Increasing KH

• To: Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
• Subject: Increasing KH
• From: krandall at world_std.com (Karen A Randall)
• Date: Tue, 19 Mar 1996 22:04:07 -0500

 Subject: Increasing KH

Dave c/o sharon (shetaz) wrote:

> You need these in you water 
> small amounts because when the plants give off carbon dioxide th
> lowers the ph and reduces kh. Having a little bit of buffering, 
> calcium carbonate will help keep the tank from having a ph crash

OK, when you wrote this in the last post, I thought you might have 
misspoken, but here you are repeating yourself.  While plants _do_ 
respire, they do _not_ add to the CO2 levels in the tank (unless 
they are rotting)  They use _much more CO2 than they give off.  
Likewise, while they do use some O2, they give off _much_ greater 
amounts during photosynthesis.

> Remember
> will be a new tank and unless you are going to use water form a
> established tank, you still have the nitrogen cycle to go throug

If a planted tank is properly set up, there will be almost no 
"cycle" to be seen.  Certainly not one of any consequence.  

> be patient.

That is good advice.


Karen Randall
Aquatic Gardeners Assoc.
Boston, MA

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