Nitrate Filter & Kh

Iain Miller · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 95

I'm in the process of running up a Nitrate filter (the Ratz Sulphur based
unit) on my tank & its all going pretty much to plan. Even at a drop or two
a second its arresting the rate at which Nitrates increase in the tank.

One side effect however is that it seems to be stripping the buffer out the
water. The water that comes out the nitrate filter has a Kh of only about
20ppm & so I have been adding Sodium Bicarb to compensate. How/why is this
happening?

Does anybody know if this will continue (or even get worse) as I ratchet up
the flow of water through the thing? I suppose I could put something like
Coral Sand into the system somewhere but I'm worried about driving the Kh up
too high. The Ph in the tank is maintained via a meter on the CO2 so that
always stays fairly constant - but if I ratchet up the Kh too far then the
effect would be to raise the CO2 levels significantly as the Meter brings
the Ph back down to 6.8 which is what I've set it at. If it really went too
far then I could have a tankfull of dead fish.

Just how much (and how quickly) does something like a bag of Coral Sand
affect the Kh in the tank (which has about 270 litres in it). The water I
put in has a Kh of about 90ppm (5dKH). Right now its back down to about
50ppm & it got as low as 30ppm before I figured out what was going on.

I'm having to put in roughlyt 2-3 teaspoons of Sodium Bicarb a week at the
moment just to keep mildly ahead of the thing!

All suggestions gratefully received.

I.

Archived from group: alt>aquaria

Frankrkay · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 198

"Iain Miller" donot@spam.me wrote;

>I'm having to put in roughlyt 2-3 teaspoons of Sodium Bicarb a week at the
>moment just to keep mildly ahead of the thing!

Hi I, - - - so what's wrong with that (adding baking soda)? Baking soda won't
raise the gH - adding a bag of coral sand would raise both the kH and gH
togeather, rather quickly. If anything, add a marble chip or two to your filter
box - it will do the same thing as the coral sand, but a lot slower........
Frank

Iain Miller · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 95

"Frankrkay" wrote in message@mb-m27.aol.com...
> "Iain Miller" donot@spam.me wrote;
>
> >I'm having to put in roughlyt 2-3 teaspoons of Sodium Bicarb a week at
the
> >moment just to keep mildly ahead of the thing!
>
> Hi I, - - - so what's wrong with that (adding baking soda)? Baking soda
won't
> raise the gH - adding a bag of coral sand would raise both the kH and gH
> togeather, rather quickly. If anything, add a marble chip or two to your
filter
> box - it will do the same thing as the coral sand, but a lot
slower........
> Frank

No problem with adding the Sodium Bicarb - just looking for less maintenance
& less risk of water parameters swinging around. Thanks for the tip about
the Coral Sand raising the Gh - I don't want to change that - its high
enough. I'll look into getting some marble chips & see what effect they
have.

I.