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In my semi planted 29 gal my water conditions are confusing me. The fish in the tank are fine. My tap water is 0 ppm Nitrite and ammonia as is the same as the tank. The kH of the tap water is around 75 ppm and the aquarium is 50 ppm. The gH of the tap is around 80 ppm, the gH in the tank is close to 200 ppm. The pH of the tap is 7.5 and the pH in the tank is 6.0. How did this happen? What should I do now?

how ole is the aquarium set-up?? whats ur gravel?? what decors u have if any?? how much do u co2 do u inject??

No CO2 I have live plants mixed with artificial plants. A few rocks. The tank is 1 year and 4 months. The gravel is a natural earth tone, medium sized stones.

Last edited by Mr at 24-Apr-2005 09:17

Try setting out a bucket of water overnight and then testing it. Sometimes tap water can change as it settles but usually the ph goes up not down.

I have had no problem with pH and this is my tenth year using the same tap water. The conditions have never changed. I did a three bucket water change and I raised the pH to 6.4.

Last edited by Mr at 24-Apr-2005 17:46

"Picture this: carbonate ions bond with hydrogen ions (which is your pH). The more bonding the higher the pH. Lesser carbonate ions results in a drop of pH. KH of 70 ppm and less will initiate the pH crash. Baking soda can be used to increase KH."

"Long term solution to stabilize your pH and to put KH in your system is what you should look for...increasing hardness is normally fairly easy. Adding decor to the tank which will gradually leach hardening salts (such as limestone rock) is one way. Hardening materials such as coral gravel could also be added to a canister filter. There are also commercially available hardening salts."

If the tank has been setup 10years you might be dealing with old tank syndrome. [link=http://www.bestfish.com/oldtank.html]http://www.bestfish.com/oldtank.html" style="COLOR: #00C0C0[/link]

The tank is not ten years old, its just I have used the same water for other tanks for ten years. The tank is just over a year. Thanks for the advice. I have done many water changes and am in the process of figuring out how to keep it there.