Sydney Water

[Bundy]

I'm still a novice in the aquarium world so apologies if I get any terms wrong here but I'm sure you'll understand what I'm getting at.

Having now lost 3 gourami's to 'dropsy', two clown loaches to 'whitespot' a platy & a guppy have just dropped dead and a flying fox and a tetra have 'disappeared', BUT have had 3 gourami's, 2 silver sharks since day dot still going strong! I decided not to bother with the staff at the LFS (who had previously told me I there was nothing wrong with my water) and just go straight to the owner. Paul Talbot of Majestic Aquariums.

He asked me a few questions and decided that I seemed to be doing everything right with regards to water changes, cleaning, feeding etc and stated before the water test that the problem was probably no carbonate in the water. Sydney Water have stopped putting any carbonate in the water at all to try and stop bacteria and basically any type of growth in the pipelines.

So, with obvious problems I had been doing weekly water changes of atleast 25% thinking I was fixing the problem. This has resulted in my tank water have absolutely no carbonate. He has given me the solution, and written down the steps I need to take and gave me a DVD with a heap of helpful hints and tips for novices like me. Before I left the store, 2 other people had been in and had returned the same results. This is apprently becoming a big problem for a great deal of fish keepers in Sydney (and I guess NSW). All is coming good now but I guess I just thought you all should be aware of this.

[GoGuppy]

G'day Bundy

You could be on to something there. I've just checked the Sydney Water website and the relevant info available for a typical drinking water analysis for water from the Prospect filtering plant (which supplies most of the southern and northern suburbs in Sydney) is as follows:

Total Hardness: 50 - 68 mg CaCO3/L (equal to about 3 to 4 degdH)
Calcium hardness: 32 - 38 mg/L (equal to about 2 degdH)
Alkalinity: 35 - 39 mg/L (equal to about 2 degdH)

Anything less than 4 deg dH is considered to be a very soft water type, and in the case of alkalinity indicates very little buffering capacity. Lack of buffering capacity may result in wild pH swings in the tank water, is this what was impacting on the fish in your case?
Cheers

[Bundy]

pH was pretty stable. Apparently it was kH that was the issue, which as I understand is carbonate hardness? I was told to get it up to atleast 4, I'm at about 5 now, will test again tonight but maintaining the pH at the same time as raising the kH is proving to be difficult.

[GoGuppy]

pH was pretty stable. Apparently it was kH that was the issue, which as I understand is carbonate hardness? I was told to get it up to atleast 4, I'm at about 5 now, will test again tonight but maintaining the pH at the same time as raising the kH is proving to be difficult.[/b]

Yes, the KH, carbonate hardness and alkalinity are basically all the same and expressed in the same units. (BTW, where I used dH for the alkalinity in my response above, this should have been dKH, which stands for deutsche Karbonat Haerte= German carbonate hardness).

I am not surprised that the pH changes as you increase the kH (I assume you're adding bicarb?), as this is pretty fundamental in water chemistry. There are two factors to consider when trying to maintain (or change) the pH level in the tank water, namely the KH (alkalinity) and the CO2 level in the water, as they are intimately connected to each other. Change one of the three and the other two will adjust to keep the relationship in check. :wacko:

So, if you're not adding CO2 and only add bicarb to raise the alkalinity (KH) then the pH will automatically rise as well. If you then add CO2 to the water the pH will drop again.

There are numerous references on the web that explain this much more eloquently than I am able to and http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/CO2/ is a good place to start. :biggrin:

Good luck and let us know how you go.

[Bundy]

Much appreciated Guppy. Cheers.

Adding a mixture given to me by the shop which I assume is basically bicarb.

I'll update in a couple of weeks, hopefully good news.

[GoGuppy]

Much appreciated Guppy. Cheers.

Adding a mixture given to me by the shop which I assume is basically bicarb.

I'll update in a couple of weeks, hopefully good news.[/b]

No worries, happy to help.