Murky clay water

To: Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
Subject: Murky clay water
From: Stephen.Pushak at saudan_HAC.COM
Date: Mon, 02 Sep 1996 23:47:30 PDT
In-Reply-To: <199609011939.PAA22500 at looney_actwin.com>; from "Aquatic-Plants-Owner at ActWin_com" at Sep 01, 96 3:39 pm

I've been doing some experimental tanks & jars following Paul
Krombholz's soil-soup method. I was using several containers to
separate clay from sand and ended up with about a liter of murky
light colored water which had the finest extractions of clay
particles suspended in it. I potted a small crypt in a plastic
margarine tub with earthworm casting soil and thought, why waste
this water which probably has some nice soil extractions. I had
used the same water to prepare a soil layer for a Crypt & Aponogeton
madagascariensis tub. After about 6 hours, the water in my experimental
Crypt pot remains turbid and slightly chalky in appearance. Should I:
a) wait a little longer and see if it clarifies
b) ignore the turbidity
c) siphon the water off since it is probably quite high in calcium
and other minerals and discard it -or-
d) re-use this water in small amounts for my aquariums or house plants
as a source of calcium (which is deficient in our tap water)

Is anyone familiar with the symptoms of calcium deficiency in plants?
Are SAEs, Danios, Otocinclus or Platys affected by very soft water?
I notice some of the Danios which were grown by a friend, developed
curved spines and I thought this might be part of the problem.

Steve in Vancouver BC playing with mudpies! (great fun!)  :-)