in article , Flandry at
wrote on 2/6/03 1:05 PM:

So, i finally forked out a bunch of dough for a test kit. Figure if
i'm going to really try to keep plants and nice fish, i better have a
clue what my water conditions are.

I knew already that the tapwater here is very basic, something
confirmed by the test kit. For anybody on the Cambridge, MA water
system, here's what the water conditions are like lately:

pH 8.8 (off the scale)
KH 3 dKH
GH 7 dKH

So, basically (no pun intended), this water is horrible. The surprise
was what i measured in my aquarium:

pH 6.6
KH 2 dKH
GH 7 dKH

Wow. I don't know much these differ from typical values when i'm not
treating for Ich and leaving the lights off, but obviously the tank
needs some alkalinity and that pH is alarmingly low. Problem is that
i have more than enough general hardness for plants as it is, and
don't want to take the typical approach to raising alkalinity by
throwing in some shells and such (Calcium Carbonate - CaCO3), because
that will also raise the GH.

Has anybody used baking soda (Sodium bicarbonate - NaHCO3) for this
purpose? I'm hesitant to use commercial buffers, because they
sometimes contain phosphate (which i DON'T want) and probably Mg or Ca
as well. I shudder to think what would happen now if i started a CO2
injection system without increasing alkalinity. Pickled fish. Ugh.

Cheers
I no longer recommend baking soda. I noticed that my java fern tend to
blacken when using baking soda. Also when I suggested baking soda to other
with java fern, they had the same outcome. I now use about a hand full of
dried coral substrate (the stuff you see as the substrate for marine tanks)
placed at the bottom of the canister filter in a filter bag (or panty hose).
This tends to keep my KH around 4 to 5.

big D
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