The subject pretty much says it all. I've noticed broken shells in my
Flourite, which I didn't put in there, could that be the culprit? I
can see that raising it a bit, but by 6 degrees? Is Flourite even
supposed to have shells in it? In case it matters that much I have 2
inches of Flourite in a 20 gallon tank. Any help you can give would
be much appreciated.

Ken

I've never seen shells in Flourite. Dark and light bits, yes.Your sure
it's shells? Did you have gravel or anything else in there before?

Ken wrote:

The subject pretty much says it all. I've noticed broken shells in my
Flourite, which I didn't put in there, could that be the culprit? I
can see that raising it a bit, but by 6 degrees? Is Flourite even
supposed to have shells in it? In case it matters that much I have 2
inches of Flourite in a 20 gallon tank. Any help you can give would
be much appreciated.

Ken

--
Sherry Michael Weller
SAS Distributed Desktop Support
www.psych.upenn.edu/~sherrym

Sherry Michael Weller wrote in message .. .
I've never seen shells in Flourite. Dark and light bits, yes.Your sure
it's shells? Did you have gravel or anything else in there before?

Yep, I checked the Flourite left over in the bag and found some small
shell fragments. While I did have gravel in it before, there were no
shells in it that I know of.

The question still remains, how badly is this screwing up my water
chemistry? And if it is, will is remain at KH=7, or will it drop
slowly as the shells dissolve away?

Ken

It should go up as the shells dissolve..until there is no shell left..then it will go down with water changes..

Ken wrote:

Sherry Michael Weller wrote in message .. .
I've never seen shells in Flourite. Dark and light bits, yes.Your sure
it's shells? Did you have gravel or anything else in there before?

Yep, I checked the Flourite left over in the bag and found some small
shell fragments. While I did have gravel in it before, there were no
shells in it that I know of.

The question still remains, how badly is this screwing up my water
chemistry? And if it is, will is remain at KH=7, or will it drop
slowly as the shells dissolve away?

Ken

how much shell will it need to cause a noticable hardness increase? 1
sq-cm? more??

linda

"Rich Conley" wrote in message
...
It should go up as the shells dissolve..until there is no shell left..then
it will go down with water changes..

Ken wrote:

Sherry Michael Weller wrote in message
.. .
I've never seen shells in Flourite. Dark and light bits, yes.Your sure
it's shells? Did you have gravel or anything else in there before?

Yep, I checked the Flourite left over in the bag and found some small
shell fragments. While I did have gravel in it before, there were no
shells in it that I know of.

The question still remains, how badly is this screwing up my water
chemistry? And if it is, will is remain at KH=7, or will it drop
slowly as the shells dissolve away?

Ken

"linda mar" wrote in message
...
how much shell will it need to cause a noticable hardness increase? 1
sq-cm? more??

linda

The effects are directly related to surface area ... the greater the surface
area the more rapid the reaction. The finer the material the greater the
surface area. i.e. an ounce of powdered oyster shell would probably have a
greater (immediate) effect that a pound of un-crushed shell.

Bob