Gary,
Would love to get some ice-melt, but I don't think there is much of
a market for it here in Honolulu ;-). Can you think of any other source of
CaCl2?
If I was raising cellery I would have it for fertilizer, heart rot of
cellery is a Ca++ deffiency.
MTF
>Cary what is the KH of this designed water?
>After playing with the reef blocks a few times I reached the same
>conclusions -
>the calcium wasn't available fast enough nor at reliable hardness
>concentrations. Besides everything else, compared to calcium chloride, which
>can be bought at the hardware store (ice-melt) it is very expensive. With
>calcium chloride you just add a certain amount, dissolve it and you're
>finished. I would make sure of your hardness before you go adding anything
>willy-nilly. For instance Mike Adams mentioned that he used reef blocks
>in his
>set up to add calcium to the water. Perhaps not all of Lexington KY is on the
>same water system but the water I measured was 233 ppm (~ 13 drops GH).
>When I
>remeasured with a calcium specific hardness kit (Wardley Professional Test
>Kit)
>it was 100% calcium, not a single bit of magnesium hardness to be found! That
>surprised me so much that I repeated both tests. Most public water systems
>that I've tested are usually 50:50 magnesium to calcium. Mike if your
>water is
>the same I would suggest that you aren't doing your fry a lot of good with the
>blocks. You might be better off adding a bit of baking soda though, the KH of
>Lexington is only 2 degrees (36 ppm) hardness. About 1/2 teaspoon/10 gallons
>will increase your carbonate hardness about 2 degrees. but.... don't go too
>overboard.
Mach T. Fukada, Web Master
fukada at hawaii.edu
Honolulu Aquarium Society
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/2948/HASF.html