Will limestone raise my ph/gh/kh ?
- Thread starter niner9
- Start date
Yes, pH, GH, and KH will all go up. Stble end point depends on many things - surface area exposed, total surface exposed to water, flow, initial pH, frequency and volume of water changes, bioload, etc. That cannot be predicted easily with a lot more information.
current ph is 7.6, surface area 30x12 for now eventually when I get my bigger tank built (140-180 gal) I will move the fish in the 55 gal. to the bigger tank I think anyway. So then it will be in the 55 gal, surface area 48x12.5, only occupant now is one 3" head to tip of tail electric blue hap and a small pelco. When I move to 55gal will add more haps. Currently doing 20% water changes every week to bi-weekly. Little surface disturbance was thinking of removing existing rock work and building caves from limestone which is readily availible. To bring ph closer to natural levels for hap. Do you think this would be a good idea? He seems healthly and happy the way things are, should I just leave things alone or go for the limestone thing. With said information how stable do you think it would be? And would the amount of limestone I put in make a difference? Thanks for your reply and sorry for all the questions. Thanks again niner
Sorry, I wasn't clear enough - by surface area I was talking about the surface of the limestone exposed to the water, not the tank itself.
For Rift Lake and brackish fish I tend to use aragonite substrates with over-engineered RFUG filters. Even though the material may get coated with biofilms, the substrate does help buffer the water up. Using calcareous rocks you have much less rock surface exposed, but it still contributes. Either process will provide some additional minerals to the water.
The bioload effect occurs because normal nitrification destroys a bit of the carbonate/bicarbonate buffering in the water. This is compensated by water changes replenishing the carb/bicarb buffering, but also by some minerals dissolving from rock and substrate if they are calcareous. The substrate or rock contribution is not awfully fast, so if you have to do large volume frequent water partials due to high bioload, you may not see as much buffering being added.
If you have naturally low KH and pH water, the changes from the substrate and or rocks will be more noticeable - because it does not take much change to see a difference in "soft" (low alkalinity) water. With harder source water, the change will not appear to be as great. This just means that if your source water is 2 KH and you add sufficient carb/bicarb to double it to KH 4, this is easily detected. If your water is KH 8 and you add the same amount of additional carb/bicarb by substrate or rocks to KH 10, it is not as big an apparent change (1/5 more versus twice as much). Also, in practice the lower pH water will dissolve more mineral in the same time, as the solution rate is pH dependent.
The bottom line is that calcareous material will affect your water, but the end result in your tanks cannot be predicted, as it is dependent on too many factors.
HTH
For Rift Lake and brackish fish I tend to use aragonite substrates with over-engineered RFUG filters. Even though the material may get coated with biofilms, the substrate does help buffer the water up. Using calcareous rocks you have much less rock surface exposed, but it still contributes. Either process will provide some additional minerals to the water.
The bioload effect occurs because normal nitrification destroys a bit of the carbonate/bicarbonate buffering in the water. This is compensated by water changes replenishing the carb/bicarb buffering, but also by some minerals dissolving from rock and substrate if they are calcareous. The substrate or rock contribution is not awfully fast, so if you have to do large volume frequent water partials due to high bioload, you may not see as much buffering being added.
If you have naturally low KH and pH water, the changes from the substrate and or rocks will be more noticeable - because it does not take much change to see a difference in "soft" (low alkalinity) water. With harder source water, the change will not appear to be as great. This just means that if your source water is 2 KH and you add sufficient carb/bicarb to double it to KH 4, this is easily detected. If your water is KH 8 and you add the same amount of additional carb/bicarb by substrate or rocks to KH 10, it is not as big an apparent change (1/5 more versus twice as much). Also, in practice the lower pH water will dissolve more mineral in the same time, as the solution rate is pH dependent.
The bottom line is that calcareous material will affect your water, but the end result in your tanks cannot be predicted, as it is dependent on too many factors.
HTH
Hi. I joined this forum just for this subject. I was Googling the effect of Limestone on water parameters, and it lead me here. Here's my story in relation to Limestone:
I had been using my Limestone in a cichlid tank (for obvious reasons). Now, I am interested in doing a softer water/plant tank mixed with rocks. My situation is a 2 + 2 = 5 situation, because Limestone is an atypical rock to use in a planted aquarium. Here's the catch...R.O. water! Basically, I was wondering if I used R.O. water (with 0 TDS) mixed with Limestone (which ups GH and KH) if I would end up with relatively soft water?
Now, I have put some Limestone in a bucket with some R.O., and after a while, it did up the KH and GH to low levels. I am wondering if the rate at which the Limestone adds GH and KH would level off, or would it keep making the water harder and harder over time (which is what I want to avoid). I am assuming it would level off, especially with water changes of R.O., but I wanted to get some other opinions.
Thanks!
I had been using my Limestone in a cichlid tank (for obvious reasons). Now, I am interested in doing a softer water/plant tank mixed with rocks. My situation is a 2 + 2 = 5 situation, because Limestone is an atypical rock to use in a planted aquarium. Here's the catch...R.O. water! Basically, I was wondering if I used R.O. water (with 0 TDS) mixed with Limestone (which ups GH and KH) if I would end up with relatively soft water?
Now, I have put some Limestone in a bucket with some R.O., and after a while, it did up the KH and GH to low levels. I am wondering if the rate at which the Limestone adds GH and KH would level off, or would it keep making the water harder and harder over time (which is what I want to avoid). I am assuming it would level off, especially with water changes of R.O., but I wanted to get some other opinions.
Thanks!
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it does level off at a certain point which is NOT reccommended to do, the hardness is over 300....... and GH is also over 300... PH, I'm not sure