Paul & Angela Williams wrote:
Thanks Elaine.

Sorry I didn't give a complete picture so here goes.

Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0
GH 140 ml/l
KH 60 ml/l (was 30 ml/l)
current PH 7.3 was about 6.6. I am trying to lower to around 7 but as I add
kh up, up goes the ph as well. ( I am making these changes over a number of
days.)

Aquarium is planted but possibly not as much as it could be....The name of
the plants escape me but does include a broad leaf plant growing out of
wood.. (heard the wood was good for bristlenose). The light is only a
single 2 ft long one. Which I probably should upgrade.

Never had algae probs.
Tank has been operating around 6 months and has always had low KH.
In the beggining I was having trouble with too high a PH. (as this is how
the water comes from my area)

I am wondereing if this shift to acidity is just the natural cycling of this
tank as bacteria in the canister filter grow.
But has got out of hand because of the poor buffering due to low kh.

the med has 4.0mg/ml methylene blue, 2.0mg/ml acriflavine and 0.4 mg/ml
malachite green.

thanks again


Get the methylene blue out of your water! Change water and/or use
carbon. It will kill your plants and filter bacteria if it hasn't
already. Methylene blue is only suitable for quick dips and quarantine
tanks.

You need to worry less about the actual pH, and more about it
fluctuating. Choose an amount of baking soda that will take your KH to
4 or 5 degrees and keep the KH stable. Stable pH values anywhere from
6.5 to 8.0 are fine for most tropicals. Plants without CO2 will tend to
drop your KH, so you may want to test periodically.

As for meds, water changes, stable KH and pH and salt should help.
You've had malachite and acriflavine around, which should have the
fungus under control and bacterial load down. I'm not sure adding
another med would be helpful at this time.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com