ph in a planted aquarium

johnnyjiron

Goodmorning Guys,

I was using a ph buffer which contained phosphate and it was producing a lot of algae! For a year and a half it has been at 6.4...

What buffers do you guys use to establish the desire ph in your tanks?
Or what techniques...

Angel079

What's your tap water parameters and what fish do you house (there's different options but most depend on what the source is like and the tolerance of the fish you house)??

johnnyjiron

tetras and Discus.. my tap water is very hard and alkaline. it comes out 8.8 ph and over 100 ppm kh and gh. I use to use Discus buffer from seachem and it work fine. I stop using it because it contain phosphate which was producng a lot of algae in my tank.

Angel079

With that kinda difference and the fish you're having I'd ebay a R/O machine for this set up. That's the quickest, safest way to do it IMO if you're dealing with such big difference; and pers I'd much rather get that then the buffers in liquid/ powered forms cause you can "dose" much more accurate.

johnnyjiron

ok thanks

johnnyjiron

any tip of which one? i dont know jack about reverse osmosis :o)

Angel079

I'm sorry John I have r/o from the tap..... Do a search on this site here (search bar on top 3rd tot he right) look for the reviews/ discussions; maybe PM members that bought some.

Mean Harri

One thing you may try is this little item. Tap Water Filter - API
I don't see many people talk about it. I have one from years ago when I had an aquarium. I don't believe I'll need it but I have one. With this, you can play around and mix the filtered water with your tap water to get a lower ph and then add to the tank. You won't be using chemicals except for a good water conditioner for the tap water itself such as Prime. The filter linked above worked great when I used it. I actually added the chemicals the filter comes with the adjust the ph and mineral content of the water. My tap water here in CO is 7.2 ph and a KH of 4-6 so I don't need to play around with filtering it or mixing.

Byron

This is interesting, thanks Harri. From what I can find, it deionizes water which means removing all of the minerals creating next to distilled water. Do you happen to know how significantly it did this for you, and how often you had to replace the resin cartridges? There is another thread on softening moderately hard tap water, and I'm wondering if this is a viable option. Anyone else ever use this, and with what results?

Byron.

Mean Harri

Byron. It's been years since I used that filter but I do know for sure that the material in the canister turns dark when it is expended in life. It gets black-ish I believe. Once the entire tube is dark it's time to replace it. The harder the water the faster the cartridge is used up. I do not remember how long mine lasted but I did not have to replace it in the time frame that I used it in. Unfortunately I do not remember how long that was as it has been too many years ago.

I remember testing the parameters of the water out of it and it was neutral. It tested "Zero" KH, GH, the Ph nothing I believe. It's just plain flat water. It is so stripped I remember a warning to NOT drink it because it could contain organisms that may be harmful. I imagine it would have to be infected after filtering but is so clean that there is nothing in it, such as chlorine, to kill germs. I referred to it as "dead water". Nothing in it at all.