[Wet Thumb Forum]-New tank has high pH, GH and KH

[rusticitas]

I was hoping to get some feedback on a new tank I have. It is a 20g, which I have set up to be "el natural" or as close as I understand how to. It has ~1.5-2in of topsoil base and ~0.5-0.75in of Seachem's Onyx Sand on top of that. I used the Onyx Sand on top because I liked the finer texture of it for easier planting, but also because I had had it sitting around my apartment for months and wanted to get it out of the way.

The tank has been up for about two months now. It is stuffed with all kinds of plants that seem to be thriving. When it is sunny, it gets about 1-2 hours of direct and tree-filtered sunlight at sunrise. There are three mature harlequin rasboras, three red-tail rasboras, three panda corys, two pygmy corys and a handful of cherry shrimp.

Last night I finally got around to doing some water chemisty tests. I was surprised to see that the pH was quite solidly at pH 8.0. Water hardness turned out to be 12dKH and 18dGH. My tap water is always pH 7 and GH/KH <1dH. I was a bit shocked, but things look healthy. All fish seem to love playing in the fast water current by the Eclipse hood.

Should I be concerned at all about the high numbers? I had at some point months ago picked up Seachem's Equilibrium, Alkaline Buffer and Acid Buffer products. I understand that I would only use Acid Buffer in this instance if I were to decide to try to change the water chemistry. It says that is is a non-phosphate pH reducer.

I would like to read any comments about the aquarium. Is there anything I should be concerned about? I am mostly concerned about anything "hidden" that I might be overlooking or not understand about the water chemistry.

Thanks!

[rusticitas]

I was hoping to get some feedback on a new tank I have. It is a 20g, which I have set up to be "el natural" or as close as I understand how to. It has ~1.5-2in of topsoil base and ~0.5-0.75in of Seachem's Onyx Sand on top of that. I used the Onyx Sand on top because I liked the finer texture of it for easier planting, but also because I had had it sitting around my apartment for months and wanted to get it out of the way.

The tank has been up for about two months now. It is stuffed with all kinds of plants that seem to be thriving. When it is sunny, it gets about 1-2 hours of direct and tree-filtered sunlight at sunrise. There are three mature harlequin rasboras, three red-tail rasboras, three panda corys, two pygmy corys and a handful of cherry shrimp.

Last night I finally got around to doing some water chemisty tests. I was surprised to see that the pH was quite solidly at pH 8.0. Water hardness turned out to be 12dKH and 18dGH. My tap water is always pH 7 and GH/KH &lt;1dH. I was a bit shocked, but things look healthy. All fish seem to love playing in the fast water current by the Eclipse hood.

Should I be concerned at all about the high numbers? I had at some point months ago picked up Seachem's Equilibrium, Alkaline Buffer and Acid Buffer products. I understand that I would only use Acid Buffer in this instance if I were to decide to try to change the water chemistry. It says that is is a non-phosphate pH reducer.

I would like to read any comments about the aquarium. Is there anything I should be concerned about? I am mostly concerned about anything "hidden" that I might be overlooking or not understand about the water chemistry.

Thanks!

[gnome]

You do realize that Onyx is *known* to increase GH & KH, right? But I know plenty of experienced and talented aquatic plant hobbyists who use Onyx with no problems. Then again, they can control pH with CO2 injection, which I'm guessing you are not using on this tank.

As for trying to change pH and all that, you know what they say: "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Most fish are quite tolerant of a very wide range of parameters. They just may not breed under conditions they're not accustomed to, but if that's not your goal, then there's nothing to worry about. Just make sure you keep a reasonable water change schedule (don't let things go too long that the GH and KH climb way high and a water change would shock the whole system) and when introducing new critters into your tank, take special care in acclimatizing them slowly.

As a side note, your cherry reds should be very happy because they tend to fare better in harder water. They probably *will* breed quite readily under the present conditions. Unfortunately, the rasboras will probably make a quick meal of most of the babies, unless you have a lot of hiding places for them.

But maybe others here will have better advice. I just hate messing with the water too much. Often, it does more harm than good.

Happy planting!

-Naomi

[imported_Lori]

Hi there rusticitas,
I agree with gnome that you should not try to alter your water paramaters.
I also have a natural tank and my water paramaters are as high as yours.
When I started I had neon tetras in the tank and was using 100% RO. The plants were not growing and bascially dying. So, I decided to use my tap water and see how the tetras did with that harder water.
Now,the water is 100%tap, plants are robust and the tetras are in fact laying eggs in the watersprites!!( I was led to believe they did not lay their eggs in hardwater.)
So... dont worry about your water. The plants will love it and many softwater fish are able to live happily.
Have fun.

[rusticitas]

So far, so good! Although I am getting some annoying algaes going (black hair, green hair, brown diatom, etc etc). Yech. Ah well, I have dumped in a load of water sprite, hornwort and duckweed to see if they can suck up the excess nutrients and let the other plants grow a bit unhindered.