pH and kH crash - HIGH gH

[imagirlgeek]

Re: pH and kH crash - HIGH gH

Not that I know of.  I've been racking my brain trying to figure out what is different because something has to have happened.  Hmmm...air fresheners...we use Lysol, but I'm always careful to spray it down and very little in the living room and dining room.  I wonder if it drifted into the tanks though....

[eklikewhoa]

Re: pH and kH crash - HIGH gH

Well you have to keep the A/C in mind as well...that could circulate the whole house with whatever it is......whatever it is.

[Zulaab]

Re: pH and kH crash - HIGH gH

Traci -- where does the area you live get their water from ?
We have had a reason dry spell, and this causes the water levels to drop significantly from where the city gets it water from.

The scientific (albeit not the best one I have described below to see if its a water or air problem)

Get four buckets of water from the tap (if you have 4 buckets)  -- test the water today, tomorrow and the day after that.

Bucket # 1 (air quality) sit it your living room with an airpump going.  I would want to know if the air quality is what is causing this issue.  
Bucket # 2 (same as # 1, but add a tea spoon of baking soda to the water)
Bucket # 3 (same as # 2, but NO aeration, and important.. put a lid on this water)
Bucket # 4 (NO aeration, and put a lid on this water)

Bucket # 4 is your tap control -- it should stay the same no matter what happens.  For 1 and 4 you can use a smaller jar... the only ones I would really make sure you have 5 gallon of water is the ones you are going to add baking Soda to)

In the first 3 buckets I would also add prime / amquel to them....  # 4 is completely pure.. nothing in it.

Jesper

PS your spreadsheet rocks..   Now you are going to make me want to find out what those electronic testers cost (from a scientific standpoint, because for the hobbyist its going to be prohibitively expensive I am sure.

[imagirlgeek]

Re: pH and kH crash - HIGH gH

Thanks Jesper!  I'll do that with all the buckets.  But I don't have any baking soda...can I use Tang Cichlid Buffering salt instead?  I think it should have the same affect as baking soda....

Thanks about the spreadsheet.  I will definitely hook you up.  I actually exported that from a database, which I prefer to use.

[imagirlgeek]

Re: pH and kH crash - HIGH gH

And this is the info I found on where our water comes from:

"The City currently draws 100% of its drinking water
from 15 permitted wells at 5 separate groundwater
plants. These are deep wells with an average depth
greater than 1200 feet, producing water from the Chicot
and Evangeline aquifers."

[edmlfc]

Re: pH and kH crash - HIGH gH

I'm no expert either but I would think it has something to do with rain. My water does weird things after a rain storm. At first I thought this was after the so called hurricane we should have had but the date is a week before. Were there any rain storms in your area during that week? I'm curious to know what happened.

[imagirlgeek]

Re: pH and kH crash - HIGH gH

I'm trying to remember the last rain we had before the 'hurricane'....I can't remember...I wonder if they could have been prepping for the storms though...

I'll let you know as soon as I know.

[Zulaab]

Re: pH and kH crash - HIGH gH

Traci --

my only worry is if you add tang buffer to the tank, you are going to increase GH too.  You are looking only to bring up your KH which is best done with Baking Soda..

The Spreadsheet / database :) Yeah -- I would love to have it.. but here is the deal -- What I really need to do is go get one of those electronic water testers which will give me accurate read outs that I can put in to the PC each week / 2 weeks :)

[eklikewhoa]

Re: pH and kH crash - HIGH gH

Hanna or pinpoint make some good testers but it's gonna be expensive....

[imagirlgeek]

Re: pH and kH crash - HIGH gH

Okay, here are the test results after 24 hours.

Tap Water Baseline - pH - 7.8  kH - 11   gH - 8  (taken yesterday)

# 1 (airpump, Amquel+) - pH - 8.4   kH - 12   gH - 6  
# 2 (airpump, Amquel+, Sodium Bicarbonate) - pH - 8.4   kH - 17   gH - 8
# 3 (no airpump, Amquel+, lid) - pH - 7.8   kH - 11   gH - 7
# 4 (no airpump, no lid) - pH - 8.2   kH - 12    gH - 8

Well?

[eklikewhoa]

Re: pH and kH crash - HIGH gH

#3 is close to what your tank should read....with the lid there is no co2 exchange which lowers the pH which would replicate that of fish producing co2.

I think there is something that got into your tanks which caused the crash....I would start looking into things that are used around the house which the fans or a/c would circulate to the tanks.

[imagirlgeek]

Re: pH and kH crash - HIGH gH

Yep.  I think you're right.  Now comes the chore of getting things back to normal without stressing the fish.  Time and water changes.....