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Re: hardening water
Cavan,
Your KH and GH are rising together, so it's likely that the rise is
caused by dissolving calcium carbonate or dolomite. You don't really
need to look for anything but that.
I can think of two possibilities and I imagine there are others.
You said that you reconstitute your RO water with calcium carbonate. So
you know the stuff doesn't dissolve very easily. Could you be
introducing some undissolved calcium carbonate into the tank along with
your reconstituted water? If so, then it can continue to dissolve after
you add the water to the tank and the GH and alkalinity will continue to
rise.
And then there are snail shells. Snail shells are calcium carbonate and
they can redissolve to increase GH and alkalinity. I suppose that
you're most likely to see this effect if you had a recent snail die-off,
but even the shells of live snails can partly redissolve.
I'm sure you told us before, but I can't remember; just what about your
tap water is so reprehensible?
Roger Miller