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Tank continually going alkaline.

3K views 15 replies 3 participants last post by  Aaron92 
#1 ·
That's pretty much my only issue. I did my water change today, I was using tap water but I let the chlorine evaporate over a few days and hardened the water a bit. The water I added was neutral, but I went straight to blue in the tank. I've uploaded some pictures of the set up, I only added the driftwood today, but this was happening before that. I'm trying not to use chemicals, but I don't want it to get too alkaline.

Is this a big problem, no fish have died, just a tad worried about it, I like the test coming back green.

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My tank is about 50 gallons, 190litres (that's to the water level). My equipment is as follows-
Resun Ae-808 canister filter. I have charcoal, bioballs, biomesh and a filtermesh in it's 4 sections.
A 200W heater
An 18W sunlight light
Dual valve air pump
And all the chemical odd and ends.

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That's my current set up. The nitrite are at 0ppm, so it's filtering correctly. Maybe it's the shells in the supposedly "natural gravel" mix.

Fishtank August 1st - Imgur - that's just some pictures of the tank. I've changed a little, but the glare is horrendous and can't get a decent picture. Nothing major has been altered, the drift wood was all that was added.
 
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#4 ·
Yeah, its about 7.5-8.5. I don't the exact ph, only have bromethyl blue indicator, no electronics here :(

And the GH in tank is ~50mg/Litre and KH is ~40mg/Litre. The tap water is so soft it doesn't even indicate with my tests, the sample changes colour on the 1st drop, so both are below 10mg/litre. I am using this as my water conditioner currently.
 
#7 ·
What fish do you have in this tank just out of curiosity?

That conditioner contains salts and minerals in. It will raise the hardness of your water and your Ph will follow. This explains the difference between your tap water and your tank water. It also raise the salinity of the water.
 
#10 · (Edited)
All my decorations are plastic and have been previously used. There's a chunk of driftwood about 30cm(a foot) long. There are small shells in the gravel mix, which is my guess on what it could be.

I have Gourami's, Glass Catfish, Peppered Cats, a sucker cat, some neons, kuhli loaches and some small clown loaches.
 
#11 · (Edited)
"Tropical Water Conditioner will raise hardness by ~80ppm and salinity by ~130ppm, when used at the recommended dose rate. "

This concerns me. Can you get yoour hands on a conditioner more like Prime? This conditioner almost sounds more appropriate for African Cichlids and other such fish.. What fish are you keeping? I almost think they are using the word in a confusing way as "conditioner" ...it is conditioning water to be Hard water appropriate for only certain fish not like the normal conditioners that remove chlorine, chloramines and some that temp neutralize ammonia nitrite nitrates.

oopps. Read your last post. OK... I highly recommend an actual water conditioner and not a salt mix "conditioner"
 
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