I need some help.Are there any chemist in the house?

[rockhead44]

Should I use baking soda to rise the ph?If so how much should I use?The ph is at 6 now.I don't have any coral but I have baking soda and some of the proper ph 7.0 stuff .Which I read is not good for a planted tank.What do you all think?I need to rise it.Thanks again!

 

[a_free_bird73]

pH is not really an issue with plant growth provided that you don't have a very highly lit tank with CO2 injection. Adding a chelator will almost certainly not make Iron available. Once Iron is oxidised it can not be reversed except chemically or biologically in oxygen defficient zones.

I have had very similar issues to what you are describing and I would suggest you look very carefully if your other plants are growing... Sword plants show nutritional deficincy in ways that are different from many other species partially because they are root feeders and hence they respond in a delayed fashion to fertalizers and show deficincies quicker than other plants.

I use my own fertaliser mix and have experimented over several months of different formulations. I have very soft water (~1 kH, GH) which tends to be a major problem because commercial fertalisers were not fomulated for such soft water.

Typically I have to add substantial amounts of calcium & potassium and a little bit of magnesium. I also add a mixture of none chelated trace element mix with chelated Iron

I susbect that you have a mixture of Iron and calcium deficincy because commercial formulations tend to supply mostly potassium

 

[rockhead44]

Typically I have to add substantial amounts of calcium & potassium and a little bit of magnesium. I also add a mixture of none chelated trace element mix with chelated Iron

Freebird Thanks for the response .Can you tell me what I should buy and how much do you think I would need for a 55 gal tank?I have no co2 system and my tank is moderately lit.Have been using flourish excel( organic carbon source) and Plus some root tabs once and awhile,Before that just a Kent plant fertilizer .I have just bought Flourish (comprehensive plant supplement)what do you think of this product?THANKS everyone for the help.

 

[a_free_bird73]

Most commercial fertalisers are fine except for supplying calcium for very soft water. Here in Melbourne/Australia, I found one shop that sells his own Calcium containing formulation so have a look around for a fertalizer that contains Calcium because it will be much easier.

The problem with Calcium containing fertalisers is they are missy to use because Calcium salts are generally not very soluble. There are a couple of ways.

Easy way:
- Get Calcium Chloride (CaCl2 or CaCl2.2H2O)
- Use 26g (0.9 ounce) initially and then 0.5g (0.02ounce) per gallon of water change if you are using CaCl2
- Use 35g (1.2 ounce) initially and then 0.7g (0.025ounce) per gallon of water change if using CaCls.2H2O)
- You can sprinkle it as solid straight in the aquarium but I prefer to make a concentrated stock solution and then add liquid
- The above concentrations will give you ~200mg per gallon or 50 mg per liter which is equivalent to 3 GH on the hardness scale and this works well for me

Difficult way:
- Sometimes getting hold of Calcium chloride is not easy or expensive. In this case I get Calcium Carbonate which is more widely available and treat it with acid to produce a milky solution mixture of Calcium chloride, carbonate amoungest other partially stable compounds. Works very well but missy to make, time consuming and a little dangerous and needs some experience but can be done if you really struggle to get hold of calcium chloride.

Hope this of help. Email me if you need to talk about specifics or more detail

 

[plantbrain]

For raising GH(which are two elements, Ca and Mg) in soft water:
For Ca, CaCl2, calcium chloride .......pool stores have or can get Calcium hardness products which are made of this. Ran about 7$ for 10lbs.
For Mg, MgSO4 : 7H20, good old Epsom salt. 1.29 for a 2 liter sack.

Both of these dissolve fast and can be adjusted to suit any needs. They are also cheap. Adds all three macro nutrients, SO4, Ca, and Mg.

Another items that works and is aviable from ag stores, Ca(NO3)2, Calcium nitrate if you need to add both Ca and NO3, most folks do if they have low Ca to begin with etc). Dissolves fairly easy.

For KH: you got it, Baking soda.

That's all there is to this. If you use Kalkwasser, you can use that also for alky and Ca GH part.

Regards,
Tom Barr