pH and hardness levels?

[Jack Dotson]

First, thanks to everyone who has taken time to help me out. My tank is now
five weeks old and doing well. All fish appear healthy and none have died.

I tested all my levels again this morning and everything is pretty good
except for the water hardness. I use the test strips from Junglelabs and
here is what I found this morning:

Nitrate - Safe level (0 ppm)

Nitrites - Caution level (.5 ppm)

Total Hardness - Very Hard (300 ppm)

Total Alkalinity - Moderate (80 ppm)

pH level - Neutral (7.2 ppm)

Per the recommendations I received here I put in aquarium salt last week for
the hardness problem. Follow the manufacturer's recommendation for
quantity, but the levels are still maxed out. The fish don't seem to care,
but I would still like to get the levels within normal limits. Any idea
what else I can do?

Also, I have no idea what pH and Alkalinity levels are, or what effect they
have on my tank. So if they get out of whack I will have no idea of what to
do. Can anyone educate me on these or point me to a good site that will
explain?

BTW, I use only artificial plants (I know, I know), I change out 10% of my
water each week and treat it with a Chlorine remover, and 25% each month and
each month I also vacuum the rocks during water change. I keen the lights
on 12 hours a day and keep my water temperature at 78-79%. I have an
outboard Topfin 300 filter and at the one month point I rinsed them out
using tank water during the water change and added new charcoal, or whatever
that stuff is.

Which reminds me, one more question if anyone is still with me. I've been
told to just rinse out the old filters and to just change out the charcoal
so I would keep the good bacteria. The lady at the Petsmart told me that at
this point I have enough good bacteria in my tank that I could just drop in
brand new replacement filter and I would have no problems? She also
mentioned adding sponges to get the water even cleaner, but she got pulled
away before I ask her more about this. What was she talking about here?

Thanks again for all your help, I really appreciate it.

Jack

[NetMax]

"Jack Dotson" > wrote in message
...
> First, thanks to everyone who has taken time to help me out. My tank
is now
> five weeks old and doing well. All fish appear healthy and none have
died.

Excellent :o)

> I tested all my levels again this morning and everything is pretty good
> except for the water hardness. I use the test strips from Junglelabs
and
> here is what I found this morning:
>
> Nitrate - Safe level (0 ppm)

Some NO3 would be expected and would not be harmful.

> Nitrites - Caution level (.5 ppm)

Still not cycled, but low and probably close to finished, or it's a
mini-cycle.

> Total Hardness - Very Hard (300 ppm)

Might not be very accurate, but it's 16dgH, which is fine for many fish,
and ideal for a few others. Whether this is a problem for you depends on
the fish you want to keep, and whther you will be breeding them.

> Total Alkalinity - Moderate (80 ppm)

That's 4.5 dkH (degrees are the usual aquarium reference). This is an
excellent number. It is not so high as to make it impossible to change
your pH, and not so low that your pH is at risk of being unduly affected
by things in your tank which might acidify your water. The krib quotes
4.0 dkH as the ideal carbonate hardness (or buffer or alkalinity).

> pH level - Neutral (7.2 ppm)

Your water is quite nice actually, unless you really prefer soft water
fish. Lake fish from Australia, New Zealand, Africa, Central and South
America are all good candidates.

> Per the recommendations I received here I put in aquarium salt last
week for
> the hardness problem. Follow the manufacturer's recommendation for
> quantity, but the levels are still maxed out. The fish don't seem to
care,
> but I would still like to get the levels within normal limits. Any
idea
> what else I can do?

The aquarium salt was probably to compensate for high nitrites, so now
that your NO2 is low, it's not required (unless you have brackish water
fish ;~). Adding marine salt will increase your gH. Adding aquarium
salt will not effect your gH one way or another.

> Also, I have no idea what pH and Alkalinity levels are, or what effect
they
> have on my tank. So if they get out of whack I will have no idea of
what to
> do. Can anyone educate me on these or point me to a good site that
will
> explain?

Basically, pH is a logarithmic measure of how acidic your water is. A pH
of 7.0 is ten times more acidic than a pH of 8.0. A neutral pH (neither
alkaline nor acidic) is 7.0, which is a very convenient water to start
with, to either leave as is (almost every fish will be fine with it), or
to adjust up or down, if needed.

Alkalinity is a measure of the carbonates in the water. To a fish, it
apparently makes no difference. To an aquarist, the higher your kH, the
more stable your pH will be, and stability is a good thing for fish. To
a chemist, or an aquarist who wants to change (ie: lower) the pH, the
higher the kH, the more resistive the water will be to change, so it's a
bad thing. Think of it as your safety margin, or a shock absorber.

The krib talked about it here: http://faq.thekrib.com/begin-chem.html

> BTW, I use only artificial plants (I know, I know), I change out 10% of
my
> water each week and treat it with a Chlorine remover, and 25% each
month and
> each month I also vacuum the rocks during water change. I keen the
lights
> on 12 hours a day and keep my water temperature at 78-79%. I have an
> outboard Topfin 300 filter and at the one month point I rinsed them out
> using tank water during the water change and added new charcoal, or
whatever
> that stuff is.

The light duration is fine for real plants, but without plants, the
lights are for you. Fish only need the dimmest amount of light timed so
they know when it is day and when to sleep.

> Which reminds me, one more question if anyone is still with me. I've
been
> told to just rinse out the old filters and to just change out the
charcoal
> so I would keep the good bacteria. The lady at the Petsmart told me
that at
> this point I have enough good bacteria in my tank that I could just
drop in
> brand new replacement filter and I would have no problems? She also
> mentioned adding sponges to get the water even cleaner, but she got
pulled
> away before I ask her more about this. What was she talking about
here?

I'm not familiar with your filter. If there is a bio-wheel, then you
have bacterial redundancy which allows you to change the foam/sponge
filter media as needed. If you do not have a bio-wheel, then you need to
achieve redundancy another way, either having 2 sponges which are cleaned
alternately (what you would do with an AquaClear), or you need to have 2
(or more) filters running, (2 Topfins, or a Topfin with another filter).
If your other filter was a UGF, then your biological filtration would be
concentrated there, so your dependance on the Topfin would be minimal.
If you are running a very low fish-load, bacterial redundancy loses
importance as all the surfaces are coated in the nitrifying bacteria, but
in a normal tank, your dependance is much stronger on the filter system.

If all you have is one filter, with those vertial pouches holding the
carbon *sigh* then you have a feature limited design (which probably was
originally designed with a bio-wheel). When you install a new pouch,
position the old pouch behind it for a few weeks to cross-seed your
bacteria. Crunch the pouch as needed, empty the carbon if you like
(carbon is considered active for only the first few days of operation,
and is recommended to be changed at 2 month intervals, if you want to
continue using carbon).

If your Topfin uses proprietary cartridges (you have to buy replacements
regularly), then consider getting a different filter and keeping your
Topfin as a spare (or use them both at the same time). Most canister
filters and AquaClear powerfilters use sponges which last almost forever.
Marineland filters use bio-wheels, but still have the annoying cartridges
to buy, but - their cartridge/wheel combination provides very high
quality filtration, so you are getting a better value for your filter
media purchases. hth

NetMax

> Thanks again for all your help, I really appreciate it.
>
> Jack