# Confused by 3 dif water results in 1 house



## Agent13 (Apr 23, 2013)

For the first time in months i tested my water tonight in most of my tanks and i leave more confused then ever. Most tanks had a ph of 7.0 and kh 5dKH one random tank was 2 dKH and ph 6.6 then as expected my african tank was 12dKH and ph 8.0 ( not shocked by the last one as thats the only tank i play chemist with) . So what i wonder and kinda need to know is why is that one tank registering as super soft water? I used to keep fw shrimp and guppies in there but recently sold off the rest of my shrimp and only 1 guppy remains. I want to stock the tank soon and its well planted. In fact far more then any other tank. Im just wondering before i consider stock for this tank what could cause 1 out of nearly 10 tanks to have such different results... Im just confused now


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## rickey (Jul 7, 2013)

The short answer is nitric acid this is a byproduct of the nitrogen cycle . If your KH is below roughly 4.5 dH, you should pay special attention to your tank's pH (e.g, test weekly, until you get a feel for how stable the pH is).

R


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## beaslbob (Oct 17, 2012)

Agent13 said:


> For the first time in months i tested my water tonight in most of my tanks and i leave more confused then ever. Most tanks had a ph of 7.0 and kh 5dKH one random tank was 2 dKH and ph 6.6 then as expected my african tank was 12dKH and ph 8.0 ( not shocked by the last one as thats the only tank i play chemist with) . So what i wonder and kinda need to know is why is that one tank registering as super soft water? I used to keep fw shrimp and guppies in there but recently sold off the rest of my shrimp and only 1 guppy remains. I want to stock the tank soon and its well planted. In fact far more then any other tank. Im just wondering before i consider stock for this tank what could cause 1 out of nearly 10 tanks to have such different results... Im just confused now


 
Obviously something is different in that one tank. 

One you know what that would be then that would be the answer.

With it being well planted what else is different. circulation, substrate, what types of plants, amount of water changes. etc etc etc.

If there is not livestock in the tank I would be tempted to turn off all circulation, stop all water changes, and see what happens to ph and kh.

Sorry I couldn't help.


my .0000000001


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## Roccus (Nov 1, 2013)

Puzzeling... when I was a young pup just starting out as a mechanic.. I was assigned a work order for high oil consumption... all the normal tests showed a health engine... an old timer saw my struggles as a time for a little "fartherly" advise.. he said "Joey boy.. when you suck on a straw.. the juice don't go in your pocket"... at the time I though it strange and annoying until I realized what he meant by it... 40 years latter i still use this advise to solve mysteries in life...

so.. something is softening the water... is it in the substrate?... maybe some ornament you may have in the tank.. is there some oddity in the structure of the tank itself???... there's certainly something... from what I've seen here, you're pretty good at this... it'll come to you.. probaly when you least expect it...:shock:


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## pop (Aug 29, 2012)

Hello Agent13:
In the most friendly way I wonder why you think that ten or so micro environments that you have created in your home should have similar if not identical readings. It makes more sense to me that different micro environments would have different results and these results can be greatly separated by the numbers even though these micro environments are located in the same general area. If you cross contaminated the individual micro environments with each other then i would consider that all would have the same readings.

pop


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## jaysee (Dec 9, 2009)

Agent13 said:


> For the first time in months i tested my water tonight in most of my tanks and i leave more confused then ever.


Well there's your first mistake - testing the water. You weren't confuse BEFORE you tested, so obviously the answer is to stop testing ;-)


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## beaslbob (Oct 17, 2012)

jaysee said:


> Well there's your first mistake - testing the water. You weren't confuse BEFORE you tested, so obviously the answer is to stop testing ;-)


 
+1

And well stated.

Sometimes we are better off not knowing all this technical stuff. especially for newbies which doesn't apply to Agent. But a newbe worried about this or that parameter to me would be better not testing to begin with.


my .02


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## Agent13 (Apr 23, 2013)

Roccus said:


> so.. something is softening the water... is it in the substrate?... maybe some ornament you may have in the tank.. is there some oddity in the structure of the tank itself???... there's certainly something... from what I've seen here, you're pretty good at this... it'll come to you.. probaly when you least expect it...:shock:


Its most likely the maintinence on the tank after thinking about it. I do a lot less maintinence on that tank. The water quality has always been really good and extremely stable in that one so often it skips a water change but the other tanks only skip a water change when im out of town. Which leads me to question how stable the ph is. I'll keep an eye on it but unless i have to im not about to change my lack of maintinence on it. Its only 16g so its just not big enough to be worth more effort lol


jaysee said:


> Well there's your first mistake - testing the water. You weren't confuse BEFORE you tested, so obviously the answer is to stop testing ;-)


 you're exactly right! That darn idle curiosity got the best of me lol


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## beaslbob (Oct 17, 2012)

yea but now that we do know. Do you think a bit of baking soda would help?


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## Roccus (Nov 1, 2013)

Sometimes we're victim of our own circumstance.. glad you're feeling better about the whole thing,,, now you know ( and knew all along)..if it aint broke.. dont mess with it:lol:


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## Agent13 (Apr 23, 2013)

beaslbob said:


> yea but now that we do know. Do you think a bit of baking soda would help?


Depends on how you define "help". Baking soda will most certainly raise the PH by way of the KH but unless I get more exact with measuring my water changes it will be hard to maintain atba stable number. Considering how i suspect it lowered over time by my own doing i probably could raise it closer to the other tanks by doing weekly water changes. However if possible i want to see if i can avoid that. If my ph isn't havung a swing everytime i do a water change then i'd be happy to keep it where it is. 
When fussing with your tanks perameters the slower ways are usually he more stable ones. Like crushed coral, argonite , limestone n such to raise your tanks buffering capasity.


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## rickey (Jul 7, 2013)

By george A13 I think you got it
R


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