Freshwater Planted Community Work In Progress

[AquaEnthusiast]

Hi I'm Nathan, been keeping fish all my life and learned alot from a local petstore which was open for over 50 years and had to shut because of rent and rates and he was too honest to raise the price on his customers. Pity.

Anyway I keep a 250L with an Eheim 600 external, jager heater and a wave maker at bottom and pointed at the filter inlet I believe thats the best way to keep the substrate clean, I recently got rid of my silk plants and got some anubias and java fern, think too much bogwood as I got a PH test and its reading quite acidic, i done a 15% water change yesterday and 10% today, ive removed about 3kg og bogwood and even sawed a bit off a longer peice, any advice on regulating that without chemicals, after bio set up I believe in just a decent dechlorinator.

 

[Naughts]

What is the pH in numbers? Has it dropped over time? Bogwood doesn't effect pH much but a build up of organics could. Regular (weekly) substantial (50-75%) water changes prevent this. Also clean the substrate and filter to remove organics. If you need to build up your water changes I would do it gradually to avoid shocking the fish with big fluctuations.
I like the plan to keep the water chemical free with just a dechlorinator.

 

[Retired Viking]

Welcome, so far I have also gone chemical free except de-chlorinating the water, I completed a silent cycle on my 55 gallon tank about a month ago and now trying it again on a 30 gallon.

 

[seangee]

A low pH is not a problem as long as it is stable. What is the number? Also what is the hardness (GH) and what do you stock? Unless you have hard water fish that require hard, alkaline water I do not recommend trying to adjust the pH. My own pH is below 6 and I just let it be.

I couldn't see clearly what fish are in your pic but angels require soft acidic water and mollies (if that's what they are) require extremely hard water. Both cannot thrive in the same tank.

 

[Essjay]

Have you tested the pH of your tap water? You need to test a freshly run sample and some that has been left to stand overnight. The pH of the tank water is meaningless on its own.

I got a PH test and its reading quite acidic

Is it acidic because your tap water is acidic or because something in the tank is causing it to fall?



There is actually a mix of soft and hard water fish. This is from AquaEnthusiasts' other thread

My 250l freshwater community, 2 blue zebra angels, few mollys, 2 swordtails, red flying fox, torp barbs & a very shy snowball pleco.

There are two types of hardness, GH and KH.
GH is more important to fish as they need to be kept in water similar to that they evolved in. Angelfish and flying fox are soft water fish; mollies and swordtails are hard water fish. If they are in the same tank, one or other will not be happy.
KH is carbonate hardness. It doesn't affect fish directly, it's effect is to stabilise pH - or not if KH is very low.

Look on your water provider's website for 'hardness'. If they give it, you need a number rather than some vague words, and the unit of measurement (there are several they could use). If it is soft, your KH will also be low; if it's hard, KH will be high.

Once we know your hardness and tap water pH we will be in a better position to talk about fish.

 

[AquaEnthusiast]

Hi I'm Nathan, been keeping fish all my life and learned alot from a local petstore which was open for over 50 years and had to shut because of rent and rates and he was too honest to raise the price on his customers. Pity.

Anyway I keep a 250L with an Eheim 600 external, jager heater and a wave maker at bottom and pointed at the filter inlet I believe thats the best way to keep the substrate clean, I recently got rid of my silk plants and got some anubias and java fern, think too much bogwood as I got a PH test and its reading quite acidic, i done a 15% water change yesterday and 10% today, ive removed about 3kg og bogwood and even sawed a bit off a longer peice, any advice on regulating that without chemicals, after bio set up I believe in just a decent dechlorinator.

I tested today and my tap water is about 7PH so neatral, its the bogwood lowering it from that clearly. Mollies r thrieving i saw 2 babies when doing a water change today. Few torp barbs,2 balas,2 blue angels and a shy snowball pleco lol

 

[Essjay]

Have you tested tap water that's stood overnight? It will probably be different from freshly run tap water.

If water that's stood is still higher than the tank, it does suggest something int he tank is lowering it. But if there was a high KH, nothing could cause it to fall. Falling pH is due to low KH, because the acidic things use up all the KH so there is nothing left to stop it falling.
Low KH usually goes with low GH, and livebearers, particularly mollies, must have hard water to do well long term.

This is why you need to find out how hard the water actually is.

 

[AquaEnthusiast]

Hi I'm Nathan, been keeping fish all my life and learned alot from a local petstore which was open for over 50 years and had to shut because of rent and rates and he was too honest to raise the price on his customers. Pity.

Anyway I keep a 250L with an Eheim 600 external, jager heater and a wave maker at bottom and pointed at the filter inlet I believe thats the best way to keep the substrate clean, I recently got rid of my silk plants and got some anubias and java fern, think too much bogwood as I got a PH test and its reading quite acidic, i done a 15% water change yesterday and 10% today, ive removed about 3kg of bogwood and even sawed a bit off a olonger peice, any advice on regulating that without chemicals, after bio set up I believe in just a decent dechlorinator.

After about a 20% water and filter change today the waters PH looks alot more neutral on the chart. =)