GH - KH question

[jdesormeaux]

Hi all:

unfortunately about a month age I had to move which resulted in total
fish death :( , good news is that I setup again and all is fine with my new
little community :) , fish are growing and health with lots of brilliant
shades, doing the normal 10% water changes each week etc.. and that's when I
noticed..................oh...

My water is soft ( KH 53.7 and GH 53.7 ) , which is fine for tropical
community fish (neon's, Cory's, danio's etc) but recently I've notice KH
decreasing to 35.8 and GH increasing to 71.6 and staying pretty stable at
the above results regardless of how many water changes and filter cleanings
I do?

My question is how do I increase to KH and decrease the GH so that there
at approximate values without using those nasty store bought chemicals (
some people may disagree with me but I don't like the idea of using such
thing in my water unless absolutely necessary, such as clor-out etc....)

Please Help
Joey Desormeaux Registered Nurse

[E.Otter]

Adding crushed coral or aragonite to your substrate will increase the KH
because these items very slowly dissolve adding calcium carbonate in the
water. This may result in an increased pH as well.

[Happy'Cam'per]

This is fine if you're keeping hard water fish, but calcium buildup in the
water can do damage to soft water fish. Unless you're planning on breeding,
then leave the water alone, your fish will be fine.
--
**So long, and thanks for all the fish!**



"E.Otter" > wrote in message
link.net...
> Adding crushed coral or aragonite to your substrate will increase the KH
> because these items very slowly dissolve adding calcium carbonate in the
> water. This may result in an increased pH as well.
>
>
>

[NetMax]

"E.Otter" > wrote in message
link.net...
> Adding crushed coral or aragonite to your substrate will increase the
KH
> because these items very slowly dissolve adding calcium carbonate in
the
> water. This may result in an increased pH as well.

I use crushed coral in my filter media to boost the kH of my soft water
tanks. You will get a feel for the effect, which will depend on your pH,
your water change routine and the amount of coral exposed to water
currents. It's effect is not very dramatic, but I find that if I can
boost my kH into the 3-4dkH range (60-75ppm), I'm far less susceptible to
pH crashes. AFAIK there is no need to otherwise match your kH to pH, gH
or any other parameters. Once you have a few dkH of stability, the
tank's pH is much more consistent.

NetMax