Re: Rift lake cichlids without lake salts -Reply

[crom@cris.com (Crom)]

On Tue, 27 Jan 1998 13:31:32 +0100, you wrote:

>the effect of the shells in your filter is that chalk (shells) increases=
 the=20
>hardness of the water. So you have a buffer for the pH. In soft water =
everything=20
>(food...) decreases the pH. With the buffer of calcium... in the tank =
the=20
>changing of pH takes more time. A better (because faster) effect you can=
 reach=20
>if you put some pieces of chalk (regular chalk for writing at a table) =
into your=20
>filter. Try it and be surprised.

It isn't actually the calcium that buffers the water, but the
carbonate and bicarbonate.  You could have huge amounts of dissolved
calcium and magnesium in the water but without carbonates and
bicarbonates, you'd have no buffering capacity to speak of.

Brian T Forsythe
crom@cris.com