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Started a new 5gallon lowtech heavily planted tank back in march. It's open top and I add tap water for evaporation only... no WC
Day 1 (March 19th)
Flourite Black Sand and Mulm (1L), ADA AquaSoil Malaya (3L), with a big hunk of Malaysian Driftwood
Tap water:
gh 25
kh 16
ph 7.8
I started dosing seachem ferts march 29
Dosed
NPK 1.66ml-7.5ml-1ml + 1/16tsp Equilibrium
gh 14
kh 3
ph 7.4
And a month later, the hardness continues to fall with kh at almost zero!!
April 28
Dosed:
NPK 1.66ml-8ml-1ml + 1/8tsp Equilibrium
gh 16
kh 1
ph 6.8
So by May 5th, the date of my last tests, the gh is rising but kh isnt doing much and ph remains constant...
Dosed:
NPK 1.66ml-8ml-1ml + 1/8tsp Equilibrium
gh 18
kh 2
low ph 6.8
My concern is the low kh... I've read that plants like a mid range kh and it also acts as a buffer for ph swings... I have no fauna yet but I want to add shrimp which need constant ph as far as I've read... is the aquasoil really affecting the kh this much?
As reference, my heavily planted 15 gallon that i started march 2nd with flourite black sand only and a large piece of branch driftwood, and using the same tap water to top off only is very different indeed:
gh 30 (steadily rising)
kh 15
ph 8.2
Day 1 (March 19th)
Flourite Black Sand and Mulm (1L), ADA AquaSoil Malaya (3L), with a big hunk of Malaysian Driftwood
Tap water:
gh 25
kh 16
ph 7.8
I started dosing seachem ferts march 29
Dosed
NPK 1.66ml-7.5ml-1ml + 1/16tsp Equilibrium
gh 14
kh 3
ph 7.4
And a month later, the hardness continues to fall with kh at almost zero!!
April 28
Dosed:
NPK 1.66ml-8ml-1ml + 1/8tsp Equilibrium
gh 16
kh 1
ph 6.8
So by May 5th, the date of my last tests, the gh is rising but kh isnt doing much and ph remains constant...
Dosed:
NPK 1.66ml-8ml-1ml + 1/8tsp Equilibrium
gh 18
kh 2
low ph 6.8
My concern is the low kh... I've read that plants like a mid range kh and it also acts as a buffer for ph swings... I have no fauna yet but I want to add shrimp which need constant ph as far as I've read... is the aquasoil really affecting the kh this much?
As reference, my heavily planted 15 gallon that i started march 2nd with flourite black sand only and a large piece of branch driftwood, and using the same tap water to top off only is very different indeed:
gh 30 (steadily rising)
kh 15
ph 8.2