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Re: [APD] CO2, CaCo3 and nuetral buffers



sdgoett at att_net wrote:
Is it bad to use a buffer such as Nuetral regulator by Seachem? It does such a good job of keeping my pH at 7.0. The pH of my tap water is over 9. I am

Neutral Reg is pure phosphate. Using it in a tank with high lighting will almost certainly lead to big algae problems.

Additionally, the use of phosphate buffers invalidates the
pH/KH/CO2 relationship, so it will be difficult or impossible to
judge your CO2 levels.

You mention that the pH of your water out of the tap is over 9.  That
MIGHT mean you have very hard water, but not necessarily.  In some
cases, the water coming out of the tap has no dissolved CO2, resulting
in an extremely high pH.

Get a cup of water from the tap, aerate it (just drop an airstone in
the cup for 15 minutes), and measure the pH.  The aeration will let
CO2 dissolve into the water from the air.

CaCO3 (calcium carbonate) is used to raise the pH , GH and KH.  So
if you do indeed have very hard water, you probably do not need to
add any CaCO3.

Depending on what the starting pH of your water really is, you
probably don't need to do anything to it when injecting CO2.  In
fact, unless you are keeping demanding soft-water fish, you
might not need to do anything to the pH even without CO2
injection.   And note that if you are keeping soft-water fish,
adding Neutral Buffer don't actually soften the water.  It
simply replaces the carbonate buffers with phosphate buffers.
The resulting pH is lower, but the hardness is not.




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