Buffering an established aquarium

[ken31cay]

Since this has revived, I’ll give my results:

As suggested, I very slowly dosed the tank with Cichlid Lake Salt for GH and Malawi Buffer for KH/PH.

During water changes, I take out 25% of the volume of water and replace an equal amount of those buffers during the change. This has been giving me stable parametres of 8.2 PH, 11 KH, and 12 GH. I’ve been holding steady with this regimen.

That's good to hear. I know that your Moba are not wild caught so I'm just curious; how quickly do you put the replacement buffer in your tank during each water change?

 

[Caperguy99]

That's good to hear. I know that your Moba are not wild caught so I'm just curious; how quickly do you put the replacement buffer in your tank during each water change?

So, a bit of the math:

The “full” recommended dose for my tank size to get to the parametres I sought were: 4 tbsp of Cichlid Lake Salt and 8 tablespoons of Malawi Buffer. At the beginning, I added this amount to the tank over the course of week or a little more.

Now, when I do a 25 percent water change, I add back in only the amount for the water I’m replacing. So, for a 25 percent change I add 1 tbsp of Cichlid Lake salt and 2 tbsp of Malawi Buffer. I add half of this about mid-way through refilling the tank, and the rest once the tank is full.

Testing before water changes and a few hours after shows that this keeps me pretty stable. Now, I just need to keep an eye on my well water to make sure it doesn’t fluctuate.