Kent Low Range Controller

[diamond_discus]

Anyone using Kent Low Range Controller to lower your tap water pH ? Do you know where I can order the biggest size of this ?

[TrevorB]

I tried using that for awhile, but it takes a ton of it if you have hard water like myself. I find that RO mixed with tap is much better way to go. I don't get the 6.0-6.5 pH, but I maintain a constant ~7.0.

I believe I used to get a big bucket of that from thatpetplace.com

hth,
Trevor

[poconogal]

What's your tap PH? If its high and you use chems to lower it, PH rebound occurs and it will jump right back up again. Then you have your Discus on a PH roller coaster.

My tank PH is at approx. 7.9 and my tap is 8.1, even though my water is soft. The Discus spawn weekly and there are no problems with them in my high PH.

[Cosmo]

You might want to look into Kent Ph Control Minus, but it's strong stuff and I wouldn't suggest using it without a digital pen. It's nitrate and phospate free and I use it on occassion. Very effective, but like I said.. very potent.

You can buy it at http://www.customaquatics.com in sizes rangine from 250 grams up to 25 kilograms Only place I've seen this product lately.

Jim

[diamond_discus]

My tap is 8.2. Even after aging for 24 hours, the pH maintains at 8.2. All my discus were doing fine. Last month I did some exchange/trading with a local breeder.. He kept his water in 6.5 pH using the Kent Low Range Controller ... Some of my fishes died at his place and some of his fishes died at my tanks. What's bad is that there was some kind of diseases /infection outbreak in all of my tanks. Maybe it's just coincident ... but he told me that I should keep my fish at lower pH so that they can have better immune system. Since I will be doing some trading/selling/buying from him in the future, I thought I would try to maintain my water similar to his, trying to prevent a similar disaster. He claims that the Kent Low Range Controller will keep the pH down and will not bounce up like the Discus Buffer or others.

[poconogal]

If all was well with your fish and then some of his fish died at your place and some of yours died at his place, sounds like his place may have had a problem, like you got sick fish from him and that your fish got sick from his place, especially if there was a disease outbreak in your tank. Your PH of 8.2 would not cause that, and I don't believe that a lower PH would help your fish to have a "better immune system." Did you have any ammonia in your tank? Ammonia at higher PH is more toxic than it is at lower PH. That could have caused a problem and caused your fish to get sick, though.

My QT tank PH is 8.1-8.2, and I've never had any problems. If all has been well with your fish at your 8.2 PH, IMO I would find a different breeder instead of fooling around with your PH.

[Bainbridge Mike]

My tap is 8.2. Even after aging for 24 hours, the pH maintains at 8.2. All my discus were doing fine. Last month I did some exchange/trading with a local breeder.. He kept his water in 6.5 pH using the Kent Low Range Controller ... Some of my fishes died at his place and some of his fishes died at my tanks. What's bad is that there was some kind of diseases /infection outbreak in all of my tanks. Maybe it's just coincident ... but he told me that I should keep my fish at lower pH so that they can have better immune system. Since I will be doing some trading/selling/buying from him in the future, I thought I would try to maintain my water similar to his, trying to prevent a similar disaster. He claims that the Kent Low Range Controller will keep the pH down and will not bounce up like the Discus Buffer or others.

I don't think you should try adding anything to your water to lower the pH. Do you know what your KH is? If you really want to lower your pH, it would be better to get an RO filter and try using 1/2 RO and 1/2 tap and see how that works. Unless you have really low carbonate hardness (KH), a 50/50 mix would be more stable than adding acid to your tap water. Also, I don't think fish really have a better immune system in lower pH water. I think the theory is that fewer pathogens can tolerate acidic water. I think that is probably true with very acidic water (ph of 5 or less) but I'm not sure if that is true with just slightly acidic water. Also, as Connie mentioned, at lower PH you get ammonium instead of ammonia--which is less toxic.

Good luck,
Mike

[Cosmo]

From the sound of it, neither of you QT'd ?? Never cross contanimate between systems like that.

[diamond_discus]

From the sound of it, neither of you QT'd ?? Never cross contanimate between systems like that.

Well, he put my fish in a seperate tank .. I don't know what he did after I left .. For his fish, I put that in a seperate tank too .. but I use the same net to transfer fish back and forth between all my tank ... Maybe the disease got transfer by the same net ?

Any of you using snail in your tank ? They laid eggs a lot ... could they have something to do with my disease out break ?

For my community tank, I purposely left that alone with any of the new fish ...(unfortunately, again, I use the same fish net) ... This tank was fine until last week ... all the fish got sick ... I was trying to find out the reason ... one thing that I can think of is the carbon and ammonia chip I have in my filter .. I haven't change them for almost 7 weeks .. could that be a problem ? I also had a Chemi Pure bag in one of the filter and the Chemi Pure was almost 6 months old ... just about time to be disposed ... Could old carbon and ammonia chip cause rotten fin and make the fishes sick ?

[poconogal]

Whenever you get new fish and place them in a QT tank, you should always use completely separate equipment for the QT tank. Using the same net, or anything else in the QT tank and then other tanks can spread disease to every other tank. Its best to have separate equipment for each tank, also. If you can't get separate equipment, then you can dip or soak your equipment into a solution of water with a little bit of chlorine bleach to kill any bacteria. Make sure that there's no chlorine left on the equipment before using it in another tank. You can use dechlorinator in whatever you are using to dip or soak the equipment and make sure that all chlorine smell is gone.

It still sounds to me like you got sick fish from him.

As far as old chemi pure and carbon, how often do you clean your filters? And, if your tank is fully cycled, you shouldn't need ammo chips at all, so you can save yourself some money there.

[diamond_discus]

Whenever you get new fish and place them in a QT tank, you should always use completely separate equipment for the QT tank. Using the same net, or anything else in the QT tank and then other tanks can spread disease to every other tank. Its best to have separate equipment for each tank, also. If you can't get separate equipment, then you can dip or soak your equipment into a solution of water with a little bit of chlorine bleach to kill any bacteria. Make sure that there's no chlorine left on the equipment before using it in another tank. You can use dechlorinator in whatever you are using to dip or soak the equipment and make sure that all chlorine smell is gone.

It still sounds to me like you got sick fish from him.

As far as old chemi pure and carbon, how often do you clean your filters? If you tank is fully cycled, you shouldn't need ammo chips at all, so you can save yourself some money there.

Yes, I guess I learn this the hard way ... I do have multiple nets ... just too lazy to keep track of them ...never thought that it would be a problem.

He told me that his fishes are doing fine at his tanks ... so he denied that he has sick fish.

I typically clean my filters every 3 or 4 months .. but change the media every 6 to 8 weeks. Never had a problem like this before. My tanks are kinda crowded with too many fishes ... and I tend to overfeed ... so I was using ammo chips to try to reduce ammonia. I change 25% to 50% water either daily or every other day.

[poconogal]

Are you running canister filters? Even so, with overstocked and overfed tanks, every 3 or 4 months is not adequate. I clean my canister and media every month and I also use a prefilter, which helps to keep the inside of the canister/media much cleaner. If your filters are dirty, that can definitely start a bacterial infection in your tanks. If you have hang on back filters, every 3 or 4 months is grossly inadequate. Those should be cleaned weekly or every other week. I'd up my water changes to at least 50% minimum each time. Also, do you have gravel? If so, how often is that vacuumed?

[diamond_discus]

Okay .. I have 4 tanks : 55, 40, 40 and 10 gallons.
The 10 gallon is just a hosiptal or fry tank.. no filter, just a sponge filter. If I have fish in there, I would change do 75% WC daily

For my 55 gallons, I have 4 filters (believe it or not). I have a Emperor 280 and 400 power filter with bio-wheels, then I have a TetraTec PF150 filter, and a Magnum 350 Canister Deluxe (but I only use the Micron filter, without the bio-wheels). I also has two sponge filter in it. I change the Mircon Filter every 4 days and clean the canister container. For the rest of the filter, I have carbon, chemi pure and ammo chip in them. Every week or two, I would take out the filter cartridge and try to wash off the debris with tap water .. then put them back in and re-use .. I kept the same cartridge for 6 to 8 weeks before changing for a new one. For the chemi pure, I keep that for 6 months as directed. I do not take out the entire power filter to clean .. I only do that maybe 3 times a years.

For one of my 40 gallons tank, I have Fluval 405 canister and a Emperor 280 power filter, plus 1 sponge filter. For the Emperor 280, I use the same cleaning routine as above. For the Fluval canister, I clean the media once a month (well, maybe once every 5 weeks sometimes). What media do you use in your canister filter ?

For my other 40 gallons tank, it's the cleanest because I typically use that as my breeding tank. Only a pair or a few fishes will be there. I have a Eclipse 3 filtration hood which has a carbon media and a bio-wheel. I also has two sponge filter.

Do you think I need to modify my cleaning routine ? How often do you clean your sponge filter ?

For my Magnum and Fluval cansister and my Eclipse 3 hood, I am using a pre-filter as well. However, there is no prefilter that would fit the Emperor filters.

By the way, all my tanks are bare bottom. And I do at least 50% WC every other days, using 24 hours aged and heated water.