Fishless cycle day 12 - The first smidgen of nitrites! :)

[georgef]

Wow! That kind of bites that your ph goes that high

Yep, I've still got the tooth marks to prove it. (Boo!)

I tried once to lower it with Proper pH 7.0. The label on the container said "May cause cloudiness in hard water." Yeah, no kidding! It looked like I'd filled the tank with skim milk! I ended up tearing the whole thing down and starting over.

George

[Wolf]

Your ph is nothing. Mine is 10+ out of the tap plus I have to deal with chloramines. My tapwater has so much ammonia I can cycle filters just by leaving them in the water aging tank. It's not much trouble once you figure out how to keep your parameters stable. I use Seachem discus buffer which is expensive but my ph stays at a rock stable 6.5. I would like to not have to use anything at all. Anyone raise discus in 10.5ph water?

[ronrca]

Ouch! Ph of 10+! Why not go into africans instead? JK!

Now that really bites! I also have chloramines but its not a big deal with Seachem Prime!

It would be interesting experience to try! Do you have any runts or have access to any? I know there may be all sorts of health issues but it still would be interesting to find out. Reading is one thing, seeing is believing!

[Wolf]

Actually, I used to keep Africans and they loved the water but I always wanted to keep discus and here I am. It's not too bad conditioning the water my ph stays stable and it cost me about $10 a month for discus buffer. I wouldn't go back to Africans since I switched to discus. Discus are much more challenging and fun to keep for me especially with this water I have. I even got my first breeding pair and free swimmers last week from two fish I bought in February so the water must be good enough. ;D

[georgef]

Wolf --

Just curious... What is your GH and KH out of the tap?

George

[Wolf]

Here are the water parameters given to me by the city from July through September. I am still trying to figure out how to analyse these parameters. It seems as if my water is pretty soft and should be good for breeding once the ph is adjusted but I have no idea what the discus buffer does to the water after i treat it. I think it probably raises conductivity and phosphates. I have actually never done a kh/gh test but I need to get one soon. I'll try to get one tomorrow and let you know how it test.

Total Ammonia (as N) 0.54
Free Ammonia (as N) .28
Calcium 16
Chlorine Residual 2.29
Fluoride 0.72
Magnesium 7
Sulfate 25.1
Total Phosphate 1.14
Total Hardness (as CaCO3) 72
pH (units) 10.2
Conductivity (umhos/cm) 237
Total Alkalinity (as CaCO3) 48
Phenol Alkalinity (as CaCO3) 26
Total Solids 135
Threshold Odor (TON) 0
Total Organic Carbon 2.28
Turbidity (NTU) 0.06
Silica 8.6
UV254 (cm-1) 0.060
Total Coliform (Col/100ml) <1
E.Coli (Col/100ml) <1

[dm]

Wolf, I thought my water was hard and Alkaline.
I think I'll just consider myself lucky from now on.