malawi4me Posted October 12, 2014 Share Posted October 12, 2014 not sure how this should be used and want to be 100% befor throwing it in the tank....My water ph is 7.8, hardness is 220ppmwater is for Discus so I want to lower both.Tank is 170 liters only a few discus.Here is the back of the bottle, Im confused as to the dossage rate..... Shop told me to put in 3 too 5 ml everyday? sound right? Direction: Apply Biotec Blackwater Weekly, at 0-1 dKH (<17.9 ppm), very soft acidic water to hard water in aquarium / hard tap water.Apply up to 2-3 times a week in more heavily stocked aquariums. Test pH and dKH hardness regularly, adjust blackwater use to reach ideal level.Ideally the water ranges from 6.5 to 7.5 ph, 2-8 dKH.change less than 0.3 units a day.Discus 0 gH & 3 kHlost me..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Link2Hell Posted October 12, 2014 Share Posted October 12, 2014 so you have a few discus in 7.8 pH and want to lower the pH and reduce hardnesswhat substrate is in the tank because if you have anything that will buff to alkalinewill just have you going back to the 7.8water is your tapwater parametersit appears to be a blackwater tonic and the instructions are pretty ordinaryI would use 5ml and test it after an hour but I don't see it making a huge change inpH and hardness levels unlike if you added peatif it drops it by 0.2 over night then continue at that dosage rateget a 200lt drum and pre condition the water for your water changes if you can Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malawi4me Posted October 12, 2014 Author Share Posted October 12, 2014 cool thankyou! standard aquarium gravel. those parameters i gave (7.8 and 220) were both tap and tank.I am also adding timber to the tank and some almond leaves to the filter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Link2Hell Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 great water for Malawi , Tangs and Central Americansyou will need to pre condition the water so get yourself a barreland to get it to 7.0 pH you may have to look at a water softenerto reduce the carbonate levels or an RO unitlet us know the results of the blackwater extract Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malawi4me Posted October 13, 2014 Author Share Posted October 13, 2014 tank has has 3 doses of blackwater at 5ml a dose, so total 15ml and so far no change at all.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ducksta Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 Give it til tomorrow morning, check again. If no change, get some water tested at a local shop. If the shop tests the same, throw out the blackwater extract as it seems to be useless. If the shop shows a different reading, buy a new test kit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malawi4me Posted October 13, 2014 Author Share Posted October 13, 2014 Ducksta I already had the same thought and now own 2 kits and both say the same..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ducksta Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 So it seems like either the blackwater stuff does literally nothing, or it does so little that something in your tank is buffering the water up. You could try it in a bucket of tank water with just some aeration.(It could be some stonework, or even some mineral content in the gravel that is pushing the readings up, or something seemingly inocuous like a filter media?)A CO2 input in to the tank can drop the pH. But can be hard to manage/balance."pH down" solutions are generally short term fix as the hardness usually remains to bring it back up once the 'acid' is run out.I agree with Chris that your best bet is probably treating the water before it gets to your tank. If you cant age/condition it in a barrel you could look at some chemical filtration or a reverse osmosis unit that you can run the water through immediately before a water change - but this is probably going to be a bit more expensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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