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I've had planted tanks before - no fancy co2 or stuff, just flourite substrate. Never had problems with that tank. I've just set up my 55 (standard size) with 2 bags of fluorite, topped with one bag of ada malaya aquasoil (malaya was printed on the price sticker label don't see that word on the bag tho). The bag and instructions said not to rinse. The fluorite was from my old tank, and pretty dust free. Nevertheless I rinsed it again. Put all the substrate in, added plants, ran filtration til tank was clear, rearranged plants, ran filter again (did this a few times as it clouded so badly. Did 50% water change to get rid of more 'dust' after adding driftwood. After it ran clear for 2 days, I removed the flossfilled bags from the powerhead outlets (there were 2 I used for filtering the soil cloudiness when stirred. I left one in for circulation and removed the other. I checked chems, all were fine, then added fish, and 2 well established aquaclear 50 hob filters, Within a day, PH had dropped to the bottom of the scale! Did 25% wc (my tapwater typically reads at nearly 8.0) and checked again that evening. the wc had brought it up about .3, but that evening it was way low again. I've read this can sometimes be caused by driftwood, etc, but I'm thinkin it may be teh soil. I had driftwood (the very same piece) in my previous planted tank, so the soil is the only difference other than the size of the tank (old one was a 40G SeaClear acrylic tank with the wet/dry builtin filter).
Much as I hate to, I've been adding chems to try and bring it up to a happier level, but they're not making a dent, and I would much rather fix the problem than keep treating the symptom. I thought about loading another aquaclear hob filter with nothing but shell/crushed coral since that's supposed to help. Meanwhile I'm about to do anotohter w/c to get it back on the charts at least.
Any other suggestions for stabilizing it at a 7.0 ish range (without chems)?
I'd like to add a layer of black gravel over the soil - would that help? the ada stuff seems so soft, and the cats would like gravel more I think. Opinions/suggestions on that would be appreciated too!
Inhabitants include 6 rainbowfish, 2 roseline sharks, 2 spotted raphaels, one ropefish, one petricola, adn I've no idea where they came from but 2 guppies got in there too (I think they're almost as bad as snails!).
Much as I hate to, I've been adding chems to try and bring it up to a happier level, but they're not making a dent, and I would much rather fix the problem than keep treating the symptom. I thought about loading another aquaclear hob filter with nothing but shell/crushed coral since that's supposed to help. Meanwhile I'm about to do anotohter w/c to get it back on the charts at least.
Any other suggestions for stabilizing it at a 7.0 ish range (without chems)?
I'd like to add a layer of black gravel over the soil - would that help? the ada stuff seems so soft, and the cats would like gravel more I think. Opinions/suggestions on that would be appreciated too!
Inhabitants include 6 rainbowfish, 2 roseline sharks, 2 spotted raphaels, one ropefish, one petricola, adn I've no idea where they came from but 2 guppies got in there too (I think they're almost as bad as snails!).
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