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KH, GH & pH! Oh my!
When I first started the aquarium I always feared the dreaded pH crash. With so many products on the market to maintain aquarium KH combined with the wide array of test kits on the market with lowest pH value of 6 any lower pH seemed like uncharted territory.
After maintaining my own tanks for years the doubts became stronger and stronger. Coupled with feedback from other hobbyists about the ideal KH I began to wonder what an aquarium without KH monitoring would do. Would it crash and burn or would it balance itself and thrive. My urge to stop monitoring the pH became just as strong as the common hobbyist instinct to monitor it. The "buffer" additives ceased but the pH monitoring continued. After all...I could not let my aquarium crash!
Armed with the handheld pH meter and my savior baking soda in reach I took my journey into uncharted territory. After going for months on end without KH or "buffer" additives I discovered the that pH would not crash. Even when injecting co2, using AquaSoil and RO water!
Not only did I have to drop monitoring pH and adding KH products my soft water fish thrived in the acidic conditions and prefer this low KH habitat. Freshwater plants are already proven to grow better in low KH acidic environments and certain species like Tonina and Eriocaulon require it.
Now that I grew confident that the aquarium can survive from crashing I began to scrutinize the addition of such additives. The addition of KH to the aquarium is detrimental in the fact that ammonium can transform into much more toxic form ammonia. Reading articles like the one sited below show me just how dangerous adjusting can be and has shed some light on my mysterious losses.
For the exception of hardwater species like African cichlids I cannot see why the aquarium owner would bother maintaining pH and KH values. Maintaining a false pH is downright dangerous. It is apparent to me the aquarium will balance itself instead of crashing. The world is not flat after all...
Supporting Article: Ammonia Toxicity and the pH Relationship
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