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Re: Low KH

To: Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
Subject: Re: Low KH
From: Paul Sears <psears at nrn1_NRCan.gc.ca>
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2001 18:26:42 -0500 (EST)
In-Reply-To: <200102282048.PAA01563 at actwin_com> from "Aquatic Plants Digest" at Feb 28, 2001 03:48:01 PM

> Subject: Low KH
> 
> Will using baking soda to raise KH increase the 
> concentration of CO2 in the water.

	Raising the KH has no effect whatever on the CO2 concentration
in the water.  The CO2 system sets that.

> Why do the charts become innacurate when 
> buffers are used?

	The chart is just fine, but measuring the KH becomes impossible,
because the buffer anions show up in the "KH" measurement.

> Do they become totally useless or just a little off?

	If you use another buffer system to control the pH, you will have
no idea what the KH is, except that it is lower than the measurement you
get if you try to measure it.  It may be near-zero.  If you use the erroneous
KH measurement and the pH to get a "CO2 concentration" from the tables,
the result will be high, maybe by orders of magnitude.

-- 
Paul Sears        Ottawa, Canada

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