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Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V3 #751



> Finally, what are some other alternatives to get my water ph down from 
>  9-10 range?  I never had much luck with peat. Fooling around with 9M HCl 
>  hardly seems safe any where near or relating to a fishtank.Is there any 
>  way to reset the kh and gh?(If I boiled some of my tap I could probably 
>  drive nails wth the remaining mineral deposits)  Would black water 
>  extract work?  Are there any different ph target buffers that wouldn't 
>  produce the same cloudy effect? 

I assume that your high starting pH is due to a high buffering capacity (KH).
This is due to the carbonates in your water.  When you add any type of acid
what you are doing is removing this buffering capacity (very slowly) by
precipitating out the carbonates.  This is what is causing your cloudiness.  I
would also assume you're having pH bounce where when you add the acid the pH
drops and then returns back to a high pH again.  Any acid you add will have to
remove the buffering effect therefore causing a cloudy tank (to my
experience).  That is why I was forced to buy an RO unit.  Then again I'm just
a chemistry teacher, I'm sure someone on this list will tell you that I'm
wrong.  As for buying potassium nitrate, I'm not sure because I buy mine
directly from the school.
Sean