Water Changes!!

Heh! I actually like changing the water. Yeah, it can be time consuming, but I think it's worth it. To try to get my water to match the needs of the tank, I have come up with the following *recipe* for my replacement water. (Remember, my tank is only 12 gallons, so this 4 gallon recipe represents a minimum of 33% water change).

• 4 gallons tap water
  
  
• 0.4 ml of SeaChem Prime (to dechlorinate and condition)
  
  
• a little less than 1/2 teaspoon of SeaChem Equilibrium (to increase total hardness)
  
  
• 1.0 ml of SeaChem Flourish (a comprehensive plant supplement - including trace elements)
  
  
• 2.0 ml of SeaChem Flourish Excel (a source of bioavailable organic carbon)
  
  

I tested the replacement water with my water test kit and I got the following results:

Replacement Water

Test	Results
NH3 (ammonia)	0 mg/L
NO2 (nitrite)	0 mg/L
NO3 (nitrate)	0-5 mg/L
CA (calcium)	3 drops = 3*20 = 60 mg/L
PO4 (phosphate)	0.25 mg/L
FE #1 (toxic iron)	0 mg/L
FE #2 (chelated iron)	0.25 mg/L
GH (general hardness)	8 drops = 8*20 = 160 ppm = 8.96 dH
KH (carbonate hardness)	10 drops = 10*10 = 100 ppm = 5.60 dCH
pH (low test)	7.4 pH

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Testing Tables

I'm trying to use this blog to keep track of what I've done to my aquarium as well as keep information about the aquarium inhabitants. To that end, I need to use some HTML code to get things to look right. Since I've never been much of a coder (just ask my bud Al... :) ), I'm going to do some testing in this post:

Aquarium Inhabitants and Recommended Environments

	Temp Range			pH Range			dH Range
	Low	High		Low	High		Low	High
Elephant Nose Fish (gnathonemus petersii)	72°	82°		6.0	8.0		5	19
Freshwater Clam (corbicual sp.)	65°	85°		6.5	8.0		8	10
Golden Lyretail Panchax Killifish (aphyosemion australe)	73°	79°		6.0	7.5		5	8
Japanese Trapdoor Snail (viviparus malleattus)	68°	85°		6.5	8.0		8	10
Japonica Amano Shrimp (caridina japonica)	60°	80°		6.0	7.6		3 dKH	10 dKH

Based on the above parameters, the recommended environment for the live animals in my tank should be between 73° and 79° Fahrenheit, between 6.5 and 7.5 pH, and somewhere around 8 dH.

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Aquarium Update

Of the animals that I received on April 30, 2004, all had looked like they were ok except for one of the japanese trapdoor snails. One of them started moving and eating within minutes of being put into the tank, but the other did not move so well. I was a little concerned until this afternoon. When I came home from work, I found that the second japanese trapdoor snail has started going to work. It's funny - the first snail seems to zip around and over everything just lightly touching and eating what it comes into contact with, while this one that just started moving is very deliberate and seems to cover areas more thoroughly.



What of the other animals? Well, the golden lyretail panchax killifish are always on the move, hiding from the elephant nose fish. (So much for Lang's Tropical Fish telling me that the elephant nose is "peaceful" fish. She seems to be terrorizing the killifish, swimming after them any time she catches site of them.) The japonica amano shrimp seems to hide from everyone, and the freshwater clam has almost completely submerged itself in the substrate.



So it looks like everything is ok, but looks can be deceiving so I'll be continuing my weekly water changes, as well as the water testings.

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Small Water Change

Another day, another partial water change. Removed 3.5 gallons and added back 3.5 gallons of replacement water.

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Small Water Change

As I blogged earlier, I performed a small water change in the hope of reducing pH over time. I removed 2.0 gallons and added back 2.0 gallons of tap water that had only been treated with SeaChem Prime.

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Water Testing...

Tested the two water samples collected earlier - the water from before the water change and the "48 hour" water. Here are the results:

Pre-Water Change Sample (2004-04-30)

Test	Results
NH3 (ammonia)	0 mg/L
NO2 (nitrite)	0.1 mg/L
NO3 (nitrate)	5-10 mg/L
CA (calcium)	2 drops = 2*20 = 40 mg/L
PO4 (phosphate)	0.25 mg/L
FE #1 (toxic iron)	0 mg/L
FE #2 (chelated iron)	0 mg/L
GH (general hardness)	6 drops = 6*20 = 120 ppm = 6.72 dH
KH (carbonate hardness)	12 drops = 12*10 = 120 ppm = 6.72 dCH
pH (high test)	8.2 pH

Oops. It looks as if I added too much baking soda as per Hugh's directions. That carbonate hardness is excessively high, and probably is contributing to the high pH (as well as the CO2 consumption by the plants). I also think that the nitrites detected are probably as a result of the new additions to the aquarium as well as the temple - narrow leaf that is dying off slowly.

"48 Hour" Water Sample

Test	Results
NH3 (ammonia)	0 mg/L
NO2 (nitrite)	0 mg/L
NO3 (nitrate)	0-5 mg/L
CA (calcium)	2 drops = 2*20 = 40 mg/L
PO4 (phosphate)	0.25 mg/L
FE #1 (toxic iron)	0 mg/L
FE #2 (chelated iron)	0 mg/L
GH (general hardness)	6 drops = 6*20 = 120 ppm = 6.72 dH
KH (carbonate hardness)	14 drops = 14*10 = 140 ppm = 7.84 dCH
pH (high test)	8.0 pH

Ok, so I really am going to back off the use of baking soda - that carbonate hardness is HIGH! With a high carbonate hardness, I already know that I'm going to have a hard time getting the pH down.

After these tests, I decided to call for help. I was able to talk to Greg at Drs. Foster Smith and he recommended that I get away with trying to increase carbonate hardness and instead increase total hardness - which won't have the undesired (in my case) effect of buffering pH to the high that it is now. He recommended a product called SeaChem Equilibrium. I plan to order the Equilibrium tomorrow and perform partial water changes daily or every other day to try to drive the pH down. I think I might need to look at getting some other aquarium inhabitants to help drive down the pH naturally.

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Quick Picture of Aquarium

Just wanted to show a picture of my Marinenland Labs Eclipse System 12 setup. This picture was taken May 1 around 9:00PM. I turned on the aquarium light for the picture and that probably explains why the elephant nose fish is hiding in the SUV [If you click on the picture, to get the full size picture, you can see one eye of the elephant nose shining below and to the right of the flash from the camera.]

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