60l Starter Tank

@Bluefinllama did you ever get to the bottom of your low GH and KH?
I seem to be having a very similar issue with mine which is causing quite large intraday pH changes between just below 6 and 7.5, I've tested the residual water from my water change on Wednesday (which I'm thinking could be used as a control as it's dechlorinated tap water which has been standing for 2 days) against my tank water.

What strikes me it it seems the tap (Rand Water) water (left hand test) looks to be soft which I did not expect?
I was worried that something in my tank was decreasing it, but from the looks of the test below the control is similar to the tank water after a couple of days.

 

@Gio

In my case it turned out to be the aquasoil, it seems to act like a buffer in itself and will always lower pH, KH etc as long as it is still active, from the reading I've done this is normal and trying to counter it as you'll probably lose the battle.

What type of substrate do you have?

 

Also LanGa, with quite a bit of driftwood.

I was just surprised at the out of tap readings. What did you end up using to buffer the KH?

 

Thanks @A new day will try find some this weekend. Would that equate to +/- two spoons for a 200L?

 

@Gio

My tap water readings in Pretoria also after standing for a bit:

Nitrates = 10
Nitrites = 0.25
GH = >7
KH = 4.5
PH = 7
Chlorine = 0
CO2 = <15

I couldn't find any crushed coral, if you do please also let me know where I can find.

I used seachem alkaline buffer, but the Langa just keeps dragging it back down and as I've mentioned it seems to be the desired effect.

Did you treat the driftwood - as A New Day mentioned it releases tannins and lowers pH KH and gh as well.

 

I'll let you know if I come right with the coral,

I soaked the wood for about a month changing the water weekly, then poured boiling water over it. That's about the extent of the treatment I applied.

 

@A new day I have some sea urchin shells which it seems would have the same effect as crushed coral, do you have any experience with this?

 

Well I'll give it a go and let you know of the results. @Bluefinllama apologies for the thread hijack!

 

@Gio

This is South Africa, sadly we're already used to it

On a serious note, not at all, we're all learning here. I actually have cuttlebone in my tank, I wouldn't say it made any difference, probably more to calcium for shrimp / snails etc.

 

Hello @Gio

I asked a few LFS i visited for their dead coral, which I think they throw away. And was given a few pieces for free. One charged me a really small amount for the dead coral so I have enough to keep my PH quite high. You can break these into small pieces and put in a filter bag. I just left them whole in one section of my sump tank.

 

I'm looking into getting a new filter, hang on back, cannister or maybe a sponge, not completely sure yet, but would like to be able to control flow a bit better, Jeff seems to be doing well and makes bubble nests, but both him and the nests sometimes get blown away with the current even with the smaller filter on, any suggestions for a decent filter?

 

Been looking at the Aquaclears, do they do fine with load shedding though, does it properly prime or do you need to do so? Should be able to baffle the waterfall a bit somehow which should improve the flow you mentioned.