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Water Chemistry



Walter Klockers asked about water chemistry:
The best book I've read on basic water chemistry is a small booklet by
Tetra Press:

Water Chemistry and Fish Diseases
Aquarium Digest International #49
Andrews, C.

Walter wrote:
>I checked my tap water tonight, with the following results:
>pH - 6.6
>KH - 3
>GH - 60 ppm
>CO2 - above  15 mg/l (TetraTest)

Try letting your tap water sit over night or bubble some air through it.
 Your C02 level should drop to .5 mg/l or so (the equilibrium CO2 level
with air) and your pH should rise to 8.0 or higher!  You may want to add
CO2 in your aquarium to keep the pH around 7.0 .  You could also bring
the pH down a bit by softening your water (adding acid) to reach a KH of
1-2 (below that KH level the pH is too volatile as it reacts to changes
in your tank).  If I had your tap water, I would raise the KH and GH
just a bit (say KH 3-5; GH 5-6), add some CO2, and be off and running!

Check out the CO2/KH/pH relationship and other water info on the Krib
at:
http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~aquaria/Krib/Plants/CO2/

This is the most important information I learned as a beginner (and it
wasn't all that easy for me).
There is also a lot of good discussion in the APD archives, but it's a
lot of material to plow through.

Good luck,  Steve Dixon