, are much more than ornaments or aquascaping tools. They remove ammonia from the water. Furthermore, they remove it within hours (Fig 1, Table 2). When setting up a planted tank, there is no need to wait 8 weeks to prevent ‘new tank syndrome’. (Nitrifying bacteria require several weeks to establish themselves in new tanks and make biological filtration fully functional.) Thus, I have several times set up a new tank with plants and fish all on the same day. " 

For those who are impatient, like me, plants can speed up cycling tanks tremendously.  For shrimp, I'd not stick them in the SAME day... but my Red Cherries were happy with a 5 day old tank (I did cheat and used plants and a bit of substrate from a more established tank).

Edited August 11, 2016 by Kaylenna
added comment about cycling

[ageofaquariums]

Because plants compete with ammonia eating microbes, it can really mess with the establishment of dense nitrite eating microbes. If ammonia eating microbes don't get ammonia, because plants and algae are getting most of it, then they are not producing nitrites. If no nitrites then no nitrite eaters.

This only becomes a problem when ammonia load exceeds the plants ability to remove it. But it can be quite the NTS problem with a nitrite spike that only goes down painfully slowly.

i still think benefits of adding plants at start outweighs the potential problems, but its certainly not without potential complications.

[jayc]

47 minutes ago, ageofaquariums said:

plants compete with ammonia eating microbes, it can really mess with the establishment of dense nitrite eating microbes

You raise a good point there.

Luckily in the comments section I say that it assumes the tank is already cycled (established) and treatment is only for a spike in readings. 

 

By the way, what is 

49 minutes ago, ageofaquariums said:

NTS problem

 

[Kaylenna]

NTS = new tank syndrome?  (guessing)

I haven't done any research into the interaction between bacteria and plants in the nitrogen cycle.  But generally speaking, bacteria have a MUCH faster reaction time and life cycle than plants; they should be the first to take advantage of a nitrite increase.  We ARE talking about organisms that can double their numbers in well under an hour under good conditions (increase in their food supply would fall under good). 

And yes - I wasn't recommending that we kill off all the bacteria and only rely on plants to control the nitrogen cycle.  I was suggesting that plants may be able to help smooth out the cycle in an established tank and can potentially jump start the initial cycling process, along with things like introducing relative large quantities of bacteria from an established tank.

Sorry about the off-topic bits.

[jayc]

24 minutes ago, Kaylenna said:

NTS = new tank syndrome

Ah yes. Of course!

 

25 minutes ago, Kaylenna said:

Sorry about the off-topic bits.

No need to apologise. I don't think its off topic at all. 

[ageofaquariums]

NTS is basically just a Nitrite spike caused by establishment of ammonia eating bacteria, when the nitrite eating microbe population is not established.

 

:)

Great thread btw, very enjoyable.

[jayc]

Is there anything else we can add or improve on?

[zn30]

You've done well @jayc just love the quick referencing of cheat sheets, makes life easier when your under pressure after finding something wrong with a tank, thanks.

[jayc]

6 hours ago, zn30 said:

 

You've done well

 

Thanks, but you all helped.

So give yourselves a pat a on the back. ??

[NoGi]

So, is the first post good to promote to articles now?

[jayc]

2 hours ago, NoGi said:

 

So, is the first post good to promote to articles now?

 

Yes. I think so.

If there is more to be added, I can include it later.

[NoGi]

OK, I've got someone working on the infographics for this. First draft below, ignore the shrimp images, they'll be replaced with the SKF ones. I've asked for it to be on a single page as well.

[jayc]

On 03/09/2016 at 0:33 PM, NoGi said:

I've got someone working on the infographics for this

Wow !

Love it. But I just spotted a couple of grammatical errors. Sorry. Fixed it in the first post.

 

" While is is good to know how to adjust ..." changed to " While it is good to know how to adjust ..."

" Some species of fish, invertebrates " changed to  "Some species of fish or invertebrates "

 

Edited September 4, 2016 by jayc

[NoGi]

On 9/3/2016 at 3:44 PM, jayc said:

Love it. But I just spotted a couple of grammatical errors. Sorry. Fixed it in the first post.

Glad you liked it. How do you want me to attribute you on the chart? Just send me a PM and I'll be sure to have it included in the final version. I'll fix up the grammar at the end.

Next revision as one page attached.

[jayc]

6 hours ago, NoGi said:

I'll fix up the grammar at the end.

I also noticed that 

"Chiller" is missing from the too high Temperature parameter.