Water Changing

[KevenBrendanLee]

A quick question :

《 How do I do water changes for a soft/low PH water and not increasing the ph and hardness of my water? 》

Cause there are brown algae aka diatoms growing on my tank and ornaments

[Urban Aquaria]

If you are using active soil substrate (ie. ADA Amazonia aquasoil), it will buffer the new water being changed to lower pH conditions.

Though if your tap water are those type that contain high pH and high GH or TDS (probably due to the absorption of minerals accumulated in older building pipes), the other alternative is to use a RO/DI system to distill the water before use in the tank.

Brown algae/diatoms are common in new setups that are still in the midst of cycling, they feed on the excess silicates in new tanks and will usually disappear gradually once the tank is cycled (and be replaced by green algae).

Btw, otocinclus are great at eating up brown algae, they can often clear a tank full of diatoms overnight, maybe you can consider adding those fishes once the tank is fully cycled.