also I'm no biological expert, but it would seem the PH issue has been identified as the cause and also a solution may have been found as well now.
sunken belly
- Thread starter Richard203
- Start date
Everyone's experience varies and that's ok. I'm with Josh though - I've never ever had any chemical filtration in my tanks. Only mechanical and biological.
Thank you for explaining. Sounds like your buffering capacity was non-existing before the addition of the coral. But then with crushed coral, it should have gone up a lot as calcium carbonate is the main ingredient in the coral and dissolves slowly into the water. Hence I don't quite understand why your pH would keep dropping from 8.8 to 7.6.
Anyhow, messing with pH can be, well, messy and dangerous for your fish. Just keep a journal and keep measuring pH diligently as well as KH and GH ($10 API liquid test) while writing down what you are doing and what effects, if any, it had on your pH, KH, and GH.
I like your experiment with tap water. I'd include it in your experiment. That is when you do a water change, set aside a clean bucket of only tap water and when you measure your tank water, measure the aging tap water too. Don't keep a tight lid on it but try to imitate the gas exchange condition as in your tank with a loose cover, I suppose.
After a few weeks, a clear picture should start emerging. Sometimes our hobby is much harder for some of us than for others but the flip side is one learns more and gets more satisfaction from it when the problems are understood and are kept in check. Hang in there.
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BTW, I agree with Kevin - at pH 6.0 your beneficial bacteria should have no problem whatsoever of existing and functioning properly. It could be that the addition of the crushed coral added more surface area for the BB's to colonize, which then led your ammonia and nitrite to drop to zero and the drop might have had nothing to do with the pH.
Hence, I'd focus on your filter. From everything you said, you should have no problem filtering (kind of depends on your filter stuffing) but since you do / did before the coral addition, you may be missing something or are forgetting to mention something.
That much is clear to all informed but let's not step on each others favorite foot blisters, as we say it in Russian... without a legitimate need that is...
Ya, came in a little late here but I'd say I agree with all that is said. Although I too stick to biological and mechanical filtration
that's the best part of disagreeing with people on here....man you are taking all the fun out of this haha.
I don't have any carbon in any of my filters, I heard carbon is just removing meds. so bad news guys I think my jardini not going to make it.
what if you have heavy metals and don't know about it? What about the other elements chemical filtration does?
This is not the way I see it. I've said it 50% for giggles too
Moreover, now you have a pick up line next time you see an attractive Russian-speaking chick. Yup. You are welcome.But 50% was serious. IDK why Frank got banned and how he got resurrected, neither do I want to know - none of my business - but I'm guessing it's because of his "too-intense" a nature, which you are playfully riling up or so it seems
Sorry to hear but regardless, don't give up. Get some goldfish what not and try to get to the bottom of your issues. It's intriguing.
One should know not to have tank water exposed to any heavy metals. There are no heavy metals in drinking tap water or anything else that'd be dangerous like pesticides, herbicides, industrial or agricultural chemicals, detergents, lubricants, VOC, poly-halogenated organics, etc., etc., etc.
For every fish that dies from heavy metal, a million dies from an ammonia or nitrite spike or long term exposure. Hence, the space in the filter would be a million times better to be occupied by BB's, not carbon. Unless, of course, there is a legitimate reason for concern...
