Help with adjusting kh and gh

[Gizaroo2]

Hey all!

My new api gh and kh kit came today.

In addition to my pH being 6.5, my kh and gh are both 3. I have well water.

What is the most stable way to raise these safely (and without a ton of calculations)?

I have bolivian rams, julii cories, lamb chop rasboras in my 55.

I have a BN, panda cories, kuhlis, MTS in my 20 tall.

 

[Avel1896]

I have well water.

Hey You damn lucky
Stay the way you are. Or, eventually, increase GH KH with a tad of my favorite salts : SaltyShrimp© "aquarium GH/KH+"
How long are your tanks ?
How many fishes of each kind ?

 

[Gizaroo2]

Hey You damn lucky
Stay the way you are. Or, eventually, increase GH KH with a tad of my favorite salts : SaltyShrimp© "aquarium GH/KH+"
How long are your tanks ?
How many fishes of each kind ?

The 55 gallon has been running about a week. I seeded it with media from my 20 gallon tall tank. The 20 has been running for years.

The 55 has 4 bolivian rams, now 11 false julii cories, and 15 lambchop rasboras.

The 20 has 5 panda cories, 1 BN, 3 kuhlis and 2 endlers and about 1000 Malaysian trumpet snails.

I need to boost my stuff as I cannot get any plants to stay alive other than Java moss, Java plants, crypts, anubias and a buce. I would like to have some variety in my 55 gallon

 

[Avel1896]

I seeded it with media from my 20 gallon tall tank.

Not sure it's enough to shorten cycle and I encourage you to check ammonia, nitrites and nitrates to avoid poisonning.
Fast growing plants, without CO2 ? Najas guadalupensis, Ceratophyllum submersum, Vallisnerias, Hygrophila difformis/corymbosa.

 

[Rocky998]

The 55 gallon has been running about a week. I seeded it with media from my 20 gallon tall tank. The 20 has been running for years.

The 55 has 4 bolivian rams, now 11 false julii cories, and 15 lambchop rasboras.

The 20 has 5 panda cories, 1 BN, 3 kuhlis and 2 endlers and about 1000 Malaysian trumpet snails.

I need to boost my stuff as I cannot get any plants to stay alive other than Java moss, Java plants, crypts, anubias and a buce. I would like to have some variety in my 55 gallon

Sorry, this has nothing to do with your original question but how are you able to keep the kuhlis and cories stress free in those numbers? And 1000 trumpet snails? Are they babies?

 

[Colin_T]

Don't change the pH, GH or KH. The fish you keep all come from soft acid water and your water supply is ideal for them just the way it is.

If you kept livebearers, goldfish, rainbowfish, or African Rift Lake cichlids, then you can use a Rift Lake water conditioner to increase the pH< GH & KH.

 

[Gizaroo2]

Sorry, this has nothing to do with your original question but how are you able to keep the kuhlis and cories stress free in those numbers? And 1000 trumpet snails? Are they babies?

I've been having trouble adding to the kuhlis due to my water apparently. I have 2 juveniles remaining out of 4 I ordered recently that are almost ready to move over, and hopefully not get outcompeted for food. The 3 kuhlis are going on 3 years old if I recall correctly. They have lots of hiding spots and sand...and are always out and about. Same for the cories. I had 6, but lost one recently. Next time I find some pandas, I hope to get a few more for them.

Yea most of the MTS are small. I only have 4 that are about an inch long. They stay buried in the sand until food time.

This is the 20 gallon tank.

 

[Gizaroo2]

Don't change the pH, GH or KH. The fish you keep all come from soft acid water and your water supply is ideal for them just the way it is.

If you kept livebearers, goldfish, rainbowfish, or African Rift Lake cichlids, then you can use a Rift Lake water conditioner to increase the pH< GH & KH.

I want to be able to have a larger variety of plants. All mine just melt away, even with ferts, after a few months.

My endlers also do not do well at all. I'm down to 2 from 25.

 

[Gizaroo2]

Not sure it's enough to shorten cycle and I encourage you to check ammonia, nitrites and nitrates to avoid poisonning.
Fast growing plants, without CO2 ? Najas guadalupensis, Ceratophyllum submersum, Vallisnerias, Hygrophila difformis/corymbosa.

I'm checking daily. Thus far 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and 0 nitrates. I've even been overfeeding a bjt to see if I can get a nitrate reading. If things went properly, I suspect I won't get an ammonia reading and it will go straight to nitrates.

By seeding I meant that I put 3 bags of ceramic rings in my other canister filter for 3 weeks prior to setting this one up. Also squeezed mulm from my canister polyfill and moved over a chunk of the same media to the new canister. The first 10 fish I added would have had less bioload than the tank the media came from. I've always had good success doing this.

 

[Rocky998]

I've been having trouble adding to the kuhlis due to my water apparently. I have 2 juveniles remaining out of 4 I ordered recently that are almost ready to move over, and hopefully not get outcompeted for food. The 3 kuhlis are going on 3 years old if I recall correctly. They have lots of hiding spots and sand...and are always out and about. Same for the cories. I had 6, but lost one recently. Next time I find some pandas, I hope to get a few more for them.

Yea most of the MTS are small. I only have 4 that are about an inch long. They stay buried in the sand until food time.

This is the 20 gallon tank.

You have a beautiful aquarium but how do you vacuum the substrate? Thats a lot of plants/decor

 

[Gizaroo2]

You have a beautiful aquarium but how do you vacuum the substrate? Thats a lot of plants/decor

I only partially vacuum the sand I can reach. I keep the substrate shallow so pockets of gas can't form, and I monitor my water params. The plants eat up pretty much all my ammonia and nitrates. The snails keep the sand pretty well turned over, in addition to the kuhlis and cories always digging around.

I have a cascade 1000 canister filter on this tank.

 

[Essjay]

There are a few points.

All the fish you mention in the first post are soft water fish which need the GH of your well water. This includes kuhli loaches - their range is 0 to 143 ppm/0 to 8 dH. It is not the hardness which is killing the kuhlis.

You mention endlers in post #3. These are hard water fish and your water is too soft for them.

You cannot make the water hard enough for endlers (or any other hard water fish) without harming the soft water fish.


Your water is perfect for all your soft water fish including kuhli loaches. If you want to keep endlers, you would need to set up a separate tank for them and add remineralisation salts of perhaps Rift Lake salts to that tank - and that tank only - for the endlers. There is no happy medium for the fish you have.

 

[Gizaroo2]

There are a few points.

All the fish you mention in the first post are soft water fish which need the GH of your well water. This includes kuhli loaches - their range is 0 to 143 ppm/0 to 8 dH. It is not the hardness which is killing the kuhlis.

You mention endlers in post #3. These are hard water fish and your water is too soft for them.

You cannot make the water hard enough for endlers (or any other hard water fish) without harming the soft water fish.


Your water is perfect for all your soft water fish including kuhli loaches. If you want to keep endlers, you would need to set up a separate tank for them and add remineralisation salts of perhaps Rift Lake salts to that tank - and that tank only - for the endlers. There is no happy medium for the fish you have.

Thank you! I think that answers my question on the fish end.

In regards to plants, is there anything I can do for them? I'd love to be able to have vals, and some other faster growing plants. They all seem to die within a few months even adding root tabs. Is there another type of fertilizer that would help those types of plants without affecting my water hardness too much?

 

[Byron]

Thank you! I think that answers my question on the fish end.

In regards to plants, is there anything I can do for them? I'd love to be able to have vals, and some other faster growing plants. They all seem to die within a few months even adding root tabs. Is there another type of fertilizer that would help those types of plants without affecting my water hardness too much?

Vallisneria does well in harder water--it is after all native to the rift lakes in Africa which are quite high in GH. Rather than considering adjustments for a specific plant, look to other plants that will be OK in your soft water. My water is basically zero GH and KH, and I have success with several plants, so I have stayed with these.

Sword plants are one, and the chain swords (Helanthium tenellum) would be ideal here. They spread via runners the same as Vallisneria, and in fact look much the same with their long narrow leaves. The larger Amazon Sword plants (Echinodorus species) would work in the larger tank.

I've no idea what brand of fertilizers you have used, but all are not equal. The best substrate tabs I have used are Seachem's Flourish Tabs. For liquid, if it is needed, a comprehensive supplement used sparingly should suffice. Flourish Comprehensive Supplement is one of the best, and Brightwell Aquatics' FlorinMulti is another. As you are in the USA, you should be able to find one or both of these locally or online.

 

[Colin_T]

Most aquatic plants should do well in your water. I had similar water an could grow just about anything.

What plants are you trying to grow and what do they look like when they die?

There are lots of different species of Vallis and some grow in soft water, whereas others do better in hard water.

What sort of light is on the tank and how long is it on for?
What is the wattage and Kelvin (K) rating of the globes?

I used Sera Florena, which is an iron based liquid aquarium plant fertiliser. I monitored the iron (Fe) levels with an iron test kit and kept the levels around 1mg/L (1pm) and the plants did really well.