A high carbonate reading <might> suggest a high Magnesium and or
Calcium reading (read GH) but then again it doesn't have to. Peter's
comments about some of the springs that contain really high amounts
of carbonate and relatively low amounts of a general hardness
(magnesium and calcium) should bring that point home. You can easily
raise the calcium levels in your tanks by adding something like 1.25
teaspoon of calcium chloride to 10 gallons of water. That should add
about 100 ppm. With something like calcium chloride you could raise
your calcium hardness through the roof without ever effecting your
carbonate hardness, which is why you should measure both. If you
decide to "live better with modern chemistry" you should spend $8-10
US on the test kits though. The combo Tetra GH (magnesium/calcium
combined)/KH (carbonate) kit will take care of both sides fairly
nicely. If you want to measure the differences between your
magnesium and calcium hardness, the Wardley "professional water test
lab" kit will provide the answers.
Gary Lange
----------
From: Barry Meiklejohn <barrym at powerup.com.au>
To: rainbowfish at pcug.org.au
Subject: Re: [RML] A would-be rainbowfish aquarist
Date: Saturday, April 19, 1997 6:35 PM
Alan and all
No, sorry I shouldn't have done that I was being lazy - what I meant
to say
was my General hardness is 40ppm and I should add my Calcium hardness
is
about 10ppm. I haven't had problems with these levels but I should
point
out that some of the very experienced (and read elderly) learned
gentlemen
on this list recommend moderate to high hardness and calcium hardness
levels for keeping and more especially raising.
One other point to note from our earlier discussions is the apparent
dependancy of fry on high Calcium levels (which would be indicated by
high
Carbonate Hardness reading??)
----