Adjusting Water

[timbruun]

So I'm going to be using distilled water for my shrimp and was wondering where the best place in edmonton is to buy calcium carbonate and calcium chloride to add to my water. Where are you RO people who reconstitute the water to what you need and where do you get it?

[jvision]

If you don't have high copper, you could mix w. your well water - maybe start w. a 50/50 mix; or if you're worried, 75/25 RO/Well.

[timbruun]

I was considering that too. I will need to still bring my GH up anyways. And if I can get it right with distilled then I might try crystal shrimp in the future.

[timbruun]

Ok. So I just did some testing here while watching the olypics . And Baking soda will bring my KH up very easily. Epsom salt as long as it has no additives will bring my GH up. pH comes up along with KH. Is there anything major I need to worry about otherwise?

I was looking at equilibrium and replenish by seachem since they say they add other essentials. Have to read up some more and see what they actually are.

And I also found out that my RO source really isn't that good. The KH, GH and pH weren't that far off the tap at that source. KH was still quite high, GH was still 0 and pH was around 8.

Edited February 13, 2010 by timbruun

[timbruun]

Now after more research it sounds like using baking soda (NaHCO3) for KH is not a good idea since plants don't really like the sodium. And using Epsom salt (MgSO4) for GH will work except it won't be bringing up the calcium enough which shrimp need. Gypsum (CaSO4) will bring the calcium up and so will limestone, which is calcium carbonate (CaCO3). So limestone sounds like the better option since it will bring up GH and KH at the same time and somewhat same rate. Only issue is it's a little harder to dissolve in water which I'll have to try out. I can get calcium magnesium carbonate from allseasons which is beneficial with the magnesium anyways. Then I can add trace elements,probably seachem trace, to bring up the last extras and the water should be good to go.

I will also try and get some calcium chloride (CaCl2) to bring up the GH in my other tanks, otherwise I'll probaly just use the epsom salt.

I was told by allseasons that if I wanted to use calcium sulfate/gypsum then most garden centres carry what is called garden plaster which is the same thing. I tried looking it up and I can't find anything called garden plaster. Does anyone know anything about this also?

Any input on all this? Kind of a steep learning curve for me.

[jvision]

If you're adding CO2 to your tank, the CaCO3 will dissolve - if you've ever read about a Calcium reactor for reef tanks, that's what they're doing. CaCO3 comes in all sorts of forms: chalk, powder, shells; any and all will work fine.

[timbruun]

I'm not adding CO2 right now. Might use excel at a later date but that shouldn't affect it. If the CaCO3 dissolves, will it turn my water back to what it was prior to adding it?

Talked to Henry and he carries the seachem equilibrium for pretty good price. I'll be trying that for GH and other minearls then just using baking soda anyways since he was saying it's not bad and he uses it all the time.

[timbruun]

So I tried the equilibrium in a pail before hand to see what happens with my GH. Is it supposed to work right away? I waited up to an hour testing the water regulary and shaking the jug but my GH never really rose. I ended up adding a bit of epsom salt (MgSO4) also and that worked right away.

So does anyone have experience with equilibrium? I don't want to be adding too much GH now that I went through all this trouble. Or does the API kit not test it properly and needs magnesium also?

On another note after all this work my water parameters are dead on and everyone in the tanks looks so much happier than before.

[gobies et al]

:thumbs:

[timbruun]

Little update with the water.Still not sure about the equilibrium. I'm going to try and get a different brand of GH tester and see what happens. I'll keep playing around with it and see. Otherwise I've started using epsom salt and DAP plaster of paris in my other tanks to bring the GH up also. The plaster turns the tank cloudy for a bit but it's supposed to work really well. Plus it's cheap. I tried the CaMg(CO3)2 which is dolomite in a glass of water and it doesn't disolve at all. So I won't be using that in my tanks unless I want to put it in a filter bag in my filter. We'll see.

With my distilled I've been using the baking soda and epsom salt along with a little bit of cichlid salt and still trying the equilibrium. My water stats are still dead on what I want them to be. And as proof that everyone is happy I've got at least 2 shrimp with eggs I'm pretty sure there are more but I just haven't seen them at the same time.