Water Parameters

Well, Camilsky is a PhD candidate in Bio-Chemistry so this is how he thinks...Right, camilsky? 8)

 

Right'o...

Sorry, for such a technical description. My fiancee red this stuff and she was laughing at me ... I wanted to be as specific as possible. My message is:

The higher the dKH the more stable your system in terms of pH change.

dKH is constantly changing in our tanks because carbonates react with protons found in water forming carboxylic acid. The acid decomposes due to relatively high temperature of water yielding carbon dioxide and once again water.

AMEN!

 

sooooooooooo.........to have a higher dkh means that ur ph is more stable?

 

With certain assumptions, yes!

 

BTW Baking Soda will raise your dKH and it's only $0.69 for a whole box, whereas that supplement stuff was prolly like $5-$10 huh? ;D

 

Yeah! ! The only problem is that with baking soda NaHCO[SUB]3[/SUB] (chemical name: sodium hydrocarbonate) you will introduce additional Na+ (sodium cations). This can cause so called osmotic shock. It can be dangerous for your invertebrates. Good dKH boosters contain carbonate/hydrocarbonate buffers that are calcium based. Therefore you can use them not only to boost your dKH but also to bring back the proper 400-412 ppm (or mg/l) level of calcium.

Believe me or not. I do love DIY projects. However, some of them can seriously damage/f*** your fish/inverts/bacteria.

Cheers!

 

Its a good thing that we have a Bio-Chemistry person in the family;D

 

Well it's too late for me, so I'll let you know if I notice any adverse affects happening to my tank due to the Baking Soda. Although I do admit that I doubt it will. People have been using it before me and I never read anything bad about it in my research. Believe me I've spent $700 on my tank in the past 2 months and I'm not gonna chance ruining it like that without looking into it.

 

Baxter double even triple the amount of the two part B Ionic stuff it will do nothing you gave hit a break even point.. Its being used as fats as you add it.. By adding it like you are you will just burn through the bottles and not see much if any real results. Thats the plan..

O.K all this Chemistry is simple Alk and Ca are opposite elements and one is a positive ion and the other is a negative charged ion.. And they do not play well in the old sand box if left alone if one or when one gets on top of the other one the on on top will keep the bottom element suppressed and will not allow it to raise up.. Like oil and water they just don't mix.. Unless you add a emulsifier to the mix and for this its Magnesium..

Like touching opposite ends of a battery pr electrical wires together that can be done just fine as long as you have a resistor in the mix..

People just over think themselves with all the information available today they it informational overload really fast.. Like that guy on R/C Randy the water God . I have never been able to give any of his words of wisdom a full read to date a paragraph is tops at best.. I mean hoe many understand a internal combustion engine ? But they drive anyways And watch the dash guage's sometimes..

I'm so happy I came along way way way before Internet and experts. hell they confuse me . I have to use and apply the Kiss method.

As for the stront if you do not have the calcium levels at the proper amounts then you can't test for it so get the calcium up to 450 and steady before you start to test . I never test for strontium very often as there are no really accurate home kits that will read it accurately some get close and is the best I ever found any to get. I just dose it at 8ozs of a stock solution a week to 200 gals of tank/system water. I buy Strontium Carbonate in bulk for 100.00 for 2 Kilo's of powder and mix 5 tea spoons to 8 oxz of water or you can use the Kents turbo strontium .. Also Strountium is used to make T.V picture tubes and other glass products and crystal's..

 

Hey Tangster, I was actually able to bring the Alk up to 6 from 5 just by adding 1 ml/gallon of the Alk buffer and the Calcium up to to 440 from 420. I am going to give it a try again tomorrow. I fully understand the concept of saturation and I am sure I am going to hit it. What should I do for the long haul?