Re: Amanda's Discus Journey
Hi Amanda,
Beautiful tank and discus! I wrote in one of your other threads about GH/KH. I mis-read and thought you had a KH of 4, which I thought might be good enough. If it really is only 1-2,then you may want to add something like the crushed coral. Sorry for any confusion.
Steve
Re: Amanda's Discus Journey
Quote:
Originally Posted by
RogueDiscus
Hi Amanda,
Beautiful tank and discus! I wrote in one of your other threads about GH/KH. I mis-read and thought you had a KH of 4, which I thought might be good enough. If it really is only 1-2,then you may want to add something like the crushed coral. Sorry for any confusion.
Steve
+1. Nice tank and fish.
Re: Amanda's Discus Journey
Thank you Steve! I originally did think it was 4 - I retested and concluded that it is in fact between 1-2. I was confused because the test said that I'd have my KH when the test went from blue to yellow. The test never showed blue (not even from the 1st drop into the vile).. 1st drop kept the water a clearish color, 2nd drop made it a clearish/yellow.. 3rd drop made it more of a solid yellow.. But the fact that it never went from blue to yellow (only clear to yellow), has me suspecting that it's closer to 1-2.
Re: Amanda's Discus Journey
Quote:
Originally Posted by
14Discus
+1. Nice tank and fish.
Thank you Bill!
Re: Amanda's Discus Journey
Any risk in adding too much coral at once? I've filled a large mesh media bag with it, rinsed it and am ready to add it to my basket.. Just wanted to make sure it doesn't have to be added gradually. Thanks in advance!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
RogueDiscus
Hi Amanda,
Beautiful tank and discus! I wrote in one of your other threads about GH/KH. I mis-read and thought you had a KH of 4, which I thought might be good enough. If it really is only 1-2,then you may want to add something like the crushed coral. Sorry for any confusion.
Steve
Re: Amanda's Discus Journey
I've never had to use it so hopefully someone else with experience will reply.
Re: Amanda's Discus Journey
Thank you! I'll hold off on adding it for now... It is ready to go though.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
RogueDiscus
I've never had to use it so hopefully someone else with experience will reply.
Re: Amanda's Discus Journey
Hello Amanda and welcome, reading your post here about KH and I'm assuming you're using api test kit instructions seem a little confusing while it does say you should go from blue to yellow step 5 states that KH is determined by number of drops to turn test water bright yellow, I would try and clarify that maybe in speaking with api before I added coral, and as far as water changes go the more water you change at any one given time the more chance you have of upsetting your ph so I would check your water to see if you have ph swings and I would also check my tank ph against my water change source at every water change just to avoid any ph problems
Jeanne
Re: Amanda's Discus Journey
Thank you Jeanne - YES!! The instructions are so confusing!! In one part it says wait until it turns from blue to yellow... and then in another section it says "bright yellow"... So I've been trying to look at youtube videos to see what others' test tubes look like... I'll keep testing/comparing and report back in a couple of days on that.
Re: Amanda's Discus Journey
I'm suspecting that given your low pH, there is very little KH buffer in your water, which might mean the test reagent never gets to turn blue. This would make it all the more important to monitor your pH to be sure is doesn't start dropping rapidly, known as "crashing."
Re: Amanda's Discus Journey
I can only speak for my situation as my PH is at 7.8 or so. My crushed coral is in a med/sm bag in the sump. My PH of both tank and aging barrel are the same. I want to keep my PH the same w a stable KH, so I put crushed coral in the sump so as the water in the tank slowly acidifies, the crushed coral is there to act on any increased acids. This happens very slowly and it’s my understanding that the coral will only leach out/buffer water w more acid. Your water being 6.8 is on the low side, so adding coral may increase both your PH and KH. Your situation is unique in that your water is on the acidic side to begin with. Honestly, I’m not sure how exactly how you should proceed. My “guess” is that putting a bag in your tank sump/filter would be ok as the crushed coral would be ‘busy’ trying to deal w the acids very slowly and, in so doing, would....more or less.....keep your tank water from becoming more acid. If you do frequent WCs, the coral would never really have time to alter the PH/KH that much. The crushed coral in the sump/filter is available to provide KH factors as needed. The people I’ve called to discuss this with real well with is Seachem support. They’ll have products to sell that increase KH, but you can learn from them and apply their knowledge imparted to your PH/KH situation. I don’t feel bad about doing this bc I do regularly purchase their Matrix, De-Nitrator, Stability, Paraguard, Prime, Trace products...among others. Perhaps others will chime in and give you a better direction. Again....in my particular situation, the crushed coral does exactly what I need bc my PH is high enough that the crushed coral really gets going only if my tank water heads in the acidic direction. At 7.8, the coral is there more as a fallback where yours might be more of a changer.
Re: Amanda's Discus Journey
I add about 14 oz of crushed corals in a mesh bag and insert it into the Aquaclear 110 HOB filter to stabilize the Ph.
Re: Amanda's Discus Journey
Just tested everything again - so we'll say 18-19 hours after the 1st test.
Tank Results: 5 GH, 2-3KH (The result is definitely a 2/3 - it turned from blue to yellow today!!) - I normally do my water changes in the mornings - I haven't done mine yet today - I'm going to do it shortly. pH 6.8-7.0
Tap Results: 5GH, 2-3KH
The reason I'm writing 2-3 is because it went from blue, to a soft greenish/yellow, to a solid yellow... So It's somewhere between 2-3... Or just a 3.
Re: Amanda's Discus Journey
Good. Glad the test was clearer today. Given the change began at 2, I would be inclined to use that as the value, since we're thinking it's on the low side anyway, and that you're planning to add coral.