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Re: [APD] CaCO3 vs CaCl2/NaHCO3 in non-CO2 tank



CaCL2 = Calcium Chloride
MgSO4 = Magnesium Sulphate, probably he's using Epsom Salts here as that's the commonly available form.
NaHCO3 = Sodium Bicarbonate, or baking soda in the common form.
K2SO4 = Potassium Sulphate or potash
CaCO3 = Calcium Carbonate, or chalk


I think Calcium Chloride is available from shops selling supplies for swimming pools. Epsom salts and baking soda are commonly available at your local supermarket and potash is available from garden stores in the fertiliser area. I don't know of a source for Calcium carbonate but you could use powdered dolomite from health food stores. As stated in Clint's post, it's not easy to dissolve and that's true for dolomite too.

Hope this helps and I didn't get anything wrong. I just tend to buy stuff in bottles with the SeaChem label on it - probably the most expensive way to do it but pouring liquids into the tank is just soooooooooooooooooooo easy.

David Aiken


On 16/08/2005, at 8:28 AM, Nicolas Munro wrote:


I've been looking into non-CO2 but don't understand much about what your talking about,

what are the products or common names for the stuff your adding?

=Nick

Clint Brearley wrote:


I have an 50g non-CO2 tank to which I add each week ~5ppm GH (as CaCl2 and MgSO4) and 1/2 tsp NaHCO3 to maintain the GH ~120-150ppm and KH 50-70ppm (also adding a bit of K2SO4 and some traces). Since I'm not doing any water changes, should I be concerned about sodium accumulation (the fact that my discus are still breeding indicates 'probably not'). I'm considering perhaps switching to CaCO3, although I've always been hesitant to use it in the past because CaCl2 and NaHCO3 are so much more soluble and easier to work with. But I've only been running non-CO2 for 3 months and previously I was running CO2 and doing 50% w/c 1-2x per week so wasn't really worried about accumulation at all. So should I be worried now?

Clint
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