Ideally, freshwater aquariums have a GH between dGH or ppm. All animals need some minerals, but certain fish like livebearers, goldfish, and African cichlids prefer higher GH levels. Symptoms of low GH include:.
When you add a natural source of minerals, it tends to release multiple types of ions, which then affects multiple types of water parameters. For example, limestone contains a high percentage of calcium carbonate, which contains both calcium and carbonate ions and therefore raises both GH and KH. If you want to increase only GH but not KH, you must increase the specific ions for GH calcium and magnesium without including ions that affect KH carbonates and bicarbonates.
In fact, African cichlid keepers often buy or create specific salt mixes to individually raise KH or GH. As mentioned before, KH directly relates to pH because it prevents your pH from changing as quickly. In aquariums, pH levels tend to drop over time, so when KH is raised, more acid is neutralized and pH tends to stay higher.
However, if you have a lower pH and add crushed coral, both pH and KH values tend to increase. There are many, many ways to lower and raise the pH, KH, and GH in your aquarium — some that are less effective and others that can be dangerously potent. We prefer to err on the side of caution by using gentler methods. If you want to lower pH, KH, and GH and soften your water, we recommend letting the tank acidify over time by managing minimal water changes and gradually mixing in water filtered through an RODI reverse osmosis de-ionized water system.
If you wish to raise pH, KH, and GH and harden your water, our first choice is to add crushed coral — either mixed into the substrate or as a bag of filter media in your hang-on-back or canister filter. Our retail store in Washington has very soft tap water, so we use crushed coral in every tank to help our fish stay healthy. When adding it to your substrate, we recommend starting with 1 pound of crushed coral per 10 gallons of water.
The lower your pH is, the faster it dissolves, so you may need to replace the crushed coral every 6 to 12 months to keep remineralizing your water. Another way to harden your water is by using Wonder Shells or Seachem Equilibrium. If you already have hard water coming out of the tap, these supplements may not be necessary, and you may be able to keep the mineral levels high just by doing extra water changes. We use cookies to help improve the experience you have on this site.
You can find out more here. Many of the fishes that we see in home aquaria differ significantly from their wild ancestors and this is particularly striking in the case of albinos such as these Cherry barbs Puntius titteya seen at our Huntingdon store recently. Every pond needs some maintenance, and this can be a dilemma for wildlife ponds, where the temptation is to let nature take its course. After a growing season where pond plants can often do a little too well, autumn is the best time of year to carry out some cleaning, fits well with the seasonal activity of wildlife and sets the pond up for a more successful spring.
Cookie Policy We use cookies to help improve the experience you have on this site. Freshwater Aquarium Water Quality. Categories: Aquarium. The key to a successful, healthy aquarium is in maintaining good water quality for the creatures in your care. Most fish health problems are caused by poor water quality and many factors can cause this to deteriorate, including the age of the aquarium, type and frequency of the maintenance you carry out, inadequate filtration, stocking levels, overfeeding, and so on.
Test kits are an invaluable piece of equipment for fishkeepers, for both the novice and the more experienced hobbyist alike. Newly set-up aquariums should be monitored very frequently, especially within the first six weeks, and more mature aquariums should still be checked on a regular basis and a note of the results logged in a diary.
Test kits are your first port of call should you experience any problems within the tank, and are essential for monitoring water quality, for instance, after a power cut, when some of the beneficial filter bacteria may have died back. It is uncanny that many problems do seem to make themselves known in the evening when your local aquatics store is likely to be closed. Having a test kit on-hand gives you an almost instant water chemistry check, from which you can then take immediate appropriate action.
Waiting several hours until the shop opens could prove costly to your fish. During the maturation period, the water in the aquarium undergoes massive swings in toxicity.
The aim is to establish a colony of beneficial bacteria within the filter, which converts ammonia to nitrItes, and nitrItes to nitrates. Whether your aquarium is fresh or salt water, you want the ammonia level to be 0.
Any higher and the water could be toxic for your fish and needs to be treated with an ammonia removal product. The second part of the nitrogen cycle is nitrites. They are the result of ammonia being broken down by the natural bacteria in your tank. Again, nitrites are toxic and should be in concentrations no greater than 0. To contain toxic nitrite levels during a cycle, use a conditioner. Nitrates come from the break down of nitrites.
For freshwater tanks, nitrate should register below 40ppm. Acceptable levels vary among saltwater ecosystems but are generally lower. An appropriate filter media and regular water changes will keep nitrate levels down.
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