cooder Posted February 12, 2013 Share Posted February 12, 2013 Hi all,The situation:Ive set up a 2ft, 70 litre tank, used aquasoil amazonia II and a small amount of silica play sand, lots of drift wood, a hand full of indian almond leaves, no stones, and lots of plants that im about to stock with a trio of Apistogramma agasizzii Alenquer, it currently holds 8 neon tetras, 4 red eyed tetras and 3 glowlight tetras, (the red eyes and glowlights are soon to be removed, to aggressive and competitive) and the water i am using exclusively for this tank is rain water from a poly tank coming out of the tap at 6.0 or lower, as my kit only measures as low as 6.0.In the initial setup i was wondering why the water was being buffered up, but it was the stones i soon found out, i took them out then it stabilised at about 6.4 after a 50% water change, i then did another 50% WC about 2 days later because it was at about 6.8 which is still to high for my likingNow, 3 days after another 50% WC, in another attempt to lower it, it is reading at 7.2! I DONT GET IT! :rant: Why is it buffering up? The tank has been setup and cycling for about a month now, (and the filter another week before that, seeding) no sign of ammonia, nitrites or nitrates as of about a week ago.The only 2 options i can think of, is that the water somehow loses its acidity and softness after it leaves the poly tank, or the tiny flecks of coral sand that are stuck in the bioballs that i swapped from established tang setup could be causing ph swings. the coral sand grains may be the answer, (soon to find out after i remove the affected bioballs and do another 50% wc) but the thing is, the amount of sand stuck in the bioballs would fit on your thumbnail, and its been in a system for at least 2 years. if this stuff is causing the rising ph then damn its good stuff for africans these grains are about 0.5 mm.The aquasoil could be keeping it at around 6.4-6.8 but whats the point of that if you want an amazon biotype, that would be stupid, the stuff is designed to lower the ph....Interestingly, my tap water comes out at about 8.5, its stored in concrete tanks but is also rainwater. this i use for the tangs. after testing the tang tank water, it is coming in at 8.2, so something is happening their also, lots of stones, lots of coral sand...Anyone have any thoughts? im getting my shipment of apistos on thursday and i cant be dealing with these pesky ph swing when new arrivals come inIm interested to hear what you guys have to say!Thanks for reading,Cody Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sloory Posted February 12, 2013 Share Posted February 12, 2013 Have you tried taking the poly tank water in a glass and check if there's any change after a day or so? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooder Posted February 12, 2013 Author Share Posted February 12, 2013 Was going to but decided not to for some unknown reasoning lolIll do that today.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skippy Posted February 12, 2013 Share Posted February 12, 2013 Could the bioballs be leaching minerals after being in Tang water for so long? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Posted February 12, 2013 Share Posted February 12, 2013 I can't see it being the bio balls, I am guessing you are using plastic balls. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Link2Hell Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 I'm thinking along the same lines as Skippythe pores of the plastic bio balls have calcifiedfrom the Tang water parameters and are leachingcalcium causing the pH to slowly increase Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooder Posted February 13, 2013 Author Share Posted February 13, 2013 Thanks for the answer, that including ceramic noodles would be doing it... darn... i will have to find out what else to use, the only other media in the filter is a sponge and filter wool Ok then, removing those and will update in 24 hrs or so.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooder Posted February 13, 2013 Author Share Posted February 13, 2013 Would a sponge filter leach calcium? i need to quarantine and treat for ich as Jodi Lea got an infected shipment and accidently added them to my fishes tank.she says no signs on them but you can never be sure. better safe than sorry. so yeh i need to quarantine and a 20 lt fry tank is all i have at the moment, and a sponge, lets hope this bloody works.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E4G13M4N Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 What is your KH reading at if that is high that will bring the PH up as well,especially any water comming from concrete storage KH shouldnt be present in the poly storage though depends on what the rain water is running off to the storage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooder Posted February 13, 2013 Author Share Posted February 13, 2013 Its running off corrugated zinc iron on both roofs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooder Posted February 14, 2013 Author Share Posted February 14, 2013 Hey guys,After removing those bioballs and ceramic noodles, the ph is sitting at 6.8, so another WC is in the order, but ive got better news than that,I picked up my 3 Apistogramma agassizii Alenquer today, and they are acclimatizing right now. ive got them going in a small quarantine tank for a while to treat for white spot because some fish that were introduced into their tank before they were shipped had it, so she put off the shipment and treated, now ive got them, i want to quarantine and treat to make sure.I said 3 apistos, not trio because im not quite sure if i got 2 females, 1 for sure looks like a male, and the other a female, but there is an inbetweener! by the looks at the moment it is probably a sub dominant male. Cant confirm that yet, ill see how they look in a day or two and post up some pics to see what you guys think....Tonight i also pick up my Cyprichromis leptosoma Kamakonde colony!!! today is a good day.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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