Water Changes

[Bradb90]

I've been asking a lot of questions lately but I thought something lately.

I have very soft water out of my tap, and age it in an brute trash can with a powerhead while heating it to tank temp. I am aware that my pH and temp need to be the same, but I was curious about other parameters.

Does the kH from the aging water need to be the same as the tank water due to its affect on pH?

Currently, I have to dose my display tank with baking soda to bring its kH up to 5.

I was just curious as to how you guys stabilize parameters during water changes.

Thanks

[Willie]

If you have very soft water, then pH is really not a relevant measure. When soft water is added to hard water, the pH of the hard water prevails so there's no change to speak of. I'll need to know exactly the KH readings in both tap and tank water, and the frequency and percentage water changes involved, to be able to comment on KH.

I do 100% water changes daily using conditioned tap water and there's no adjustment at all. My tank conditions reflect the pH and KH of the area water table so life is very simple. :)

[Bradb90]

Right now my tank is 3 kH. Tank is 7.4

Water out of the tap is usually 1-2 kH 6.8 ph

[bluelagoon]

If you're afraid of a PH crash, you can always put crushed coral in a ladies nylon sock and put it near a water flow or in your filter. Sometimes it only takes a hand full, sometimes more. You can adjust it.

[dspeers]

Crushed coral will raise both Kh and Gh as it is calcium carbonate, baking soda only affects Kh. Either or a mix of both is OK depending on what you want. If using baking soda, I would dose the water in the aging tank to get it to a Kh of 5. That is part of the purpose of aging, to get the water parameters stable and where you want them prior to putting that water into the display tank. But, with coral due to slow dissolution the sock in the filter is better.