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CaCl to raise GH not KH?
>From: ac554 at freenet_carleton.ca (David Whittaker)
>Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 06:13:23 -0500 (EST)
>Subject: Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V2 #447
>
>Craig Bingman mentions....
>
>>Chloride ions are
>>essentially unreactive. It is the major anion in seawater, but usually
>>it isn't the dominant anion in freshwater, or it is about as abundant as
>>sulfate or bicarbonate.
>>
>>Some fish from very soft water may be somewhat susceptible to high Cl-.
>>Generally, though, at low concentrations, it is completely innocuous. I
>>doubt that there will be enough Cl- buildup from the use of the
>>fertilizer that you mention to cause problematically high Cl-
>>concentrations if you perform even occasional water changes.
>
>There are four pie charts on page 68 of the Optimum Aquarium where
>the authors analyze the cation and anion concentrations in both
>mains water and waters from Cryptocoryne areas that they had sampled.
>In the Cryptocoryne areas the average in % mval for the chloride
>anion is given as 51%; in mains water 20%. FWIW
>
>- --
>Dave Whittaker
>ac554 at FreeNet_Carleton.ca
Since waters from Cryptocoryne areas contains a large percentage (51%)
of chloride anions, wouldn't Calcium Chloride (salt used for de-icing
roads and sidewalks) be a good way of raising GH but not KH?
What I was thinking of doing was to use Calcium Chloride to "tweak"
the GH/KH from say 2 degrees GK and 4 degrees KH to somewhere closer to
about 4 degrees each GH and KH.
Since I use Sodium BiCarbonate (baking soda) to raise KH, I'm guessing
that I may have be careful not to get too much table salt (Na+ and Cl-
cations/anions) in the water, but I would think if I kept the KH and
GH around 4 and do the usual Bi-weekly 25% water change, that not too much
Na+ and Cl- would sneak in and build up in concentration. Of course, if a
could find a cheap (~$10) test kit for chlorides, this approach would be a
lot less risky.
---------------
Ron Wozniak Allentown PA, USA
rjwozniak at lucent_com