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Re: Lowering pH when adding hard water nutrients to soft water



> Date: Fri, 1 Sep 2000 20:07:19 -0400
> From: Susi Barber
>
> >...If you enter the CO2-KH-pH Table at a KH of 4 you'll find...
>
> OKAY!  where do I find a copy of this table?

http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/CO2/kh-ph-co2-chart.html

> >The only mention of fish you made was that you didn't have room...
>
> I have 4 male guppies and two small zebra danios in the 6 gal...
> 1 male dwarf gourami in the 3 gal.  I said no to the J. Floridae
> because I don't think they will combine well with the guppies!...I am
> going to just stay with the guppies and the gourami until I get a bigger
> tank

Aha - the Guppies would probably prefer something a little harder anyway.

The idea that was presented by Patricia is a handy one for small tanks.
Instead of carefully calculating and measuring very small quantities of
compounds to coincide with the small changes, make a "standardized" stock
solution that can be added to the change water. You could then take, say, a
1/4-tsp. measure of calcium chloride, magnesium sulfate and baking soda and
mix into a gallon of water in a plastic milk jug. (If you do indeed have the
calcium carbonate tablets, use one of them instead of the calcium chloride
*and* the sodium bicarb.) Shake it until thoroughly dissolved, wait a day
for it to stabilize, then measure its parameters. If you _always_ add the
same amount to the gallon of fresh water, then its concentrations should
remain fairly constant.

Once the parameters of your stock solution is established, you can easily
determine how much of it to add to your in-going change water. It's easy to
calculate because reducing concentrations is linearly responsive - if you
want to cut it in half, double the amount of water without adding anything
else.

As an example, if your stock solution sits at 200 ppm, your tap comes out at
50 ppm and you want a final result of 100 ppm, then you would mix the tap
and solution at a 3:1 ratio (3 qt. of 50 and 1 qt of 200 = 1 gal of 100).

It makes a world of difference in your approach...

-Y-

David A. Youngker
nestor10 at mindspring_com