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Low KH / tank pictures
Many thanks to Tom Barr and Paul Sears for their advice on the low KH
issue. Tom is right, in that daily water changes aren't very practical --
not only the change itself, but I have to adjust up my GH/KH each change.
I'll probably aim for three 15-20% changes weekly, and keep my KH around
40-50 ppm (about 2.2-2.8 dH). I doubt nitric acid would ever arise given
our large biofilter and all the plants, but how about something nasty one
day from an anaerobic pocket in the substrate? I was under the impression
that even in such cases, nasties like hydrogen sulfide would be neutralized
quickly in an oxygen-rich tank with all those nutrient ions present.
As to water changes and fish growth, I did note quite a difference in our
angel fry in 10-gal tanks with daily massive water changes in the first few
weeks. Again this isn't just a question of avoiding nitrate buildup IMO.
With regard to GH, I have access to anhydrous calcium chloride (was using
the dihydrate) -- before I open the container, are there any special
precautions I need to take -- it's labeled "irritant".
Since I increase our GH (to about 150 ppp) with calcium chloride and
magnesium sulfate and can therefore get any Ca:Mg ratio, what's a good one
to keep, since I've read that different plant species may have different
optimums. Or is this not really an issue?
First photos of our planted discus tank are at
http://www.brainyday.com/jared/aquarium/newpix/newpix.htm Our "bible" for
this conversion from our planted angel setup was Karan Randall's excellent
article "The Planted Discus Tank" in her column in Aquarium Frontiers at
http://www.animalnetwork.com/fish2/aqfm/1998/sep/aquatic/default.asp"
Jared
___________________________________________________________
Jared Weinberger jared at brainyday_com
____________ http://www.brainyday.com/jared _______________