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re: calcium requirments?
ChazzHess at aol_com writes:
>> I've noticed that I haven't seen any calcium listed in the PMDD
ingrediants. [sic] I know most (all) of the N and P requirements will
be met by my fish waste but I live in an area with very soft water.
Should I be adding a calcium source into my tank as well and if so,
how much should I add per gallon? <<
If you have very soft water, you should add a calcium source. Calcium
carbonate can be used at 1 tsp for each ten gallons of water to give 2
degrees of general hardness and carbonate hardness. If you change 25%
of your water at least monthly, you will not suffer any calcium
shortage. So if you remove 10 gallons and add 10 gallons, you will mix
1 tsp of powdered calcium carbonate to a large jar of water, stir and
add this cloudy mixture near lights off time. Don't add calcium to
water added to make up evaporation losses.
If you have organic soil in your substrate, it may be producing plenty
of nitrogen (nitrates) so that you will not require the nitrogen
sources in PMDD. I also use a reduced amount of trace elements from
the PMDD dosages since soil contains many of these nutrients and the
dosage in PMDD (aside from Fe) of trace elements is probably too high.
If you have a low fertility substrate, PMDD should supply all the
additional nutrient requirements except calcium. Fishfood will supply
the P requirements but alone probably won't supply enough N.
Steve Pushak in Vancouver BC