Couple more ?'s

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cich-o

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Nov 28, 2002
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1. What is the difference between alkalinity and KH?
2. What is the role of base rock, if it is just to support bacterial growth wouldn't lace rock be just as good at less than half the price?
 

Boogiechillin

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Oct 26, 2000
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1) Alkalinity can be measured in dKH (german degrees of carbonate hardness). So, KH is synonymous with alkalinity*

2) Most people refer to any old rock, whether it's currently biologically active or not, as base rock. So yes, lace rock is a great, cheap material to use for base rock. Some stores confuse the issue by describing low-quality live rock as base rock - basically, any ugly LR is sold at a reduced price for a base material. While this rock is immediately biologically active and helpful in the short term, in the long term it's a waste of money and you're better off just getting the lace rock.


*Regarding the whole KH/alkalinity thing, technically speaking, dKH is only a measure of the alkalinity provided by carbonate or bicarbonate ions. However, this unit of measurement has been corrupted to include all ions that provide alkalinity, so any modern KH test kit is better referred to as a general alkalinity test kit.
 
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