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alkaline mystery
I am a returnee to the planted aquarium world after a long hiatus--in
1989 an inconvenient earthquake destroyed all my tanks (plus my house) and I am now at long last setting up a new tank. But a strange thing is happening. My tank water is testing alkaline off the chart--my test kit only goes to 7.8. So the pH is at least this. My tap water is from a well. It has a lot of iron and manganese in it. It tests at 7.0, with 8 dKH. I softened my aquarium water to 6dKH with distilled water. My old time tanks, same well water, were heavily softened with rain water (it does not happen to be raining at present), and were always mildly acidic, as one would expect. I can only figure that I put some wildly alkaline object in my tank. But what could it be? This is what is in the 1. a half inch of terracotta pottery clay covered by 2. an inch to 3 inches mixed garden loam and vermiculite. This garden loam has grown vegetables and flowers for years, and I have no reason to believe it is anything but ordinary clayish loam. I have not tested it, however. 3. topped by about an inch of mixed masonry sand and used standard aquarium gravel 4. driftwood, and granite and sandstone rocks from my local creek all of which I used for years in the past without problems. 5. slate siliconed to the glass for terraces. 6. plants, in variety. No fish yet, and I don't dare put any in, with this water. 7. DIY CO2 teed into the intake of a Eheim cannister. I haven't done this before and the CO2 seems to come through in a glob every few minutes, causing the filter to hiss and gurgle. It is a 29 gallon tank with a 55x2 watt bright kit from AH Supply. My scientist husband suggests adding something acid to the water to get neutral pH and see what happens next. I know there are such additives sold for aquarium use, but is there something safe to add from around the house? Peat seems like it would be too complex an acid and would make it hard to interpret what was happening. Any suggestions gratefully received. KMS from central California |
#2
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alkaline mystery
My first thought is are you using an old test kit? If not you may inadvertintly
picked up some highly alkaline rock or substrate.I't good to hear of someone who sets a tank up like it was a part of the natural environent instead of some kind of sterile plate glass parlor. Peat stuffed into a an old panty hose leg and sunk in teh back of the tank may help.Peat is the safeest adn most natural way to go. Moon remove nospam from e-mail to send to me, I grow trees in aquariums like bonsai. I breed dwarf crayfish, great for planted community tanks. If you can get me a shovelnose sturgeon fingerling (Scaphirhynchus platorynchus) no wild caught please, contact me |
#3
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alkaline mystery
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