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[johnny70]

Thanks for the replies. Thanks to Shrimply for the offer, I have a friend who got me some this morning, but thanks anyway.

Will add some coral sand later and see how it pans out.

Thanks
JOHNNY

 

[johnny70]

Right, just been home and tested the tank

pH 6.0 could be lower, have a low end test kit on order
Nitrite 1.0
Ammonia 1.0
Nitrate 10.0

We got a Sera KH test kit, followed the instructon, add a drop, shake etc till it turn from blue to green to yellow, one drop ours turns yellow, did it twice to check, on the seond one we added more drops(20) and it was still yellow.
So that means we have a KH value of 1? tap water also tested the same.

I have got some coral sand, popped it in a muslin bag in the top of my juwel filter and we'll see if anything happens.

Strange!

 

[shrimply]

You really want to have it where it is inside the filter so it has a caonstent flow of water through it. External filters make this much easier

 

[Maxta]

Iv just bought a Tufa rock so hopefully this will help me

Would the same apply Shrimply, maybe if i took a bit of the rock off and put it in the filter?

 

[shrimply]

If you have an external filter then yeah I would take a chisel to it. I dunno about an internal possibly, if it would fit.

 

[Maxta]

Ah il just leave it as whole and dunk it in. Busy soaking.

PM Replied

 

[Maxta]

Damn the Tufa rock is bright in the aquarium

 

[Sysiphus]

Damn the Tufa rock is bright in the aquarium

Tufa is a great buffer - I have two fist size pieces in a 90 gallon and they do a great job of keeping my pH stable at about 6.8-7.0. I run C02 so it has a constant battle keeping the tank from moving to the acid side, but works well...

 

[rdd1952]

So that means we have a KH value of 1? tap water also tested the same.

That would be correct. Same as mine. When I first got my kit, I tested about 5 times thinking I was doing something wrong since it never went to blue.

 

[johnny70]

Tested when I got home last night

pH 6.4
Ammonia 1.0
Nitrite 0.25
Nitrate 10.0

Added 150g coral sand at 4pm yeterday so the pH has risen a bit in 6 hours, will test again tonight .

Cheers

 

[Maxta]

Doesnt it raise by around 0.3 a day? Im sure i read that somewhere on a website. Havent checked my pH yet, doubt the Tufa rock will have had any effect yet, either way Shrimplys sorting me out some coral sand So i have that to come yet. As long as my pH raises above 6 then im happy, because then at least i know its above 6, it could be 5 now for all i know because the API test only gos down to 6 (silly?).

Keep me updated to what it gos upto Johnny, im in the same boat as you

 

[johnny70]

Well, good news is my pH has risen to 6.8/7.0 couldn't tell which in 36 hours.

Ammonia 0.0
Nitrite 0.0
Nitrate 5.0

Cheers
J

 

[Maxta]

Nice, i wouldnt mind mine being around that. Did you put the coral on the surface as a substrate or some in your filter?

 

[Birdie]

I am obviously missing something here .
During my fishless cycle, my pH dropped like a stone to umm, don't know what - but way below 6, which was the lowest my kti could read. Having checked out a few previous threads on the matter, it seems that this is a reasonably common occurrence during cycling. As per suggestions on the other threads, I just did a *big* water change - two, actually, straight after eachother - until the pH was a more reasonable 7.2. I then added enough ammonia to get the level back up to 4. The cycle restarted immediately, and was finished a couple of days later .

I had - and still have several huge lumps of bogwood in there (in fact there are even more bits now ) and a few slate caves, and the pH is very stable at around 7.4 - which is what my tap-water is.

 

[johnny70]

I popped it in a muslin bag, and sat it on the top of my polishing media in the top of the Juwel filter.

Looks like the pH is settled at 6.8, just been and tested it. so I'm hopeful its settled down now

Cheers
J