Mopani Wood sucking KH out of water?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I have very very soft water coming from my tap too. Unfortunately, the tap pH is 8.8 which takes a lot to make it work for my tanks. I have found that adding peat to my filter media keeps the water soft and does a great job of tempering water quality spikes especially around adding KH chemicals to bump it up.

Is your tank planted? Any reason to really worry about the KH otherwise? Any CO2 injection in there?

Ryan
Boston, MA
 
did you boil the mopani when you first got it? What it sounds like is happening is that the mopani may be leeching tannins into the water. tannins do affect ph and wood can have an effect on the hardness of the water. its not really sucking the KH out as much as it is acting as a buffer. like what was said earlier, you just need to add something that will counteract this buffering effect. honestly, mopani isn't nearly as bad as some other woods for tannins (i.e. grapewood) and if you boil it well, it will leech most of the tannins out during the boil. after boiling the wood, i would then decide whether coral or another KH and alkaline buffer would be needed. Be aware though that your PH could swing if this is not done bit by bit and with tests along the way to reach the optimal parameters
 
I did boil it for several hours before I put it in & it still leached tannin for 2 or 3 weeks. I liked the nice gold-ish color of the tannin in the water, though. Anyhow, it stopped leaching a while back, but the KH still requires more buffering agents than I want. It is a hard water tank with GSP's & Mollies, so I will probably just change the substrate to crushed coral. I've been thinking about that for a while anyway... Thanks for the posts!
 
Most kH testers are actually pH testers. They rely on you knowing your pH and GH to determine kH.

Your kH is not changing, your pH is and as a result, rendering your testing useless.
 
velanarris;3159761; said:
Most kH testers are actually pH testers. They rely on you knowing your pH and GH to determine kH.

Your kH is not changing, your pH is and as a result, rendering your testing useless.
Click to expand...


Uhhh. Ok. I've never heard that. I've heard the other way around... pH tests relying on known KH numbers. Why would they make KH tests that actually test pH & pH tests that measure KH? I really wish there was a salinity, GH & KH test kit in with my freshwater master test kit...

So what is best? Just throw in some buffer coral? Or is there something larger going on here that I dont see? Thanks All!
 
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