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Re: Profile hardens water
Have been behind in my emails a lot lately; decided to respond this time with
my experience of Profile:
I spoke to several people at Schultz and Nu-Grow in the course of trying to
obtain Profile in Canada a while ago, including Mary Beth as mentioned in a
previous post - I was also told unequivocally that the Clay Soil Conditioner
was exactly the same formulation as the Aquatic Garden Soil, and I should save
myself some money by requesting the former. The particles are tiny to about 4
mm size, and a purplish gray in the bag I bought. When first put into a tank,
they tend to "fizz" a bit for a few minutes, and lots of air bubbles escape
for the first day or so; probably best to rinse it well first.
I also find it has a hardening effect on the water, especially if left without
water changes; my water is so soft that it takes several days for the effect
to appear. It is fine in my guppy tanks; I only added a light sprinkling to
the surface of the soil and gravel substrate in my soft water tank, it had no
discernable effect on pH, but the plants did improve in appearance (extra
calcium, magnesium and iron, no doubt).
In my Profile only tank, the plants do not grow as fast as in my tank with 2"
soil covered by 1.5" Profile substrate - I think you would definitely need to
add supplemental nutrients to a Profile only substrate if you have stronger
lighting and CO2 supplementation; and I would not use it in a soft water tank.
kind regards,
Susi Barber
Vancouver