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Re: Carbo-Plus
From Neil Frank:
>
> At 03:48 AM 07/25/2001 -0400, you wrote:
> >>Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2001 13:13:01 -0700
> >But not for soft water unless your willing to add Ca and CO3/HCO3.
>
> Exactly! When I make water changes in my higher light [fast grow] tanks, I
> rountinely add lime and NaHCO3. Otherwise the KH gets too low. So, my
> thought for carbo plus is to add a bit more... or do it more frequently,
> e.g. weekly when I add the TMG.Some entrepeneur may already have a
> concentrate that is easier to decant. (I just dump measured dry powder into
> a water jug, shake it up and dump it in).....Another thought is to add some
> coral rock , crushed coral or other solid source of CaCO3..... or will the
> carbonates get used up too quickly in either case. Anyway, something to
> play with. As you said, it is nice to have first hand experience in order
> to talk authoritatively about something.
> NF
If the Carbo-Plus unit makes CO2 by decomposing calcium bicarbonate
to CO2, water and calcium carbonate, then you will have to add the
calcium bicarbonate, not the carbonate. If you use CaCO3, the CO2
produced will be used up in reacting with the CaCO3. You can't win that
way! I mentioned before that one would either have to dissolve the
CaCO3 _before_ it went in, or add (say) CaCl2 and NaHCO3. This would
have the disadvantage of introducing Cl- and Na+ ions, but should work.
--
Paul Sears Ottawa, Canada