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Re:HCL dosing
On my previous note about dosing HCl I got some information wrong and forgot
some other important information.
The tap water is actually 8.5 ph, 7 GH, and 10 KH. I have a DIY CO2 going
and that generally keeps the ph around 8.25. The substrate in the tank is
fluorite. The kh of 6 I mentioned was after 4 days of adding the HCl. In
the past I've noticed the plants grow much better if I can get the ph down
closer to 7. I have used Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Tap Water Purifier to
help lower the kh and ph of the water. Unfortunately the resin chamber
doesn't last very long before the kh of the water coming out start going
back up. I'm tired of buying refill resin chambers, and an RO unit seems
like total over kill. I was hoping the HCl could lower the ph and kh like
the water purifier was.
I was under the impression that if I lowered the kh of the water the ph
would drop also. Based on responses (on and off list) I still think that is
correct. If that is wrong please let me know. I like Bob's idea:
>A better solution might be to figure out how much acidit takes to
permanently
>change the pH to your target level in a bucket of water. Then prepare
about
>ten or fifteen gallons of water down to a pH below the target level. Once
it
>is stable, use it to do a partial water change. After several changes over
a
>couple weeks, you will reach your target pH. Then prepare all of your
water
>for changes a day or two in advance.
I'm almost convinced I should just continue my mixing of tap and filtered
water, like everyone else, but I would still like to explore this a little
further. For now I've stopped adding any more HCl to the tank. I'll start
testing this on a bucket of water as Bob suggested.