pH Puck Plant

[Ichthius]

http://goldfishgarage.blogspot.com/2011/03/ph-puck-plant.html

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-MpJEJZCuFcM/TW2MU5lSLaI/AAAAAAAAPnY/2qv5qXWbsE4/s1600/0.jpg

[Cindy]

The plaster of paris slowly dissoves and raises the PH. This is pretty good.

[Ichthius]

The plaster of paris slowly dissoves and raises the PH. This is pretty good.

:exact:That's the idea! :exact: Increases your carbonate and :exact: general hardness also. :exact:

There's a link on my blog to koivet explaining it all if you want to learn more about the concept. It's an old concept I just like putting a plant in it. Kills two birds with one stone. Water quality maintenance and plastic plant anchoring.

Digesting ammonia to nitrate takes as much carbonates as oxygen. We aerate our filters and we need to feed the bacteria. They need carbon to digest the nitrogen.

[kendal]

David,

after clicking over to view your latest MacGyver i took a look at your ClustrMap. Yemen? Azores? Kiribati?!! there is probably only one person in all of kirabati with an internet connection and he chose your site to visit with his 15 minutes of electrical service. LOL. Pretty popular in the tribal regions of pakistan too—the Talaban says "no" to kites, but "YES" to goldfish. LOL.

[Ichthius]

It's amazing where the hits come from. Occasionally they'll email me and say hi. If it's hard to get good fish here imagine how hard it is at one of those dots in the sand. Do a water change or water the camel?

[yukoandk]

Hi, thanks for the interesting article.

My tap water here in Seattle is rather soft--low in both KH and GH. I've been using Weco Wonder Shells in my tanks for about a year now in hopes it contributes to the overall health of my system and goldfish. Supposedly these wonder shells are composed of minerals at same or closer ratio as in the ocean. Any thoughts on these claims?

http://www.ehow.com/facts_7538694_information-wonder-shells.html
http://www.aquarium-pond-answers.com/2007/02/plaster-of-paris-aquariums.html

It's easy enough to throw these shell in my tanks to get the high GH readings, so I've been doing so. And I THINK I've noticed improvements in water clarity over time, but I'm not sure if that's directly related to Wonder Shells. Sometimes I wonder what will happen if I slowly ween my tanks off the shells, and will I dare? Will plaster of paris be a cheaper option?

[Ichthius]

We basically have the same water, rain/snow from rivers. The main things we are missing that our fish and filters need are some calcium and buffering to keep the pH/kH up. You can get more complicated than that by adding some instant ocean or etc for minerals but I don't think it's necessary. The plaster adds good things slowly and is cheap. The clarity can be accounted for by a better performing biofilter and as the plaster dissolves it acts as a coagulant causing fines to get sticky and clump together. Big clumps are easier to settle or filter.

Most of my gh/kh/pH is from oolitic aragonite that I mix small amounts into the beach sand I use as a substrate:
http://goldfishgarage.blogspot.com/2010/05/sandy-bottom.html
http://goldfishgarage.blogspot.com/search?q=aragonite

[George Ludrosky]

Would a buffer product give the same benifits as plaster? I was looking at the Mag Float 7.5 buffer.

[Ichthius]

I guess it would be similar. The buffer has both acids and bases to counter balance themselves out at 7.5 pH. We don't really need the acids though because the biofiltration eats buffer like candy and produces other acids as by products that lower the pH further. The other thing about adding salts (buffer product) is that the reaction and change is nearly instant. Plaster or aragonite is a much slower process.

We need 7 parts alkalinity to 1 part nitrogen to convert through to nitrate.

I just add small amounts of what ever material I'm using.

Personally for a pond I'd just throw a few cups of oolitic aragonite in and see what happens. You'll get to the point where you know how much to put in to keep things happy. You can also use caribsea crushed coral which is mined aragonite. I don't use it often as it clogs with detritus and becomes an oxygen demand.

In order of frequency I use aragonite, baking soda, plaster.

[yukoandk]

Thank you for the links, David. It's a good post about oolitic aragonite especially for us northwestners!