# API Water Softener Pillow



## Monster Fish (Mar 15, 2011)

What's the value for your GH?


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## cprash (Apr 1, 2012)

15 at the lowest, has been as high as 18


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## Monster Fish (Mar 15, 2011)

That's extremely high. What's your substrate and do you have any rocks in your tank? The water comes out of the tap at 2 dGH in Queens, at least in my experience. What does the tap measure?


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## wkndracer (Mar 14, 2009)

It's not a good practice to use these and it doesn't 'soften' the water or reduce hardness, TDS is not reduced. 
Calicium / sodium exchange resins are not the answer to hard tank water.


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## cprash (Apr 1, 2012)

tap water comes out near zero on gH

I get white residue on all surfaces above water. That, I assume is calcium.


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## Monster Fish (Mar 15, 2011)

Yeah, those are calcium deposits. Your GH shouldn't be that high unless you have something bringing it up in your tank.


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## cantsay39 (Jun 10, 2011)

mine alittle awkward both gh kh at 1....


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## cprash (Apr 1, 2012)

Monster Fish said:


> Yeah, those are calcium deposits. Your GH shouldn't be that high unless you have something bringing it up in your tank.


Right, forgot to mention. The substrate is Fluval Shrimp Stratum. No rocks. Piece of wood.

Might just try a massive WC


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## cprash (Apr 1, 2012)

cantsay39 said:


> mine alittle awkward both gh kh at 1....


try to buffer that kH a bit to protect your cycle and pH


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## Monster Fish (Mar 15, 2011)

cprash said:


> Right, forgot to mention. The substrate is Fluval Shrimp Stratum. No rocks. Piece of wood.
> 
> Might just try a massive WC


How old is the substrate? I wouldn't recommend a large water change if you have any shrimp. Not sure how they would like the large swing in GH. How about doing 50% water changes every other day? Test your water before and after the change. You should see a reduction. I know I did when I was changing my water every other day to bring down my nitrates. The GH was 7 before the 50% change, and would go down to 3-4 afterwards. I would then add GH booster to bring it back upto 7.

Try vacuuming the substrate. You might have some accumulated debris in your FSS that is raising your GH.


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## cprash (Apr 1, 2012)

The substrate is roughly five months old. 

I can work with a 50% staggered WC. Thanks for the advice Monster. Do you use RO/DI or our tap water?


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## Monster Fish (Mar 15, 2011)

I use tap water. Unlike other parts of the country, it comes out extremely soft already (2dKH, 2dGH, PH - 7.2). All you have to do is remineralize to get to the appropriate levels. Just keep a 5 gallon bucket from Home Depot handy to store your remineralized water. You should also invest in a TDS meter to check how much total dissolved solids are in your water. It's a great way of gauging when to do water changes in a shrimp tank.


Forgot to add, FSS will bring down your KH if you plan on bringing it back up and will continue to do so until it's exhausted it's water softening properties.


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## acitydweller (Dec 28, 2011)

Are you sure you didnt overdose anything to raise the GH so high?
how old is your test kit... check to see if its expired. At that rate, i think only neos would survive that kind of water.


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## cprash (Apr 1, 2012)

acitydweller said:


> Are you sure you didnt overdose anything to raise the GH so high?
> how old is your test kit... check to see if its expired. At that rate, i think only neos would survive that kind of water.


I bought the kit four months ago, and testing strips confirm that the gH is 12+. Luckily I have neos in that tank, so the losses aren't as bad as it could be (though I'd obviously rather have none.)


How does one vacuum FSS without sucking it up? Dig around and suck what flies up?


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## acitydweller (Dec 28, 2011)

you can siphon water from the bottom but try not to disturb the fss. kicking up the fss may leech whatever is underneath causing a spike


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## Overgrowth (Feb 19, 2012)

Do you top off with tap or distilled/RO water?


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## cprash (Apr 1, 2012)

Overgrowth said:


> Do you top off with tap or distilled/RO water?


Used to use RO, switched back to tap a month ago


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## acitydweller (Dec 28, 2011)

The fact that you are seeing calcium deposits at the water level leads me to believe that the pillow is lowing your ph at the expense of raising the gh after it wears off.

Fss should normally buffer around 6.5 ph and our tap is insanely soft. Is there anything in the tank that is raising your parameters? Your tds might be through the roof at the moment...


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## cprash (Apr 1, 2012)

Oh, I haven't started using it. I'm going with the 50% WC, something I was apprehensive about doing before. 

Something was dragging my pH below 6.5 though and eating up the kH for quite a while. Then I started buffering roughly two weeks ago as I finally figured that was the issue. I've managed to stabilize it (relatively speaking) for the past two days at 6.7pH and 120ppm kH. Monitoring it and doing another WC tomorrow. Also ordering the TDS meter I kept putting off. gH is still high according to strips but I'll use the titration test after the second WC tomorrow.


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## acitydweller (Dec 28, 2011)

nice work!


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## Monster Fish (Mar 15, 2011)

Post your results after the water change. Also, make sure the TDS meter has ATC - Automatic Temperature Compensation. I use this one http://www.tdsmeter.com/products/tds3.html


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## ThatGuyWithTheFish (Apr 29, 2012)

When is GH considered "too high?" Does peat lower GH?


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## cprash (Apr 1, 2012)

ThatGuyWithTheFish said:


> When is GH considered "too high?" Does peat lower GH?


Depends on the species, Neos need about seven, Cardinias, much lower. Exceptions exist.

Peat lowers pH and Carbonate hardness (kH), not gH. It's generally more useful for those with hard tap water.


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## wkndracer (Mar 14, 2009)

ThatGuyWithTheFish said:


> Does peat lower GH?


no effect on GH only reduces pH buffers.


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## cprash (Apr 1, 2012)

I did a 50% change today and retested. gH is at 8dkh on the titration test, 160ppm on the strip. This was maddeningly simple. Let's hope it stays there.

Thanks again, everyone.


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## ThatGuyWithTheFish (Apr 29, 2012)

cprash said:


> I retested and did a 50% change today. gH is at 8dkh on the titration test, 60ppm on the strip. This was maddeningly simple. Let's hope it stays there.
> 
> Thanks again, everyone.


That's odd, because a GH of 8 should be 160 ppm. Did you forget a 1?

And sorry to hijack tour thread, but is Sieryu known to raise GH a lot?


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## cprash (Apr 1, 2012)

ThatGuyWithTheFish said:


> That's odd, because a GH of 8 should be 160 ppm. Did you forget a 1?
> 
> And sorry to hijack tour thread, but is Sieryu known to raise GH a lot?


Oops, yes I did.

As for Seiryu, I know from hearsay that it does quite a bit, but someone else can provide a better answer.


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