I'm trying to stock my 10g, but...

[PaleoFishGirl]

I have a 10 gallon tank in my kitchen that has been empty for months.  Sacrilege, I know.  A few days before the Montreal auction, I bought a bag of Fluorite, filled the tank up with water, added a filter and a heater.  Many of the plants I bought in Montreal now call this tank home (anubias, a couple of crypts, a small sword, some algae balls).

The only animals in the tank are a couple of Zebra nerites and some MTS.

The other day I tested the water - pH was very low, below 6 (the solution was bright yellow).  No ammonia or nitrItes, minimal nitrates.  I was pretty excited, as I was thinking about putting some apistos in the tank. 

This morning, I tested the water again.  pH well below 6 still.  I thought I'd better test the hardness, too - good thing I did because it took 35 drops to turn the solution green    (I've since checked the gH in my other tanks and get a much lower reading, so the test kit is working fine).

After a 50% water change, the pH was still below 6 and the gH was 24.  After another 50% WC, the pH is now around 7 and the gH at 14 or 15. 

I bought some Beckford's pencilfish at BA Innes this afternoon (thanks, Art!).  I don't know why I actually decided to buy fish, but go ahead and shake your finger at me.  They're being acclimated very slowly to the tank, hopefully they make it. 

Nothing has been added to the tank except Prime during water changes (and the initial addition of water).  Any ideas why my gH would be so high??

[charlie]

That`s weird, sure there is nothing else in the tank , how are the plants doing  ?

[zapisto]

can you test you conductivity ?

[PaleoFishGirl]

The plants are doing okay, even sort of growing... but one of my anubias is turning brown. 

How do you test for conductivity?

[BigDaddy]

Do you have any driftwood or peat in the tank?  I'm not sure how water with that much hardness in it can have an acid pH.

Did you try making a reference solution to test your gH kit with?  Some distilled water and a bit of gypsum or precipitated chalk would be all you'd need to setup a fairly accurate reference...

[PaleoFishGirl]

There's a piece of driftwood in it, about the size of my 2 fists together.  I thought that would help drop the pH but to well below 6?!

I haven't bothered testing my gH kit because it seems to be accurate on my other tanks - 8-9 on my 48 and about 1 out of the tap.

[artw]

Hey PFG I am trying to remember that particular tank but I am drawing blank:  before you filled it up, was there a white residue on the glass? like hard water stains from a previous owner?  that could contribute to your mysterious hardness issue.

[mseguin]

What's the substrate?

[charlie]

  A few days before the Montreal auction, I bought a bag of Fluorite,

Rough night Mat 

[mseguin]

What do I look like, someone who wants to read long posts. Just give me the bullet points. :-P

[PaleoFishGirl]

I got the tank off of Matty and it was quite clean.  I cleaned it out before I set it up this time as well. 

The pencilfish are alive and well this morning.  I didn't test the water yet.

[babblefish1960]

Unless you derive a base point for your test kit, you're assuming much, science after all requires a zero somewhere in order to know how to relate.(snort, the old lumberjack telling the paleontologist about science, snort).

The driftwood could alter your pH that much, no worries, it just requires that you keep acid fish, not a problem, lots of lovelies abound in the region. Perhaps you could stop tossing rolaids in there and all would be fine.

I am of the opinion that you shouldn't fret too much about the water, you state that your plants are growing reasonably, and the fish look fine from here, the only thing would be to ask if you know with certainty that your flourite is in fact flourite and not some mix that includes some other thing that dissolves elements into the water. Isolate a smidgen of it and give it the good old reliable litmus test.

[PaleoFishGirl]

Oh, you mean you're not supposed to feed your fish TUMS when they eat too much Aquarium Provisions food?

It had better be Fluorite, I paid 30 bucks for the bag!

[PaleoFishGirl]

Update:

pH this morning: 6.4 (and dropping, I assume... yay, driftwood!)
gH this morning: 15

The pencilfish are alive and well.  They are cute little guys (and girls)!

[BigDaddy]

Well, with enough partial water changes, you should be able to get the gH to tap water levels...

Admit it, you've got a fossil in there somewhere and it is leeching 

[PaleoFishGirl]

Nah, I know better than that

I'm glad that the gH is decreasing with WC and that it hasn't increased since I did the last one. I'd really like to know why it was so high originally, though 

[PaleoFishGirl]

Changed 20% of the water when I got home.  gH is down to 11. 

The fish are still doing, ehrm... swimmingly

[artw]

I think you should come by the store and buy some of those nice apistos. Double reds.... *tease*

[BigDaddy]

Nah, I know better than that

I'm glad that the gH is decreasing with WC and that it hasn't increased since I did the last one. I'd really like to know why it was so high originally, though 

Maybe something fluky when you first filled it?  Like that time I got a pH of 8 out of my tap, but then an hour or two later it was back down to 6.8...

[pegasus]

The plants are doing okay, even sort of growing... but one of my anubias is turning brown. 

How do you test for conductivity?

Ok I waited long enough before proposing this simple test... Did you ever tried the tongue test?