PH, KH Adjustment

[scoobydoo]

I was trying out my SERA PH,KH test kit just now and was shocked to find that my KH=1 and PH between 5-6. Suprisingly all my fish are not showing any distress. Will try again later, maybe I went thru a wrong step. But in case it's true, which do I up first, PH or KH ?
Another thing, what kind of chemical do these tests use ? I accidentally spilled some on my hand and now I got red splotches.

[DEA]

no idea what chemicals exactly, but hazarding a guess should be some kind of indicator (and acid, in the case of kH test kits)
regardless of what chemicals, you should always wash them off immediately

if your fish aren't showing signs of distress, DO NOT play with your pH/kH
if it ain't broke, don't fix it
especially when many of the fish we keep come from soft/acidic waters

besides, have you checked the expiry date on your sera test kit? mine aren't exactly very accurate

[scoobydoo]

Checked the expiry date, it appears to be August '06. But if I need to up it, which do I do first ? Are malayan shrimp sensitive to ph/kh ? i don't seem to have luck with shrimps, a bag of 50 will usually last me about 3 months, most die and some are eaten.

[David]

hi sb

if most of your fish are SA region they should not be stressed. KH of 1 is pretty risky if you are injecting CO2 If it hits 0, your tank may experience a PH crash. You should focus on the KH as it is directly related to PH, the higher the KH, the higher the PH.

For a planted tank, a good level of KH should be between a range of 3 to 6, depending on your PH requirment when the water is CO2 rich.

KH 3 = 6.3 PH
KH 4 = 6.5 PH
KH 5 = 6.7 PH
KH 6 = 6.9 PH

Use baking soda or KH up powder from Aquamedic to raise your KH. Do not raise your KH by more than 2KH points within 24hrs(best at 1, at two you are pushing it but since you KH is at 1). dissolve the powder perhaps 1 to 2 teaspoon(flat not heap) and dissolve it into water. spread it around the tank....wait about an hour and test the KH level again....continue the process till the desired level is reached.

if you happen to spill some on your hands, think it is okay...just rinse it off......

[DEA]

fyi
my malayan shrimp were thriving in kh 0, ph 5.5 water