[Seattle_Aquarist]

Hi Samurai_Mac,

Nice looking start to a 'scape!

First of all Seiryu stone has not been available for many years, Japan prohibited the export of the stone from Seiryu province I believe in the 1990's. The stone we see sold as "Seiryu stone" today is actually Ying Stone (aka Ying Rock) which like Seiryu stones are of fine-grained limestone but they come from central Guangdong province in China. Although yours appear to have been treated with muriatic acid to darken them the limestone properties will continue to persist. Limestone increases the PH/dKH and to some extent the dGH as well. The only way to avoid the limestone effect is to remove the stones. Frequent water changes will help keep your PH/dKH from going too high but the more acidifier / acid buffer / CO2 you add to the tank the more of the stone will dissolve to counteract the buffer.

"Seiryu Stone" (actually Ying Stone) Untreated

"Seiryu Stone" (actually Ying Stone) After Muratic Acid treatment

 

[Seattle_Aquarist]

Hi Samurai_Mac,

The PH increasing property will remain constant. I am not aware of a way to exhaust this property except in alkaline conditions. The higher the PH the slower the limestone will dissolve. I believe that the PH at equilibrium is about 8.0 or higher. I have kept all three fish species (I don't keep shrimp) at a PH of 7.2 - 7.4 with no ill effects for the fish. One thing that German Blue Rams (GBR) require is clean water with minimum dissolved organics. You will be doing weekly water changes and cleaning your filter regularly to accomplish the low organic conditions which should help you deal with the PH issue.

 

[Seattle_Aquarist]

Hi Samurai_Mac,

If you are going to Texas A&M you might check with the college aquarium (yes there is one on campus) and see if they have RO water available for students.