Some advice regarding Ph

Hi again, well I did a full water test this morning and there's no change - other than my phosphate lowering a little from the new phosphate remover. Other than that the Ph is still the same, as is the Kh - at least it's not flown the other way.

As for the fish, well they are back to normal now and so in the next few days I'll aim to put my tank back together

It's worth remembering that you don't want sudden or dramatic swings, the rock is there to gently buffer & stabilise the kH & pH. If it made a marked difference in 24 hours, think what would happen in a fortnight!

yeah, that was what I meant by 'at least it's not flown the other way'. I tested to make sure it hadn't done anything dramatic as I know that's not good either.

Hopefully it will do as you say and just slowly and gently buffer things up a little bit. I'm keeping an eye on things just to be sure

Hi all, not been around for a few days cos I've had a fluey type virus and the animals have got fed and not much else!

I've just got around to re-testing my water and the Ph and Kh are still the same so it looks like I'm going to have to open my other filter and see if I can cramb the rest of the ocean rock into there.

I guess it's good that the Ph hasn't moved ... I'm still the same stable yellow colour and so the fears of a Ph crash are going away now.

On a side note I got myself some new purple gold headed harlequins on Friday. I've currently got them alone in my spare 30 litre tank as they are currently small enough to be angelfish food. I filled the little tank with water from the main tank and what did the harlequins do on Sunday? ... spawn ... I was so shocked I went on my lfs' facebook page and told them! They were shocked too but they suspect it's my super soft, low Ph water that did it. I can't see no eggs and so I've no idea if the spawning session was just a 'practice' run or if they actually laid some eggs... time will tell I guess. I suspect they are far too young though as they are no bigger than around 1cm. I've asked my lfs to order some more in as I want a nice shoal of these. I had 9 adults but recently age has begun catching up and I'm losing them one by one. I have 4 adults in the main tank but one is looking sickly. Once the new 4 are big enough and fat enough not to fit in an angelfishes mouth they can join the adults

Hope you're feeling better, thought I would do some pH testing of my own...

Tested the bagged water of two new angels (very local shop - don't ask, never say never!) pH 5.5.

My tank is pH 5.5 or lower (orange/red on Nutrafin Wide Range pH). Matches but that could be a problem!
Tested my 48 hour old aerated top-up water, exact same story. Working backwards...
Tested my tap water, same story pH 5.5.

No plants in my aquarium, glass bottom, just some gravel (which I was told would buffer pH) in filter and sponge. 2 Filters, no algae problems, water very slightly milky (might need more filter media, and have considered adding a fine layer 2kg of silica sand to base of tank)?

I don't have a kH test kit as yet, but if I've got the jist of this if I keep doing large water changes 1/3 each week, the kH in the tap water will keep the KH from dropping?

ahh the soft Yorkshire water strikes again! It's perfect for these angelfish though

Akasha wrote:ahh the soft Yorkshire water strikes again! It's perfect for these angelfish though

I have said for years that the water in Yorkshire is that soft and pure that it does not need treating. But no one would listen. Having said that, I used to treat mine anyway just to make sure. Nine times out of ten it made my Angels more ............ how do you put it. More willing to lay. When I treated the water.

so what is it about Yorkshire water. It's a mystery.........

can't beat a bit of Yorkshire water

I do dechlorinate though because I know around these parts they put all sorts in Flouride being one thing that's added in abundance (now being linked to Alzheimers desease which is a little scary) and I don't want to risk anything by not adding water treatment. But Yorkshire water is soft - unlike Yorkshire folk

Now, if I can just convince them to stop adding so much Phosphate I'll be happy ...

If you visit the Yorkshire Water website (other water brands are available) you can type in your postcode and access a report which details where your water comes from, the area of your supply and in-depth results of comprehensive water tests. No fluoride added here, the only fluoride present is 'naturally occurring'.

I've just had a look and they do add flouride here and there's quite a bit of metal stuff in there too ... lead and copper etc. They also add colour ....? what the flip is that about! lol

They describe our water as 'moderately soft' and Ph is 7.26 ... seems fairly accurate with my tests. I notice there's no data for Po4 though ...