Peat Moss/GH/KH/Total Dissolved Solids
- Thread starter tammy911
- Start date
RTR,
Those are readings from my established tanks.
With boiled peat and heavy carbon I can reduce the pH to 7.4 gh7 kh4 without too much coloring, but it's too much work.
I though it was silicates because the di filter failed after 1 weekend of use and the di filter didn't show a color change to indicate it was used up. My spouse looked up on the web and found references to silicates as being a cause of this. Apparently they bind with the mixed bed resin faster than what I want to get rid of.
Any thoughts?
thanks,
Those are readings from my established tanks.
With boiled peat and heavy carbon I can reduce the pH to 7.4 gh7 kh4 without too much coloring, but it's too much work.
I though it was silicates because the di filter failed after 1 weekend of use and the di filter didn't show a color change to indicate it was used up. My spouse looked up on the web and found references to silicates as being a cause of this. Apparently they bind with the mixed bed resin faster than what I want to get rid of.
Any thoughts?
thanks,
I do not know the influence/effect on high silicate water on DI beds. But the quetion remains, do you know you have high silicate/high phosphate source water? If yes, and if it is the material blocking exchange sites (normally even high silicate water is not very much in absolute quantity - I'm dubious of this. Was this from a chemist, or a hobbyist's guess?), then you would have to consider RO if you really need to do water mods.
RTR,
thanks again, you are a fantastic resource.
The answer to your question is no, I don't know for a fact if I have silicates. I'm double checking my water company info now.
The information came from a di cartridge manufacturers web page. Like you I was a little dubious.
Since my gh and kh are kinda low, do you think there may be other dissolved solids showing up in my high pH?
Silicates aside, whatever it is gets through a 1 micron sediment filter followed by a 1 micron carbon block to still come out 8.2+ pH, curing overnight changes naught.
I went with the di over the ro because I didn't want to waste water plus I thought it was the di that really brought down the pH.
any help as always is greatly appreciated.
thanks again, you are a fantastic resource.
The answer to your question is no, I don't know for a fact if I have silicates. I'm double checking my water company info now.
The information came from a di cartridge manufacturers web page. Like you I was a little dubious.
Since my gh and kh are kinda low, do you think there may be other dissolved solids showing up in my high pH?
Silicates aside, whatever it is gets through a 1 micron sediment filter followed by a 1 micron carbon block to still come out 8.2+ pH, curing overnight changes naught.
I went with the di over the ro because I didn't want to waste water plus I thought it was the di that really brought down the pH.
any help as always is greatly appreciated.
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Fanman, I don't know if this would be of any help but the water here in Portland is naturally acidic and very soft. The water bureau adds sodium hydroxide to the supply to make the water more alkaline and less likely to leach metals from the pipes in an effort to conform to Federal standards. Our water is naturally in the 6.2 to 6.4 range but is artificially raised to 7.4-7.5. Certainly not as high as your 8.2 but perhaps that's just a result of the amount of sodium hydroxide used. No amount of aging will lower the pH on my end. I just tested the carbonate hardness and registered at most 1*dKH, so needless to say that 7.5 doesn't stay 7.5 once it makes contact with the fish.
