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Re: Profile hardens water

Well I wanted to see if rinsing the Profile further
would remove the pH, KH and GH changes I observed.

I used the Profile (in a 50mL tube) used in the
previous experiment.  I filled the tube to the 50mL
mark with DI/RO water and shook the tube.  I then
poured off the water.  I repeated this 8 times.  I
then filled the tube to the 50mL mark and let the
water+Profile sit for 24hrs.  I then tested the water
pH, KH and GH.

pH: ~7.0
KH: 0 dKH
GH: 2 dGH (20 ppm)

So it looks as though rinsing removes any affect
Profile has on water chemistry.  So Profile can be
used in both soft and hard water tanks without worry.

Lobos


>>>>
Ivo Busko you inspired me to test Profile myself as
I'll be using it in
a tank soon.

I decided to test if Profile was leaching substances
into the water
column.  I used laboratory grade RO/DI water to
conduct the tests.  The
Profile was 3-4mm  sized grains of uniformly beige
material.  The test
protocol was conducted as follows:
1) Placed 1 tablespoon of Clay Soil Conditioner
(Profile) into a
polypropylene 50mL tube
2) Added RO/DI water to the 50mL mark
3) Shook the tube and poured off the water
4) Refilled the tube to the 50mL mark with RO/DI water
and let the
Profile settle
5) Measured pH, GH and KH of the water above the
Profile immediately and
24hrs after start of the test

For the pH test the pH probe was inserted into the
water above the
Profile
For the GH and KH tests 5mL of water was used

I used the Tetra KH and the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals
GH test kits.  The
lowest GH you can determine with this kit is 10 ppm
(0.56 dGH).  The pH
meter is a Corning portable pH meter accurate to
+/-0.02.

The pH of the RO/DI water was hard to determine due to
the fact it lacks
ions, therefore the pH 7.0 valve actually had a range
of 6.6-7.2.

Immediately:
                        pH        KH(dKH)        GH
(dGH)
RO/DI water    7.0         0.0                   
<0.56
Profile              6.70       0.0                   
   3.9

After 24hrs:
                        pH        KH(dKH)      
GH(dGH)
Profile              7.35        1.0                  
 11.2

It looks as though Profile does indeed leach
substances into the water
column.  Maybe with more washings of the Profile prior
to using it this
effect will be minimized or removed.

Many people have grown beautiful plant tanks using
Profile, but if you
are keeping soft water loving fish in the tank Profile
may not be the
substrate for you.

Lobos


<<I got ahold of a bag of Profile (Soil Conditioner)
at Wal Mart and did

run a quick test. After rinsing  several times, mixed
a handful with
about twice the volume of distilled water and let it
settle for 24 hs in

a glass jar. As a control, did the same with silica
sand and Flourite.
Then measured pH, kH and gH (Tetra kit). Results:

              pH      kH      gH
sand        < 6.0*   < 0.5   < 0.5
Flourite      6.5    < 0.5   < 0.5
Profile     > 7.6*     4.5     8.0

* these are actually off-scale readings, the test kit
won't go beyond
that. The acidic pH from the sand sample is, I think,
due to dissolved
CO2 from air.

The conclusion is that Profile leaches a lot of hard
stuff into the
water. Thus it is unsuitable for soft water tanks.
Does anyone have
problems with Profile hardening water ?

Btw, the Profile I got does not match the physical
description of
neither
Profile nor Turface in Jamie Johnson's article. It has
3-4 mm particles
with a beige, uniform color. I guess there is a lot of
variation in
their batches. Maybe not important for use in flower
beds or turf, but
can wreak havoc in the aquarium.

- Ivo Busko
  Baltimore, MD
>>
>>>>


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