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[APD] RE: Help raising GH from 0!



Did some research and found that Dolomite is actually Calcium Magnesium
Carbonate! So, due to the carbonates, this will raise my KH as well...

Also, being the smart person I am, I have decided to read the ingredients in
more detail now (instead of at the pharmacy) and find that the tablets have
lactose and corn starch in them too. 

So, any ideas on: 

- How much will this raise my KH? same amount as GH? 
- The effect of lactose and corn starch on plants/fish? 
- I thought I had found a way to add Calcium and Magnesium without raising
KH. Anyone know of another way?

-----Original Message-----
From: Laith Arif [mailto:laith at swissonline_ch] 
Sent: 10 August 2004 12:36
To: 'aquatic-plants at actwin_com'
Subject: Help raising GH from 0!


I've been noticing that my tap water KH has gone down drastically over the
past 6 months; from a high of around 15 to 5 or 6 these days. I usually
don't measure GH but when I did and got a reading of 0 (actually the color
changed after 1 drop so it could be between 0 and 1) I thought the GH test
kit was off.

Today I spoke to my lfs and they said that the local water supply had gotten
a lot softer.  Also I've noticed that some new leaves, especially on my
Alternanthera plants, were growing very small and crinkled.

So, the good news is that I no longer need to use RO water. The not so good
news is that I need to raise the GH of my water...

My tank currently has a KH of 3.5, GH of 0, pH of 6.6.

Off I went to the pharmacy and found a Magnesium+Calcium product (produced
from a "dolomite sand from Norway..."). It comes in the forms of pills, each
of which contains 100mg of Calcium and 60mg of Magnesium. As I didn't want
to raise the KH, I didn't want to go the Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3) route.

So, according to my calculations, 15 of these tablets will raise my GH by
1.05 (200l aquarium)? This based on 1 GH being 7.14mg/l of Calcium?

Therefore if I add 30 tablets, that will raise the GH by 2.1 and will add
9mg/l of Magnesium.

Could someone please double check my calculations and I'd also like to know
if that level of Magnesium in the aquarium is ok?

Many thanks!

Laith



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