Plants using all the water hardness

[Ryzilla]

Originally Posted by BSS

Hmmm. Maybe I'm missing something, but are you concerned with the hardness (GH, Mg, Ca) or with your carbonates (KH and dropping pH)? It seems like the pH drop was your bigger concern, yet most of the posts target a problem with the GH, which I'm not sure you stated to be a problem.

Thank you for the clarification BSS. I am talking about the carbonates. Wow, I cant believe this post has gone on for this long without me catching on to the confusion. Great catch BSS. YES IT IS THE CARBONATES!!!! Whewwwww!! I feel better now. How do I keep my the plants from chewing through all the carbonates?

[lumpyfunk]

this dosent do anything but treat the problem, you could add crushed coral or oyster shells to your filter.

[Ryzilla]

Originally Posted by lumpyfunk

this dosent do anything but treat the problem, you could add crushed coral or oyster shells to your filter.

what about adding excel?

[TINNGG]

Mmmm... I seem to recall a thread in recent memory (actually within the last few days) of the bad idea of adding shells/coral to the filter. Seems that it's hard to control.

Ahh..kH. Baking soda. Not too much though.

Crypts will strip carbon out of the water column. They also don't always take well to excel.

I've also gotta add, if you're managing to get angels to spawn like clockwork without waterchanges, you've hit upon the perfect setup.

[BSS]

How long is it taking for your KH to drop? And, why do you suspect the plants are doing it? In my case, I had both KH and GH dropping to 0 over the course of just a few weeks. I eventually tracked it down to an acid source in my tank. I had some driftwood that was leaching some form of strong acid(s), which were combining with the carbonates and such and 'eating' both my KH and GH.

I'd suggest taking samples of stuff from your tank (e.g. a little substrate, other decor pieces), placing them into tupperware containers along with a control sample of just water and then recording any KH/GH changes over the next week or so.

My suspicion is that something is leaching an acid...unless of course this is happening over quite a long time, in which case, it could be the plants.

Just something to consider,
Brian.

[Ryzilla]

BSS,

I have maylasian root wood in my tank. That really hard stuff that sinks real fast. I have it in all my tanks. Only in my lowtech which only recieves roughly quarterly water changes does the wated read 0 Kh. In my shrimp tank which is a 10g low tech which recieves weekly water changes the Kh stays the same as the tap. I use flourite in all my tanks. I believe the plants are doing the stripping.

[TINNGG]

I had a 10 gallon planted with mostly crypts. It was on about the same schedule as my big tank - w/c once a week. I tested it one day and was very surprised to see the kh was almost 0. The large tank read at 7 or 8. Doookay. Now, I do not use real wood after having problems with it rotting on me once, so it can't be blamed for that, and this tank wasn't set up to look exactly natural (it still has that frosted peack epoxy coated stuff in it, and at the time had a lego pirate ship as well). I *think* I added a smidge of baking soda to bring it up a bit.

[BSS]

Originally Posted by Ryzilla

I have maylasian root wood in my tank. That really hard stuff that sinks real fast. .... I use flourite in all my tanks.

Not to scare you, but that's the same set up as I had!

I do think I just got from "freak" wood though, as very few others seem to have reported a similar problem. I've now got some maponi (sp?) and haven't had it recur.

Do you have multiple pieces of wood in the tank? Can you remove them one at a time to see what happens? They likely have plants strapped too them, so you might have to relocate to another tank. Sorry if it sounds like I'm carrying on about this one, but I refused to really address mine for over a year, and it always kept my tank 'different' from the norm on the boards. So, I'd hate to see you wrestle with the same problem. But, since it is only in the one tank.

Regarding plants stripping the KH, I have read that vals will do this (as suggested above). But if the change in noticeable in weeks and not in months, then, IMO, the plants aren't capable of this. If so, we'd be reading about it more frequently.

My thoughts...
Brian.

[alohamonte]

To increase water hardness, add some coral/shells. They'll slowly dissolve the calcium into the water column. Use your test kit to determine the appropriate amount.

[TAF CAF]

Baking Soda.

I like my tank set up, but had some wood also 'eating' my kh, and my water was low in kh already. As soon as I started to add a little baking soda, things straigtend right out... the wood stopped leaching eventually, and the raised kh from baking soda kept my ph from droping in the mean-time.

It doesn't take much either. I made a 1 cup water mix with about 1 teaspoon baking soda, and then added just a couple drops each day to the tank until things were where I wanted them.

[RoseHawke]

I have maylasian root wood in my tank. That really hard stuff that sinks real fast. .... I use flourite in all my tanks.

Not to scare you, but that's the same set up as I had!

Hmmmm, this is interesting. I had some Malaysian driftwood in my tank as well, a couple of pretty large pieces, and I distinctly remember that at one point I was having the same problem. The tank also seemed to be an algae magnet and I never could get rid of the stuff. Finally in frustration I took everything out and bleach dipped every plant in it (pearlweed does not like bleach ,) and elected not to put the driftwood back. No more prob, and it seems like I've finally (knock on er, driftwood,) gotten this beast balanced.

Mind you, the KH is still between 1-2, but at least it stays there without me tinkering with it.