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Re: "Hardness"
> term too. In technical literature buffering capacity is called
> "alkalinity". There is a lot less potential for confusion if we use
> "alkalinity" rather than "carbonate hardness".
Roger,
Unfortunately, even the term alkalinity has a lot of potential for
linguistic confusion. I can't tell you how many times I've heard someone
use "alkalinity" when they are talking about how alkaline (basic) their
tap water is (ie how high the tap water's pH is).
I've also used "alkalinity" (KH if you will) while explaining
buffering capacity, and confused people who think I'm talking about a high
pH. So, I try to use "KH" or "Buffering Capacity," neither of which is
all that accurate, (the first because more than carbonates are involoved,
the second because I would imagine there is both acid buffering capacity
and base buffering capacity?), but they get the point across. I've also
used acid binding capacity to describe the tanks ability to resist
downward shifts in pH. This term works okay.
BTW, when using the pH/KH table, if one has high phosphates
(from lots of fish food, not from phosphate buffers being added) in the
tank water being tested, will such phosphate also affect the accuracy of
the table? And what about the sulfates from the MgSO4? Will they affect
the accuracy?
Andrew