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Re: Rising GH and KH?!
Cavan wrote:
> This one has got me ready to pull my hair out. Here's
> what happened. I usually change about 7 gallons of my
> 30 gallon tank about once every 2-3 weeks. To seven
> gallons of distilled water I add a small amount of
> calcium carbonate and magnesium sulfate. It seems
> that the hardness tends to creep up after awhile.
> Perhaps it is the reconstitution recipe, perhaps
> not...
One thing I can think of is that you may be loosing water due to evap,
especially if the tank doesn't have a tight fitting lid. I'm guilty of this
myself, letting the water level drop a couple inches sometimes between water
changes. It's not a big deal on the soft water plant tank, but it is a
_huge_ issue for the "liquid-rock" Tropheus tank where a couple inches could
account for as much as 10-15% of the total water volume. By not topping up
the tank to normal levels before the water change, I was leaving behind a
larger percentage of the minerals than I wanted. Replacement water was
adding more. Over time, the gH had risen to well over 27 dgH. I stopped
counting at 27, being the frugal Yankee I am, I figured it was a waste of
perfectly good reagent <g>
Try topping the tank up before the water change. Or, take the lower level of
water into account when adding the replacement water/additives. If that
doesn't do the trick, then try mixing your replacement water up 3 to 4 days
ahead of time. Test it before using it to make sure it's the correct
chemistry, making any necessary adjustments _before_ adding it to the tank.
The saltwater folks top up the tank regularly and make up replacement water
several days ahead of time to help maintain consistent water chemistry.
If that doesn't work, then it's something in your tank causing the problem
(rocks etc...)
Susan