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Please help why my water KH drops in one week to from 18 to 2

professorjimjam said:
thank you so much. I will for sure do the test of the water to allow it to sit idle 24 hours and then test the KH and PH.
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Toby_H​

I tested the tap water after keeping it in a bucket, the KH is 12 while the KH when I was filling the tank 19. so not sure why the KH of water in a bucket dropped by itself, no fish or filter nothing just a clean bucket and tested it and it was 12 KH.
 
professorjimjam said:

Toby_H​

I tested the tap water after keeping it in a bucket, the KH is 12 while the KH when I was filling the tank 19. so not sure why the KH of water in a bucket dropped by itself, no fish or filter nothing just a clean bucket and tested it and it was 12 KH.
Click to expand...

I'd let it sit 24 more hours and see what it does.

Your situation is different than mine was. But, gathering data and sharing it in an open forum is one of the best ways to figure it out.

I'll be honest, I Have very little experience with buffering water. So lean on others who do. Quickv6 seemed to have a level headed perspective on buffering. I can't vouch for the specifics, but the presentation seemed reasonable.
 
Hello; Only a suggestion but one which has little to do with the OP's question. Get a jug of distilled water (DW) to use to clean the test vials. Fill a vial with DW and let it sit a short time and/or rinse the vials with DW.
 
In my case....I learned the hard way....when starting the hobby trying to keep livebearers in my soft tap water. They just didn't do well at all. It wasn't until I started doctoring the water that I was able to get them to thrive.

Professorjimjam...my case is a bit different, as I had nearly zero KH out of the tap. Your example is unique, because you are experiencing a drop off.

I would use a 5 gallon bucket, fill it up with source water, drop in an airstone....and measure both the KH and PH after 48 hours. Use that as your baseline. Then you can experiment by adding a given amount of baking soda (lets arbitrarily say 1 teaspoon)....wait an hour, and test both again. It should give you an idea of scale, if you plan to use baking soda with water changes.

The crushed coral has really "stabilized" the tank, and prevented any KH or PH drop.....and then I simply try to match it (just in the ballpark) when doing water changes.
 
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