Hardness and Alkalinity a little whacky

[Doohic722]

hey guys and gals

First day
Hardness - 0-25ppm
Alkalinity - 120-180ppm
PH - 8.4
Ammonia - 0

Added goldfish food and some tetra flakes

3 days later (today)
Hardness - 250ppm
Alkalinity - ~300ppm
PH - 8.4
Ammonia - still at 0

what do you guys think about this?

I have some fosilized rock in the tank and thats all (besides the gravel) I rinsed off the gravel before placing in the tank and I also cleaned off the fosilized rock best I could, there was some dirt left in some crevaces that I couldnt get out.

lmk

 

[Harmonic]

Hmm... Fossils are created by calcium and other hard mineral deposits, and would certainly account for the rise in hardness.

Changes in alkalinity while keeping a consistent pH has something to do with the O2/CO2 balance. Your case is rather odd, or at least seems so to me. It's usually the pH that will drop instead of the alkalinity, as excess CO2 creates carbonic acid in the aquarium water and lowers pH. Alkalinity fluctuation while maintaining pH is puzzling, but it surley is the result of improper O2/CO2 levels. I'm pretty interested to hear what others think on this too.

 

[Doohic722]

hmm that would explain the rise in hardness

It's usually the pH that will drop instead of the alkalinity

The Alkalinity went up actually, I put the ~ to mean approximate not minus, Im not sure if you made the mistake of reading it wrong or maybe made a goof while typing? But I guess regarless, there was a fluctuation like you said and PH stayed the same. I had my dad do the readings over the phone today and I walked him through the tests, Im pretty sure he did them right.

I will take some new readings thursday and let you guys know what they say.

 

[Doohic722]

Hardness 120ppm
Alkalinity 300ppm
PH 8.4
Ammonia 0.25

let me know what you guys think about the cycle... and also should I do water changes?
im using fish food to make ammonia.. fishless cycle

also.. should I be using my paper filter in my magnum 350 instead of the carbon?

 

[Doohic722]

May 1rst water check
Hardness 250ppm
Alkalinity 300ppm
PH 8.4
Ammonia .25

another week later.. May 8th
Hardness 250
Alkalinity 300
PH 8.4
Ammonia .25


I started my cycle on the 20th of April, The ammonia level has been at .25 for at least 15 days.

Should this start going down soon?

I havnt done any water changes, and actually I need to add water to the tank next time I am home do to evaporation. I also added ph down to get the levels down before I add fish.

lmk what you all think

 

[Jamnog]

have you taken the rocks out?

 

[Doohic722]

no I havnt taken out the rocks, I am hopeing to deal with the high PH because I spent 50 bucks on the rocks and dont feel like throughing them out into the yard.

does anyone have any thoughts on the PH?

 

[Jamnog]

well in order to keep ure rocks in there and chage the ph shurely what you want to do is change the ph by adding equal and opposite levels of ph changeing material. a fine balencing act ... if you put small bits of lime stone gravel in slowly over time constantly measuring the ph. i would take my time doing this possibly even out of the aquarium i dont even know if its the fossils i think salt increaces hardness have you added any of that? im not a chemistry type of person im afraid just kinda thinking aloud.



edit : ok here goes lime stone is alkaline and the ph scale is upsidedown meaning 7 is pretty alkaline apparently 3 is around neutral and 0 is verry acidic ive learned allot today and mostof it i will never belive but its all true.

 

[reg2k2]

Curious, what are your readings out of the tap??

As for the ammonia, as far as I know it should hit high end, followed by nitrites doing the same, etc.
Do you have anything like ammo-chips in the media? I don't know what wd. keep it so low, unless maybe not enough food is being added? What's the tank size? What are ur nitrites? How old are ur test kits?

Why do you want to lower the pH? Weren't you planning on keeping Africans?
If you do go that way, I would stay away from the drops...just never heard anything good about 'em.
btw, limestone raises pH.

 

[Doohic722]

Thanks Jamnog and reg2k2

Next time i go home (this thursday) I will do a reading out of the tap.

Im not even completely sure how high the PH actually is because the test kits I have (test strips) only go to 8.4.

No ammo-chips, using magnum 350 pro (using carbon media and of course the bio-wheels are turning also)

I only added food once, I thought thats all I did, I can add more if thats what I am suppose to do? Its a 55 gallon tank.

Last time I was home I tested for either nitrites or nitrates, I cant remember what test it actually was, but it read 0ppm.

I would like to find an oddball for my tank, and looking more towards puffer fish now over the africans, (although I may attempt to through a couple africans in with the puffers for a trial run).

thanks for the reply's, I'll keep you updated