Drip acclimatization is exactly what it sounds like. However, there are sensitive soft water plants that can be almost impossible to grow in hard water. Thought equilibrium was supposed to remineralise water. I used a jeweler scale when I first started adding it to have better control figuring out how much I needed to use to get the result I wanted. For precise dosing, use the Seachem Digital Spoon Scale. If I did go down this road how would you recommend I do it? We recommend to alter GH slowly and keep water changes to 30% of the tank or less. Hi there! Equilibrium will compact with age, but remains effective. To raise mineral content/general hardness (GH) by 1 meq/L (3dH), add 16g (1 tablespoon) for every 80 L (20 US gallons) when setting up an aquarium or when making water changes (add to new water). As i have explained somewhere, I got around this by using Flourish Tabs which have no impacty on fish but still provide the calcium and magnesium. Part of the reason for your weekly water change is to get these back down. I use RO/DI water in my community tank but Ive noticed that my GH has gradually risen over time. When water turns to steam, it leaves behind salts and minerals, resulting in pure water. Attention planted fish tank owners: Even aquatic plants need some degree of electrolytes. CA and MG are also typically in tap water but some places have very soft water with a GH of 2 or less. Hence, despite doing step 2, we still need to monitor the readings of the tank when we first do the remineralization. We have tropical fish and a temperature of 24 degrees. I then did a 6 gallon change with distilled water and the Gh seems to be higher like off the dip strip high! It has a lot of dissolved Co2 so the pH out of the tap is 7-7.5. water with a touch of chlorine. Its basically the measure of the many salts that are dissolved in your water. I have added it to the table. Hopeful it will resolve this issue. We have lost 5 of our 7 cardinal tetras over the last few weeks. Seachem Replenish contains sodium chloride, so it is not suited for planted tanks or salt-sensitive fish, such as certain breeds of catfish. Id avoid using the dip strips as these can be wildly inaccurate. Lucky you have Sodium Bicarbonate, its considerably cheaper than Equilibrium! We recommend Equilibrium for planted systems, and Replenish for fish only systems because Replenish contains higher levels sodium and chloride than Equilibrium which are beneficial for fish health, but may be stressful to plants, while Equilibrium contains minerals that are beneficial for both plant and fish health. Youve probably seen this word in Gatorade advertisements. Also, is their tank getting too warm in summer? Thanks Ian. Seachem - Equilibrium Planted Equilibrium Restores and maintains mineral balance and GH Does not contain sodium or chloride like competing products Ideally suited for use with RO or DI water or any mineral deficient water Find a Dealer Overview Equilibrium is specifically designed to establish the ideal mineral content for the planted aquarium. Osmoregulation enables fish to maintain the proper balance of salt and water in the body, which is necessary to create optimal conditions for various physiological and biochemical processes. Basically, take a sample of your water and send it away to a Lab. I highly recommend grabbing this tool. If they dont then its possible that something else is at play. Or, it could be that GH is higher in your tank because calcium and magnesium are left behind when water evaporates from the tank. My first issue is the sodium chloride (common salt) in Replenish; this has no value to plants, nor fish unless they are brackish (this gets answered by the source habitat which another member has detailed). This one, to be exact. Hello roksiak, what is volume or gallonage of your water? My town tap water comes out like R.O. For breeds like Cherry Shrimps, a below 4 GH water might cause molts to fail. To have the right mix, you need lots of experiments and might still not get it right. If I had my way every corner of my home would be filled with them. I use 5 gallon buckets for every water change. Osmotic stress affects more seriously fish whose natural habitat is rich in minerals and who are kept in an aquarium with a low mineral level, as osmotic gradients (difference) between the internal fluids of the fish and its surrounding environment (water) increase. Beginners often confuse general hardness (GH) with carbonate hardness (KH). There are generally two reasons you need to monitor the GH in your aquarium: If your water source is very soft or very hard, keeping certain types of paradise fish that prefer to live in the middle of this range can be difficult. Contests including the Tank of the Month, Amazon's Choice in Aquarium Water Treatments by Seachem. A small piece of Cuttlefish bone is all I use but you can bye calcium in a bottle from the salt water section of fish stores. I can provide advice relative to articles on my site. Assuming the fish are properly drip acclimated to these parameters, do you expect the overall life span of the fish to be reduced? I cant seem to target the correct ph no matter what do. $15.86 Details. If the levels are going up, continuously, then something you are adding or have added to your tank is responsible. Peat also releases tannins, which can lower your KH and pH as well. In my humble opinion a TDS meter is a better way to find out if Equilibrium will help. For well water, I would use an ICP-OES test there are pre-made kits available on amazon and at local fish stores. So I just searched it up and the hardness of the water in Lake Xochimilco varies greatly from season to season as far as I understand (or they were taken from different points at the lake, I'm not sure, they cut me off because I didn't pay for the report). It is just one more tool in my arsenal to help me try to understand the chemistry of my water. To maintain KH, we recommend Alkaline Buffer. So if your GH is too high, then you will have difficulty breeding these sensitive fish. I agree. as long as they have acclimated to the hard water! What does your test kit say for the other readings? JavaScript is disabled. If you could help me with the GH and KH numbers I would really appreciate it and would it be possible to ask questions, in case I have them along the way?? This will balance out the mineral content of your tank, in particular reintroducing calcium and magnesium into the water. For most of you, that will be all that is needed to increase the hardness of your aquarium water. Great site, I learned a lot -Thanks! It reads more than just minerals. Dark shade of green or light shade of green? Seachem Equilibrium 300gram. Great call Rylan !!! Do these tests for GH detect the Na+ ion from the water softener? Replenish is a proprietary blend of salts designed to replenish physiologically relevant minerals that are removed by reverse osmosis or deionizing filtration. Or maybe, you just want to increase the GH higher than what your tap water currently contains? As their homes flood with extra water, the GH drops. Having tested our water today our total hardness is >21, carbonate hardness is 20, pH 8. Is there a way to near distill water? Ive been keeping fish for a number of years in rock hard high ph water (26dkh, 22dgh and 8.7 ph at time of writing). Add 5 mL (1 capful) Replenish to 40 L (10 US gallons) to raise GH by 1 meq/L (2.8 dGH). This isnt a bad thing, you have some stunning hard water fish to choose from. What about boiling a large pot of water and letting it cool? The PH is too high as well. [4] [5]. Hello! The reason? Based on personal experience, test strips are much less accurate than liquid test kits. I guess the big test will be that if your fish improve on the back of using equilibrium alone. You can also call 8887320003 (Monday- Friday 9:00AM - 5:00PM EST) if you would like to speak directly with a technical support representative. From my research, axolotls require moderately-hard water ranging from 7-14 degrees of hardness. Lucky for you, this is an easy fix Much of fishkeeping is a balancing act! then use this for a minor water change and so on. The important thing to remember is that the GH of your aquarium is invisible. document.getElementById( "ak_js" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Sign up with your email for our newsletter and be notified when we publish new blog posts. What about the KH test? Generally when dosing with additives, its best to test the tank and use those results to determine the dose. Everything seems to suggest they do better with a higher GH? Googling discuss care sheet will help. Unless you have very hard or very soft water or want to keep a sensitive species of fish, most of you wont need to worry about regularly testing your tank for GH. Plant preferences vary, but a general guide is about 12meq/L (36 dH) or match the existing or target carbonate hardness (KH), which, ideally, is also about 12meq/L (36 dKH). With it being heavily planted, its nice to know I can skip some occasional water changes and not worry about nitrates or ph crashes. Luckily my LFS carries it, so I just get the 4L container of . I did a 15% water change with no visible difference. You sure can! I can't go into any more detail w/o giving you the exact formula but that should give you a good approximation of what you need (i.e. HINTS: Do not use Equilibrium when replacing evaporated water. My 4 tanks keep me busy enough and is a compromise with my wife. Same goes for people with softer water who want to keep hard water fish. Its heavily planted too. Gh is a measure of the toal amount of Calcium (Ca) and Magnesium (Mg) in the water The amount of GH increase you get depends strongly your water PH. Your fish need electrolytes to remain healthy, and the only place your fish can get them is by drawing them from the water.[2]. Other things I can do to get the Gh lower? If you are going to mess with the pH, I highly recommend checking out this article on KH, Thank you so much for this very informative article. My favorite remineralizer is Seachem Replenish. The tap reads about 120 ppm on both, pH 7.5-8. Dilute Use the RO/DI water to dilute your tap water, lowering the GH down to your preferred level. My source of water is a well. It restores the essential balance of processed water. I have very soft water. Aragonite is available as rocks or sand. Its more pleasing to the eye than crushed coral. If you are going this route, youll need to constantly monitor your pH and KH levels for swings in the early stages, until you get a sense of how much of each product to add and how it works it can be a bit of a balancing act. Depending on what you stock, this may not be desired. Just leave the little guys alone they will be fine. Fish of the Month, Pet of the Month. The fact that you say nitrite is within the acceptable range has me concerned as well, since the acceptable reading for nitrite in a cycled tank is zero if you are reading any nitrite, then its a clue you may need to cycle your tank. The chemicals used in Equilibrium are more appropriate for keeping plants. In the summer I remove the same amount and then top up whatever has evaporated, so presumably the GH is rising each time I do that (currently 18-20 I only just checked it after being very frustrated that pH is fine at 8, nitirites are negative and the fish are still stressed.) Stablizing water is a lesson in frustration. Debbie. Based on your readings, you probably dont need to keep checking them your mineral content is good enough for a single betta that you can replenish these trace minerals with your weekly water change. I have a 550 gallon in wall Frontosa tank. Your specific fish, plants and invertebrates may require more precise GH levels outside these ranges. It must either be remineralized or mixed with your tap water to increase the GH. Thanks for the post roksiak! In addition, sodium is not a contributing cation to GH levels. Share More sharing options. Honestly, I don't think your KH is too low. Replenish is a proprietary blend of salts designed to replenish physiologically relevant minerals that are removed by reverse osmosis or deionizing filtration. Fortunately, there is a simple way to get around this. Both have been tested by the companies and customers so they are definitely more reliable than your own DIY mix. I cant get RO water each week and cant afford to buy a unit. Try not to change too much though as you may do more harm than good and it looks like everything is actually already going well, visible mating behavour and shrimplets doing well. Strangely the ghost shrimp seem to be thriving in this tank. As much as I would love to, if I do it for you, it would be unfair that I dont do it for everyone. AquaVitro is a seachem brand, but it's reserved for retail stores only, so you can't buy it online. For example, plants use calcium to grow.[3]. The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. Remineralize Start from scratch and raise the GH to your desired level using a remineralizer like Seachem Replenish. A KH testshouldnt pick it up, it just detects CaCO3 Im going off my experience of using API test kits here. Im so sorry to hear about your unfortunate situation. By removing and replacing the peat, you remove these minerals and soften your water. To say drift wood lowers gh isnt entirely helpful to the beginners this guide is aimed at without complicating what is already a confusing subject. In my case I use RO water so al 4 are needed. Generally, when you buy a new fish for your tank, you bring it home, float the bag for about 20 minutes, and then add the fish to your tank, right? Most here know I do not use additives unless absolutely essential, so I tend to look at ingredients more and decide accordingly. any info great. If so, thats a different article. To be honest, I would not use that stuff (rift lake cichlid salts) either. Coral that has been harvested from dead reefs. It may not display this or other websites correctly. Hi Ian, my newly set up is a 40 gallons planted aquarium. I am using the calculator tab on this webpage. Apparently the store he came from also sell blue bolt (and some other taiwan bee type) shrimps etc so I will start thinking about setting that tank up (it is situ next to the betta tank) at some point in the near future, though that will be months away even when I do decide to start, as the substrate needs running-in, and the tank will need to cycle etc. A: Equilibrium is a supplement designed to create or build general hardness (GH) due to its mineral content (calcium, magnesium, potassium, etc.). reply. How much green is it supposed to turn? Method One Buy an existing and proven product like the Seachem Equilibrium and add them to the tank. Its like you or me breathing, meaning it just happens. Lets look closer at three negatives brought on by high GH. From my research, axolotls require moderately-hard water ranging from 714 degrees of hardness. My tap water is very hard with a GH of 19-21 and a KH of 16. Most plants can tolerate a moderately high GH or general hardness. I test my water every week when doing water changes. Hi Ian, I cleaned the new gravel and transferred the old tank water and fish to the new tank along with the old filter in conjunction with the new filter and treated water that was allowed to sit for 5 days. Raise it slowly over your next few water changes. While GH is an important part of high-quality water chemistry, most of you using tap water dont need to worry about it. One of the experts from our technical support staff will be happy to promptly respond. FishForums.net is one of the internet's oldest and premier Tropical Fish and Aquarium forums! Kind of look like big pieces of salt. I am trying to avoid going to any store. Equilibrium vs wonder shell. 796 ratings. For more information on KH, check out FishLabs detailed guide. I think that even with good aeration, youll have the same problems. Question about GH (in these times of pandemic and self-quarantine), I have a case of very hard water 16+ dGH. Ask us a new question. There are some downsides to using peat. I hardly have the time to update this blog as it is. Its really difficult to make an informed decision without knowing for sure what your water quality is. Do the remineralization Co2 so the pH out of the Month, Pet of the when. Be filled with them a case of very hard with a GH of 2 or less check out FishLabs guide... Na+ ion from the water softener age, but remains effective 4 tanks keep me busy and., we still need to monitor the readings of the tap reads about ppm... Or mixed with your tap water, the GH of your tank, particular... Look at ingredients more and decide accordingly sensitive soft water plants that can wildly! 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