Crushed Coral

[DiscusDuo]

We are trying to raise the kh in our tank(which is now at 0!) We tried adding baking soda, it worked, however the results faded in a mere 48hrs!!
We heard that crushed coral in the filter would fix the problem, but how much do we need to use. Our ph is also at 5.0, which we would like to raise to 6.0-6.5, will the CC raise the ph too high?
Also what kind of CC do we use? the kind used for substrate? if so where can we get in small amounts, the lfs has 15lbs bags . .we don't need that much.

thanks

[April]

sounds like you have the water i have almost. do you live in the rainforest of the west coast of canada? lots of rain?
i use crushed coral. but i also use kent ro right to add minerals into my water..as its mineral poor and you get slow growth in juvies.
i get a nylon and stick it in the filter. id say about a handfull or so in a bag. you will have to work on it.
the most important thing with soft water and low ph is you keep up with your water changes or you will have a ph crash for sure.
and dont ever use amquel!!it has a note on the bottle in small letters at the bottom. it says something to the effect of note.. not to be used with alkaline unstable water as it will crash. i tried it and got a crash after two uses.
i bought mine in a 10 pound bag. its the stuff they sell for africans i guess.....i got mine in bulk. or..you can use treated oyster shells. my lfs sells them too.

[Steve_Warner]

Hi all,
Discusduo, it sounds like you have some seriouly SOFT water, along with a major organic load breakdown going on, contributing some bigtime acids to the water column. The C.C should alleviate your problems in regards to fear of a pH crash, but there are not any other minerals which fish need, contained in the C.C, besides the Calcium. They will get some other minerals from the foods they eat, but it is not all that much, IMO. You can make your own mix of minerals to add every so often to the water to replenish the necessary ones for growth, health, etc. How often do you do W/C's? What ALL is contained in the tank(fish, plants, substrate, decorations, etc)? More info, please?
FYI-I have had readings in my tank in the 4's(and 3's a couple times) and not had any problems with pH crashes. I did do W/C's(along with small supplemental mineral additions) when readings were this low, and this boosted the pH just a bit to ease my mind of any worries. My pH hovers in the 5's range now.

Steve

[Discusgeo]

Discusduo I would add Instant Ocean Sea Salt used for Marine Aquarium as it adds all the elements back to the water. Since I don't know what size of aquarium it is I would start out with a 1/4 cup of it. Don't add it directly to the tank. Disolve it in you make up water first, airrate it and heat the water to the correct temp as you Discus tank is.
George

[April]

theres a mix you can make of equal parts of sea salt. epsom salt and calcium carbonate. or...the kent ro right which adds back minerals etc from ro water.
Steve....my water is 0 kh and 0 gh here in vancouver. and low ph.

[DarkDiscus]

April just likes to rub it in about how great her water is for discus and how bad ours is!

;)

John

;D

[April]

LOL..hmmm....well its not good for growing fish. slower growth. but ok....for breeding.

[DarkDiscus]

April,

;D

John

[jsojda]

Hey April, how does the CC effect your ph and conductivity?

[DiscusDuo]

Thank you all for the info!!
We are going to try the CC..probablly get some tomorrow.

we use Dicus essential,or Electro right to add back minerals, and raise gh.
our gh is 11, but kh is 0.
why cant we just have perfect water? ??? oh well nothing good ever comes easy right?lol

we have a 72gal tank, how much cc do you think we should try?

thanks again everyone
;D

[April]

no idea. try a handful.
the coral didnt raise my kh or gh really....jsut helped the ph stay more stable.
takes alot to get my kh or gh up.

[gump]

LOL,.. April & I have the same water & were on the opposite sides of the country.. April sure helped me out when I first started having ph readings in the 3's!! and low 4's!!
I also use crushed coral & oyster shell mix which seems to stabilize my water well. I have a bag in every filter.

Steve.. I'm curious on YOUR mineral mix, could you please post it.
Pierre

[Steve_Warner]

Hi all,
Gump, I use C.C(powder form)(50%), Magnesium Sulfate(Epsom salts)(30%), Sodium Bicarbonate(Baking Soda)(15%) and a little sea salt(5%) now to make mix to reconstitute water, but NOT at every W/C. I use straight R/O to do W/C's and when I see my conductance getting low(near 100's), I use a nice dose of these in my next W/C. This puts back in minerals required for the stability of the water and for the fish. I get a 5 gal drinking water bottle(have many from the old days of bucket brigade) and put R/O in there and add the minerals in too(get it to about 1000uS). Shake it around a while until the mix is nice and churned up and slowly drip it into the tank through some 1/4" tubing over a few hours. I have about 100 gals of water in my 125(I like the open look at the top, plus it helps oxygenate water with my bio-wheel return falling back into the tank and for my Philodendron/Golden pothos roots) So I have approx 90-95 gals(at 100uS) left in the tank after siphoning, then add 5-10 gals mineral rich(1000uS) water to that, giving me a conductance about190uS. (90 * 100uS) + (10 * 1000uS) = 9000 + 10000=19000 / 100 = 190uS. I'm thinking about experimenting with some Potassium Chloride in the mix too and test it's effects.

Steve

[DiscusDuo]

another question, we went to the lfs to get crushed coral and all they had was the 15lbs bags so they told us if we didnt want to spend the money for all that cc, we could just get the african cichlid mix gravel and it would do the same thing. so we got the 5lb bag of the cichlid mix, we put about 2 handfulls in one filter, and after 24hrs we have seen no change.
so do you think the chichlid mix will do the same thing?
or were we mislead?
if it would work, how long till we see results?

we have a 72 gal tank...do we just need to put cc in all the filters instead of just one?

anyone who has had any experience that could help us would be greatly appriciated!