Re: Why does KH drop?

[Ivo Busko <busko at stsci_edu>]

Greg Morin <greg at seachem_com> wrote:

>>So now I believe that Flourite drops the kH at the onset. Dr. Morin (from
>>Seachem), any comments on this ?
>
T>hat is a rather dramatic drop in KH. Flourite does not affect pH or
>KH either up or down so it can't be what is contributing to this. Do
>you have any drift wood or other source of tannins? There must be
>something else in the tank that is contributing to acid or acid
>formation and is causing the resulting drop in KH.
>--
>
>Gregory Morin, Ph.D.  ~~~~~~~Research Director~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Seachem Laboratories, Inc.      www.seachem.com     888-SEACHEM
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, yes, I have driftwood in the tank. But, before putting together the
tank, I kept the wood for several weeks submerged in a rubbermaid trash can.
The wood includes swamp rootwood from aquariumdriftwood.com and malaysisan
driftwood. The wood did leach a small, barely noticeable tanin. I measured
the water parameters out of curiosity, just to see how and if this type of 
driftwood would change the water chemistry. They were still close to the 
tap water values after all that time, so I'm assuming the driftwood wasn't 
the cause. Since everything else was kep constant, I'm blaming the kH drop 
on the Flourite by lack of a better explanation. Maybe I should try to 
reproduce this effect under more controlled conditions. If I ever find 
time to do that (being very busy lately) I will report back here.

- Ivo Busko
  Baltimore, MD

  "Buy a fish, Save a tree !"
  Project Piaba: http://www.angelfire.com/pq/piaba/