Brisbane water...hot or not?

[h20rat]

Does 120ppm for GH/KH straight from tap sound about right for Brisbane town?

I'm still hating on the pH and seeing if the cycling is progressing.

Patience might be a virtue, but it isn't mine lol

[Squiggle]

Definitely not! It's very high PH & very hard, I only use it on my Cichlids, I used waste water from my auto water change sysem on the rack for my Bettas & Endlers. :encouragement:

[Wraithie]

I think mine is a little higher at Chelmer, but to be fair i havent totally gotten the hang of water parameters yet

[h20rat]

I'm still finding my way as well wraithie. So squiggle it is fairly indicitive of Brisbane water generally and quite crap? ;)

[h20rat]

Hoping my TDS pen arrives in le mail tomorrow! Then I can suss more params. I am testing something I read around about aerating the smack out of water before adding and if all else fails ill just gas up some water in my sodastream let the gas escape and let carboxylic acid lower things ;)

[BlueBolts]

Aeration then using C02 sounds counter productive, plus the disapation of C02 will eventually get the PH to rise above what you maybe trying to achieve ?

[Squiggle]

I think mine is a little higher at Chelmer' date=' but to be fair i havent totally gotten the hang of water parameters yet[/quote']

Yeah it is, everywhere I have lived up here has had pretty much the same :encouragement:

[Wraithie]

I actually have a lot of trouble lowering my pH, i was trying with my planted tank for a while but it kept bumping up to 7.6 or so(must have a lot of buffer capacity)

Have resigned myself to using RO if i REALLY need to have lower pH.

[h20rat]

BB I'm thinking that if aeration doesn't do what I want then fizzing up some water and adding a little once it is flat would put a lot more acid in the water than a bubbler I'd only add tiny bits to test the effect first otherwise Ive got a place for a little peat pre-filter to get pH down that way. I can't think of any other non chemical non-outlay method from all I've read round.

[torface]

What substrate are you using? If you want to have a lower ph, the easiest thing to do is simply use a substrate such as Benibachi or ADA

[h20rat]

Hilarious! So three samples from my aerated water, my sodastream, and tank (pictured order) low pH test gives respective results offf....drum roll.....

Aerated...off the scale for alkaline in low pH range so 7.6+

Sodastream...under low pH range so saying 6.0-

Existing tank...I have to say I can't really pick from 6.8-7.2 which I'm more than happy with!

So I think the cycling is having an effect. I'm going to see how they each go in another experiment with my TDS pen hopefully tomorrow.

Kinda like... (._.#) now lol

[ineke]

LOL are you bored? Good test though:D

[h20rat]

I'm a a seeker of knowledge lol...

[h20rat]

Torface I'm using Fluval's shrimp substrate looks like my ph issue is over now just a little monitoring and moving focus onto ensuring tank cycles correctly! :) there are some hardness issues though certainly :|

[ineke]

I use the fluval for my cherry tanks- because I can get it when I want it but I still prefer benibachi- I haven't had any issues with it hope it solves your problems .

[h20rat]

Thx ineke :)

[torface]

I have one tank with the fluval stuff, don't like it personally, it didn't buffer the ph for me either. But if you're keeping cherries it will be fine :)

[Squiggle]

I'm using Fluval on my CRS tank at work & they do just fine using filtered tap water, the only problem I have with it is that it breaks down to mush after a while, how long depends on the water you use, & is very messy to change when it does :encouragement:

[Wraithie]

I use fluval shrimp in my planted tank, it buffers well but since my water's ph is high, it keeps it at that

[h20rat]

Squiggle it was bad enough putting it in! So much silt! Lol

[h20rat]

I hear you wraithie! I'm hoping this time round all the stars align and the shrimp deities look kindly on my humble tank offering

[Squiggle]

Squiggle it was bad enough putting it in! So much silt! Lol

Hahaha, yeah that nothing compared to getting it out :dejection:

[h20rat]

I got no idea wth is going on anymore!!!

WP is all over the shop now. pH is about 8, nitrites 0 like the last few days, nitrates between 20-40ppm and GH is apparently 200ppm!!!

Should I just drain the thing and start again??

[Squiggle]

Wow dude, that's some pretty serious parameter swing, might be worth buying an RO unit & Salty Shrimpminerals :victorious:

[h20rat]

I'm thinking about it. Ill do a baseline from tap (not from brita filter) and there's a slight chance of contamination from previous test. Off to bunnings..