Water Conditions And Filter

[devils17]

Hi

Im relatively new to fish keeping (coming round on 1 year) and i have kept the basic fish

Recently i looked at keeping discus as i just think they are the nicest tropical fish available

As they require perticularly good water i bought a few test kits to test my water. The results surprised me

Tank Water
Temp 82C
PH 7.6
KH 7
GH 200ppm (ish!)

Tap water
PH 7.6
KH 3
GH 75pp (ish)

As you can see, something in my tank is hardening my water

I have bogwood in my tnk which i thought would be softening the water, peat in my filter also

I used an Aqua One Aquis 1250 with Bio Noodles, Ceramisub, Zeolite, Filter peat, Sponges, Carbon, Polisher (From botoom to top)

Can anyone give any reason as to why the water would be hardening

thanks

 

[Scvpirates]

what type of gravel are you using?

 

[tenohfive]

What sort of testing kit are you using - is it a decent quality liquid drops based one?

I would have thought there'd be some pH difference as well if those GH and KH readings are correct. Might be worth testing everything again just to be sure.

 

[devils17]

What sort of testing kit are you using - is it a decent quality liquid drops based one?

I would have thought there'd be some pH difference as well if those GH and KH readings are correct. Might be worth testing everything again just to be sure.

ive been using the API liquid test kits
Ive tested everything 3 times now and am still stumped

Im using mid grade pea gravel. I spoke to the guy in the LFS and he said i may have been unlucky and got some limestone in my gravel but he said this would burn out but ive had the gravel for around a year?

any ideas?

 

[Curiosity101]

What sort of water changes do you do every week?
Have you tried doing several large water changes yet?
I would suggest 4 x 50% changes in the same day (maybe this weekend?)
This should get your gH down to just over 80.

Then measure it once a day for a few days to see if it's increasing.
And if so, how quickly it's increasing.

How much peat is in your filter?
And what is the 'polisher' in the filter?

Oh and how big is the tank?

 

[devils17]

Its a Juwel Lido 120 but ive cut out the internal filter

I bought a bag of eheim filter peat and im using a quarter bag but i dont know how much that is, sorry

I bought aquarium wool to use as the polishing filter pad

ill try the big water changed tomorrow and see how it goes

 

[arobinson1984]

If you are interested in keeping discus then I reckon the member 'discuslova' is the guy you want to talk to.

I believe discus shouldnt have any gravel in the tank, just a bare glass bottom and they require large water changes everyday as they require pristine water conditions. They really arent a beginners fish and are difficult to keep, I wouldnt even consider them and I've been keeping fish 4 years now.

Andy