My Substrate Raises My Gh

[Kevin Lopez]

So ive recently bought 10 RCS and found out all about gh and kh. My kh was (3) drops and my gh was (22) i decided to buy some distilled water and slowly add it to lower my gh. Each gallon lowers about 2 gh which is great news! But i noticed each day i remeasured my gh it seemed to raise by 1 drop sometimes 2. I am currently testing the theory right now i have substrate in a cup with distilled water. If this is the case what should i do? There’s currently 2 inches of substrate its a 20 gallon tall i don't know what type of substrate it is i forgot. But if it isnt that what else could it be. Also i forgot to mention my tap water tests for (16) gh so obviously something is making it rise in my tank. I also dose flourish weekly and excel once every other day.

Edited April 13, 2021 by Kevin Lopez

[jayc]

Do you have rocks as decoration in the tank?

Rocks and gravel substrate are usually the culprit.

On rare occasions, those bio filter media rings have been know to raise GH/KH.

 

What you are doing to test, is the right way of doing it.

[sdlTBfanUK]

We would probably need more to go on?

What is the substrate? Is it something bought from an aquarium shop or from a builders merchant, or elsewhere? How long has the tank been set up and running? What else is in the tank, rocks etc?

There is usually a corellation between TDS and GH so it would be much easier for you to use a TDS meter/pen, cheap and easier, and then just use the GH tester drops occassionaly.

Once sorted you can probably use water of 50/50 Tap water and RO/distilled water, that should give you GH 8? What you are doing is right, slowly reducing the GH but will only work properly when you have worked out (and amended) the problem.

Simon

[Kevin Lopez]

9 hours ago, jayc said:

Do you have rocks as decoration in the tank?

Rocks and gravel substrate are usually the culprit.

On rare occasions, those bio filter media rings have been know to raise GH/KH.

 

What you are doing to test, is the right way of doing it.

My gravel is eco complete i am using gh test kit from api

7 hours ago, sdlTBfanUK said:

We would probably need more to go on?

What is the substrate? Is it something bought from an aquarium shop or from a builders merchant, or elsewhere? How long has the tank been set up and running? What else is in the tank, rocks etc?

There is usually a corellation between TDS and GH so it would be much easier for you to use a TDS meter/pen, cheap and easier, and then just use the GH tester drops occassionaly.

Once sorted you can probably use water of 50/50 Tap water and RO/distilled water, that should give you GH 8? What you are doing is right, slowly reducing the GH but will only work properly when you have worked out (and amended) the problem.

Simon

Eco complete substrate bought from LFS 40lb  tank has been running for 3 months

[Dsetz]

It sounds like there are different versions of eco complete. The cichlid version raises gh evidently. 

Keep on diluting! 

[Kevin Lopez]

16 minutes ago, Dsetz said:

It sounds like there are different versions of eco complete. The cichlid version raises gh evidently. 

Keep on diluting! 

Eco planted substrate 

[Dsetz]

Claims there are a whole host of minerals in it. I've kept RCS in super hard water also, they are not at their happiest. I'd just commit to changing it long term with small RO/distilled changes to avoid rapid swings from big changes.

[Kevin Lopez]

8 hours ago, Dsetz said:

Claims there are a whole host of minerals in it. I've kept RCS in super hard water also, they are not at their happiest. I'd just commit to changing it long term with small RO/distilled changes to avoid rapid swings from big changes.

Should i just invest in a R/O unit? ?

[sdlTBfanUK]

I suspect Dsetz has pinpointed the issue here.

My favourite substrate is very high with minerals etc and when new they advise 50% water changes every 2-3 days for the first 2 weeks to avoid a build up of minerals when first used,  so this may be what has happened here. Adding fertilizers will obviously add to this as well?

The neocaridina shrimp should be fine as long as you make any changes slowly, but they probably won't be too happy until it gets nearer their usual accepted ideal parameters. Just keep changing the water with RO/distilled water to slowly bring it down and the soil should deplete of the excess minerals with time. I wouldn't expect that you need the fertilisers at this point either with new substrate, or  maybe even at all depending on the flora you have in the tank as the substrate should have that covered?

It may be worth getting an RO unit long term as even when you get to the correct level your tap water is too high so you will either want to mix 50/50 tap/RO, or 100% RO plus remineraliser? 

Simon

Edited April 14, 2021 by sdlTBfanUK

[Dsetz]

Yeah your always going to need to dilute that tap water. If it was a 5 gallon I might say no to an RO machine but a 20 may be thirsty. You can do the math to figure out whether it's a budget expense or not. I see a lot of like new used machines about.