# Help With Seattle WAter



## Kypros (Apr 16, 2008)

HI, I am new to planted aquariums. I live in Seattle where the water is quite soft. I have a 29 gallon community tank with natural gravel. Currently I have a 55 W CFL from AH supply. I am about to add a yeast based Red Sea Co2 bio generator, which has a power diffuser which can be turned off when the lights are off. I am concerned that because the Seattle water has little buffering capacity, that since I will be adding co2, I need to worry about ph swings. I am looking to buffer the water. A LFS recommended using Seachem Neutral Regulator, but I think its a phosphate based buffering solution which may promote algae, which is running rampant now in my tank anyway. 
I was hoping that someone from the Seattle area could recommend a product/method for buffering soft water that would not promote algae. My ph tends to be around 7.4.

please excuse the random email, I have so much to learn about planted tanks.

thank you


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

Don't worry about pH swings due to adding CO2 during the day and not during the night. Neither the fish nor the plants are adversely affected by that. Don't add any extra chemicals to the water in an attempt to buffer the pH. Those extra chemicals will do no good and may do some harm.

pH is over rated as a variable to be concerned about, in general. If the water is kept clean, fertilized properly, and replaced periodically, both the fish and the plants will be happy. *This is not meant to apply to fish only tanks, just planted tanks.*


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## Kypros (Apr 16, 2008)

hoppycalif said:


> Don't worry about pH swings due to adding CO2 during the day and not during the night. Neither the fish nor the plants are adversely affected by that. Don't add any extra chemicals to the water in an attempt to buffer the pH. Those extra chemicals will do no good and may do some harm.
> 
> pH is over rated as a variable to be concerned about, in general. If the water is kept clean, fertilized properly, and replaced periodically, both the fish and the plants will be happy. *This is not meant to apply to fish only tanks, just planted tanks.*


Thank you very much. I'll give it a shot. Probably with yeast based c02 I wont affect the ph enough for a dangerous swing?


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## Seattle_Aquarist (Mar 7, 2008)

Hi Kypros,

I live in Renton, and have had to deal with our soft water "opportunities" here in Seattle. My KH was about 1 when I set up my tank 10 weeks ago. My CO2 was a DIY system with 2 each 2 liter bottles where I changed one out every five days. Initially my PH was 7.4, when I started the CO2 it dropped as low as 6.2! Realizing this is not good, I did some research here, and on "TheKrib", and found the following articles and/or links that were helpful for me:

Erik Olson article, read the "Water Stability - CO2 Injection" section about 1/2 way through the article.
http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/People/Olson/

This link has an excellent calculator and chart for determining CO2 levels in your tank:
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_co2chart.htm

I have met and talked with Erik several times at the Greater Seattle Aquarium Society meetings (GSAS) sinced I joined in February. He is very informative. To correct my problem, and because I wanted to change over to a pressurized system (which I installed Monday) I followed the instructions in Erik's article and have raised my KH to 4.0.

Hope my input is helpful, enjoy the ride!


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## Kypros (Apr 16, 2008)

Seattle_Aquarist said:


> Hi Kypros,
> 
> I live in Renton, and have had to deal with our soft water "opportunities" here in Seattle. My KH was about 1 when I set up my tank 10 weeks ago. My CO2 was a DIY system with 2 each 2 liter bottles where I changed one out every five days. Initially my PH was 7.4, when I started the CO2 it dropped as low as 6.2! Realizing this is not good, I did some research here, and on "TheKrib", and found the following articles and/or links that were helpful for me:
> 
> ...


Thank you very much Roy, did you use the baking soda method, and if so did you stabilize the ph while you were still using the DYI setups?
thank you very much
I'll check into the GSAS


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## Seattle_Aquarist (Mar 7, 2008)

Hi Kypros,

Yes, I used the baking soda method Erik outlines in his article. I do 20% water changes twice a week, and treated the replacement water with 1/4 tsp per 4 gallons. It took about 3 weeks to raise my KH from 1 to 4. I did the adjustment to my KH while using the DIY CO2 (prior to going to the pressurized system) because I did not want to have "PH Crash". GSAS has two more meetings (next one Tueday May 13th) before a two month "summer break".


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## Heady (Mar 4, 2003)

I live in the same area as SeattleAquarist. They add NaOH to the water here to keep the pipes from corroding. My water is basic coming out of the tap. I'm about to start a pressurized CO2 system, so I'm about to run into the same issues (probably next weekend).

Seattle's water supply is very soft and perfect for fishkeeping... Renton's water sucks.


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## Seattle_Aquarist (Mar 7, 2008)

Hi Heady,

Yes, when it comes out of the tap it is PH 7.4+, but once I started the DIY CO2 it dropped quickly! It didn't take much CO2 to bring it down to below PH 6.6. Since I needed to increase my CO2 as my biomass increased, I was "forced" to deal with the hardness issue. I suggest to avoid "PH Crash" adjusting your KH before starting pressurized CO2. By the way, everything is stable and the plants are growing well with the pressurized CO2.


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