Aragonite bad idea?

[Blown 346]

I have been told that having Aragonite is fine and they dont see a problem with it. Tehn I have been told to remove as it will mess with water chemistry. The only way they see me using it is to care for Chiclids or hard water plants.

Should I remove the aragonite and replace with Flourite, or leave it be? I have a mixture of sand on the bottom and aragonite on top.

[Nolapete]

aragonite will make your water extremely hard and alkaline. good for saltwater or african cichlids, bad for planted aquariums

[Blown 346]

I should remove it. Ok I wll remove what I can, and leave the sand until i can get some flourite.

[petluvr]

CC buffers your ph up so yes it is good for cichlids and saltwater but I have never had a problem growing plants with it, flourite would be better though:)

[KarlTh]

It's good for Rift Lake cichlids, but not cichlids in general. Note cichlid, not chiclid. The first syllable is "sick", not "chick".

[BradH]

How much do those cichlid substrates from caribsea that contain aragonite actually raise your kh, gh and ph? Anyone know?

[KarlTh]

It depends. The amount which dissolves depends on the pH, but the finishing point for KH and GH depends on the starting point and how much dissolves. pH will move towards an equilibrium around the 8.something mark.

For example, if you have very soft but alkaline water, it will have little effect because it won't dissolve. If you have very hard but acid water (unusual but possible), then the water will get even harder because it will dissolve in the acid water.

[BradH]

So if your ph is 7 and your kh is 3 and your gh is 4 would it go up drastically?

[KarlTh]

So if your ph is 7 and your kh is 3 and your gh is 4 would it go up drastically?

Not drastically. And not quickly; it doesn't dissolve very fast. In fact, calcium carbonate is virtually insoluble; it requires acid to turn the carbonate into bicarbonate which is soluble. Essentially, a very tiny amount of the carbonate will dissolve in water. If this is converted into bicarbonate (i.e. the water is acid), then more of the calcium carbonate can be dissolved. If it isn't converted, then the rest of the calcium carbonate remains solid. Since the carbonate itself is only marginally soluble - and for most purposes it can be considered insoluble - it can be seen that the process can only be slow if it happens at all. I'm not a fan of using calcium carbonate in any form for this purpose (although some swear by it); I much prefer to raise KH and GH directly using sodium bicarbonate (it's already in the bicarbonate form so dissolves readily) for the one and either epsom salts or commercial cichlid salts for the latter. My water has a KH of 4 and a GH of 8-9, so I often need to raise the former whilst lowering the latter; not easy, but I do it by adding bicarb to raise KH and at the same time filtering through peat to lower the GH. Even thought the KH rises overall, the pH drops like a stone with all the organic acids.

Then I add CO2. It's a fairly acid environment, but then, so's the Rio Negro.

[BradH]

Thank for the explanation. I understand it better now.

[Cory Keeper]

I dunno how you figure bad for plants, I've got a 5g critter tank with crushed coral in the filter, well on its way to being really hard, plants are growing.

If anything harder water is better sometimes, gives the plants nutrients it wouldn't otherwise have.

[Blown 346]

I tested my PH last night and it is 6.8. The Aragontie hasd been in the tank for weeks without any fluctuation.

[BradH]

I tested my PH last night and it is 6.8. The Aragontie hasd been in the tank for weeks without any fluctuation.

I wonder what your KH and GH are though?

[DAVIDFBT]

What kind of fish are in the tank? They will probably not like the higher GH and KH.

[Blown 346]

There currently no fish in the tank. I just started this tank to keep plants as soemthing new.