|
Post by micheljq on Nov 1, 2017 9:33:34 GMT -5
Good morning, i had that discussion a couple of times with fellow aquarios.
Many use base rock in their african cichlids setup. It increases pH, and GH-KH.
What i tell them is that base rock is mostly aragonite, CaCO3, with some traces of other minerals.
It does not contains any magnesium or at best traces of it, one example, if i am right. So it may work fine, but it is not the best. Maybe they could make it better by using base rock with some sort of GH buffer, or even better a buffer for their specific lake (Malawi, Victoria, Tanganykiiya).
Does that makes sense?
Thank you, Michel.
|
|
|
Post by devonjohnsgard on Nov 1, 2017 13:09:45 GMT -5
These rocks are more to stabilize the KH-GH, but usually don't do anything to manage it. Even with using these rocks, I recommend the addition of KH buffers and mineral salts to increase the values based on bioload and you want the mineral salts to increase the GH to improve the Redox (electrical balance) of the tank. Just base rocks can't really influence the Redox. More information: www.americanaquariumproducts.com/AquariumKH.html
|
|
|
Post by Carl on Nov 2, 2017 9:14:53 GMT -5
I agree with your conclusions Michel. I have performed test with base rock and not only did it perform a poor job buffering water, but also providing mineralization. Part of the reason is it simply does not have carbonates nor does it dissolves fast enough unless a lot of acids are present (which then defeats the purpose) to dissolve out minerals contained there in. When this same rock is ground to sand and used in a reactor with CO2, then it can work, but this is not how this rock is used & I think this misunderstanding of chemistry has allowed this aquarium keeping myth to continue in particular among African Cichlid keepers Further Reading: Aquarium ChemistryCarl
|
|