dKH pushing 30!

756 Views 7 Replies 3 Participants Last post by Connudatus, Jan 17, 2017

Connudatus

Discussion Starter · Jan 16, 2017

My tank is pretty healthy. I don't really have any issues as far as die offs go, or Shrimp not reproducing. I have very had water where I live and because of that my pH is usually around 7.8-8.3, which I have managed. But recently I've noticed my dKH has been high(17-24). A few days ago I upgraded from low tech to high tech and I wanted to check my water parameters for changes. I discovered that my dkh was between 27 and 29, which is really high. I am concerned and wondering what the negative effects of this could be. I am looking for ways to help control this. Last I checked the dkh of my tap water is around 12.

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Axelrodi202

· #2 · Jan 16, 2017

Do you have any rocks or decorations raising the hardness?

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Connudatus

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jan 17, 2017

Bump:

Axelrodi202 said:
Do you have any rocks or decorations raising the hardness?

My substrate is composed of expanded shale, so that could be part of it. I did very recently add seachem's Matrix to my boost my biofilter. They are basically porous rock

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Axelrodi202

· #4 · Jan 17, 2017

From what I hear pumice is supposed to be inert though it may depend on the source. You can do a little experiment. Set out three samples of tap water: one with just water, one with the shale, and one with the Matrix (pumice). Track KH for a few days and you should find if either is the culprit.

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natemcnutty

· #5 · Jan 17, 2017

Both expanded shale and matrix (pumice) are inert. Do you have any crushed coral, rocks, painted decorations, etc. in there?

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

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Connudatus

Discussion Starter · #6 · Jan 17, 2017

natemcnutty said:
Both expanded shale and matrix (pumice) are inert. Do you have any crushed coral, rocks, painted decorations, etc. in there?

Only plants, shrimp, snails, and drift wood. It has to be my hard water then. I will admit I don't do many water changes. Mostly I just top off.

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natemcnutty

· #7 · Jan 17, 2017

Connudatus said:
Only plants, shrimp, snails, and drift wood. It has to be my hard water then. I will admit I don't do many water changes. Mostly I just top off.

Top off with tap water? If you don't do water changes and keep topping off, you are never removing minerals from your tank and are continuing to add them in. Evaporation leaves those minerals behind, and that's why your hardness is going up

I'd do a 25% water change every other day for the rest of the week and see where that gets you. If you think the shrimp can handle it, you could do a bit more or more frequently.

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Connudatus

Discussion Starter · #8 · Jan 17, 2017

natemcnutty said:
Top off with tap water? If you don't do water changes and keep topping off, you are never removing minerals from your tank and are continuing to add them in. Evaporation leaves those minerals behind, and that's why your hardness is going up

I'd do a 25% water change every other day for the rest of the week and see where that gets you. If you think the shrimp can handle it, you could do a bit more or more frequently.

I thought this might be the case, I just didn't expect it to be whole reason. I did a 30% change yesterday, I'll do another one today.

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