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Re: Sodium in planted tanks
On Tue, 25 Apr 2000, Cavan wrote:
> Roger and Andrew: I switched over to Equilibrium from
> the RO Right to reconstitute my distilled water.
> Sodium only comes from what is in the Floursih itself.
> I don't think there can be much sodium in the tank.
> I wonder if there's anything funny about the distilled
> water?
In order for sodium to be the problem it would probably need to be there
at something over 10X the concentration of calcium. With 8 degrees of
hardness in your tank, I have a hard time imagining how that would happen.
> What's this about the balance between calcium and
> magnesium? What should the ratio be? Having heard
> all the postive things I've heard about Seachem
> products, I would think that the Equilibrium/Flourish
> mixture would give me the right proportions of
> everything.
In most natural fresh waters calcium is more abundant than magnesium. The
ratio isn't at all fixed but it's fairly common for calcium content to be
3 or 4 times the magnesium content.
> I was thinking aboout possible substrate causes. My
> tank has an old undergravel filter plate covered with
> normal gravel and topped with flourite. I noticed
> some blackish areas in the gravel, and stirred them
> up. I have a bunch of burrowing snails, and the
> healthy roots bring in oxygen to break up the dark
> areas, though some roots do sometimes show black
> areas. A while back, I stirred up the gravel and a
> bunch of bubbles came up. I wonder if any of it
> diffused into the water. Could this be why some stems
> are fine when one RIGHT NEXT TO IT could be stunted?
I suppose this is possible but I have never seen it happen. In fact I
have several plants that flourish with their roots in the anaerobic zone
below a chunk of driftwood. At one time I uprooted a large B. longifolia
and found that most of its roots stretched out to one side, reaching out
about 6 inches and into the zone below the driftwood. My experience is
that the oxygen-depleted zones are actually good for plants.
Roger Miller