So
I have a 90 gallon tank with 5 fancy goldfish (~4 inch body or so) and 2 BN plecos. They have been living together happy for 5-9 months (didn't get all at once). I tried all sorts of plants and failed due to eating or digging, but water lettuce COMPLETELY covers the top, I pull it out by the ton every few weeks. I have a sump wet / dry filter and a sponge filter in the tank, I have never seen any ammonia or trites. Summary of the story I'm very lightly stocked and very highly filtered and very planted.
I just came back from a 3 weeks vacation. While I was gone I had an auto feeder and just had my inlaws top off the water, nothing else. The nitrates stayed below 10 (like i said, TONS of water lettuce), but the KH / PH went way up (~300+ and 8+) and the water turned brown ish. Usually I do weekly water changes (not because of nitrates...just for freshness), but what about this situation made the KH and PH go so high?
I did an 80% or so water change and everything is normal again. None of the fish seemed to be affected (main reason I got goldfish is I do travel a lot, and they are TANKS).
I have a 90 gallon tank with 5 fancy goldfish (~4 inch body or so) and 2 BN plecos. They have been living together happy for 5-9 months (didn't get all at once). I tried all sorts of plants and failed due to eating or digging, but water lettuce COMPLETELY covers the top, I pull it out by the ton every few weeks. I have a sump wet / dry filter and a sponge filter in the tank, I have never seen any ammonia or trites. Summary of the story I'm very lightly stocked and very highly filtered and very planted.
I just came back from a 3 weeks vacation. While I was gone I had an auto feeder and just had my inlaws top off the water, nothing else. The nitrates stayed below 10 (like i said, TONS of water lettuce), but the KH / PH went way up (~300+ and 8+) and the water turned brown ish. Usually I do weekly water changes (not because of nitrates...just for freshness), but what about this situation made the KH and PH go so high?
I did an 80% or so water change and everything is normal again. None of the fish seemed to be affected (main reason I got goldfish is I do travel a lot, and they are TANKS).
