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DIY Remineralisation for RO or Rain Water


jayc

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thanks jayc! I will do some testing myself of the RO mix re calcium: magnesium using testkit to and see what I find.

re KH .. I have no buffer in my tank. I use inert gravel and driftwood, ial and waste etc which should push pH downwards shouldnt it? my tankwater is still around pH 7.5 due to the previous springwater I used which im now slowlt changing out.

anyway so ive been adding baking soda 1) to the new RO mix in order to match the tank existing current pH and reduce shock to shrimps.

2) I keep cherries and I had thought that cherries required some KH for best health?

3) my understanding is that kh will prevent pH drift downwards and without any KH or buffering substrate -wont my tank become more and more acidic?

thanks mate and also thanks all skf regulars! - ive been learning so much here. I chexkes out another much larger overseaa forum and the attitude there seems a little less convivial by comparison, also theres not the same level of enthusiasm for the science that there is on skf...

im indeed glad I joined this forum first indeed. tnx again to all the contributors here!

love n peace

will

will

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My cherries have adapted to low KH (~1). The key is to keep KH stable.

Cherries can adapt to higher KH and pH, the person that sold you the shrimps might have kept them at a higher KH and pH, so the idea there is to maintain a similar level. It doesn't mean that cherries can't survive at lower KH values. Drip acclimatise them to your water parameters, and keep that steady.

 

Similarly, my cherries do well at lower pH too, as a result of the lower KH.

 

The natural (slow) drop in pH due to the nitrification process by bacteria will not stress the shrimp.

 

You could try a couple of seashells or corals in the filter or tank to maintain KH.

Even egg shells might work ok to maintain KH. But you have to experiment with the amount.

 

But don't forget, make the changes slowly, stability is the key.

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I finally got around to testing the mix out as accurately as i could using aquotix calcium:magnesium spreadsheet which was based on bluebolts ca:mg formula and found I get a ratio of 3.1:1 which is close to perfect!

I can only assume that the potassium sulfate does not contribute to gh nor is it measurable with tds meter?

here are my figures for the test mix I did -

tds meter 258ppm (it is ising 0.5 conversion factor)

gh 15

calcium 70ppm

when I inputted this into the spreadsheet I got a ratio of 3.1:1

love n peace

will

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 I get a ratio of 3.1:1 which is close to perfect!

 

Of course it is, it's based on my formula.

But that being off by 0.1 must be a mistake you made some where.  :lol:

 

 

The TDS pen should be picking up the Potassium.

Why wouldn't it?

Edited by jayc
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well im confused here. because my api gh test gave the same result in ppm as my tds meter... but then how does the ca:mg calculation work without being able to take into account the potassium component?

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bump - any knowledgeable folks care to enlighten me lol [emoji13]

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The TDS pen should be picking up the Potassium.

Why wouldn't it?

 

You're right of course, there's no reason! 

 

I'm not great on chemistry and can only speculate on the answer here. Will, if your TDS pen chose to use a 0.65 conversion rather than 0.5 you'd have about 335ppm TDS - that would probably be enough to account for your K & S levels plus some additional organics. If this is the case then it's a great support for my choice to measure EC in siemens rather than convert to TDS using some arbitrary conversion factor. 

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well im confused here. because my api gh test gave the same result in ppm as my tds meter... but then how does the ca:mg calculation work without being able to take into account the potassium component?

 

API Test kit not accurate?? Maybe?

The test kit would/should only be measuring Ca and Mg.

 

Whereas the TDS pen will measure conductivity of Total dissolved solids, which includes Ca and Mg, and other salts and minerals the pen was designed to detect. 

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maybe calcium reading is wrong.. because im pretty sure the tds meter uses .5 conversion and it does match the gh test result..

im using the hm digital ap2 ec meter.. ill try doing the test again... it was directly a test of the RO mix containing potassium calcium and mg only without the microferts ..

whenu read the faq on their site it says that most meters use a conversion factor of nacl 0.5 and some use 0.65..... oddly the product page for my meter doesnt say which it uses hm..

I may do retest soon!

http://www.tdsmeter.com/products/ap2.html

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What I was saying is that TDS is an arbitrary measurement regardless of the conversion factor used. Your Calcium reading looked fine to me, pretty well spot on for the GH you measured. 

 

As JayC suggested, your TDS or EC measurement will include the Potassium, Suphate etc in addition to the GH minerals. It's just not possible for GH and TDS to equal the same if the extra minerals have been added. 

Two other possibilities are that some minerals you added hadn't completely dissolved by the time you tested, or the TDS pen needs calibration. Both are possible and even likely options. 

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okie dokie.. thanks kiz! hey btw jayc hope u don't mind ive been promoting your diy mix on an overseas forum and linking people back here hehe..

my minerals were definitely dissolved.. I have a pump that makes an absolute storm out of the reservoir !!

Does anyone have recommendations for where to get calibration fluid from? ebay maybe?

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If you can accurately weigh chemicals then you can easily make an EC calibration solution with KCl or by slightly tweaking the volume, common NaCl. 

If you're buying or making calibration solution you want it to be somewhere close to the range you measure in, ie. no point calibrating at 2000uS if you're testing at 200uS. 

Yeah maybe ebay... google calibration standards or solutions first. 

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hey btw jayc hope u don't mind ive been promoting your diy mix on an overseas forum and linking people back here hehe..

Hmm, international fame.

Can't complain about that.

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  • 3 months later...

Hi @jayc

 

Thank you very much for your in-depth explanation.

 

2 questions

 

I have phoned a chemical company in South Africa, where I stay.

They have CaSO42H2O instead of CaSO4

and 

MgSO47H2O instead of MgSO4 (Epsom salts)

I googled 'what minerals are in Epsom Salts and it says MgSO47H2O

 

Are the chemicals we get the same as what you are using?

 

It would be great if you can help me on this one please as we dont have any sort of remineralising products for shrimp in South Africa and would like to try your DIY route

 

Edited by Maurice
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@maurice

CaSO42H2O is calcium sulphate dihydrate. The dihydrate helps it dissolve in water easier. This is exactly what you want.

 

And MgSO47H2O is magnesium sulfate heptahydrate. Again the 7H2O molecules just help it  dissolve in water more easily. This is also perfect for the diy mix.

Edited by jayc
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  • 1 month later...

hi jayc,

if i am using salty shrimp instead of the other main ingredients, and i wish to add the micro-nutrient mix (i bought the same concentrated pack that you had recommended) can you suggest an appropriate amount to add perlitre? (how many ppm?)

thanks!

love n peace

will

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1 hour ago, revolutionhope said:

... i wish to add the micro-nutrient mix (i bought the same concentrated pack that you had recommended) can you suggest an appropriate amount to add perlitre? (how many ppm?)

0.1gm per 100 litre of water should be enough.

How many litres is your tank?

Edited by jayc
wrong amount
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most tanks are about 50litres. 0.1 grams per litre seems very excessive?

Actually i guess thats 1ppm

would that be fine for non-planted moss only tank?

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Sorry! not per litre.

My tanks are 100L. I'm so used to it I forgot to adjust.

It should be 0.1gm per 100L.

If you want it to help with plant or moss fertilisation, you can use 0.1gm per 50L.

 

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  • 4 months later...

hello sir i got all the ingridients , but when i premix with 350 ml RO water it didnt soluble with the water, and after the shake's the diy mineralization have an sediment at bottom of the bottle,

i used 55gm CaSo4 , 37gm mgso4 ,  0,30gm FeSo4 , 11gm K2So4 

 

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2 hours ago, Aristo said:

sediment at bottom of the bottle

Hi Aristo,

That would be the CaSO4. You need to make sure you get Calcium Sulphate Heptahydrate or Dihydrate.  Calcium sulphate is very difficult to dissolve in water. The extra H2O molecules in heptahydrate or dihydrate allow the Ca to dissolve more easily in water.

You could try pounding the CaSO4 you have with a hammer or a Mortar&pestle into a fine powder.

Edited by jayc
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3 hours ago, jayc said:

Hi Aristo,

That would be the CaSO4. You need to make sure you get Calcium Sulphate Heptahydrate or Dihydrate.  Calcium sulphate is very difficult to dissolve in water. The extra H2O molecules in heptahydrate or dihydrate allow the Ca to dissolve more easily in water.

You could try pounding the CaSO4 you have with a hammer or a Mortar&pestle into a fine powder.

i've got powder CaSO4 white colour but when i mix with water it ddnt dissolve with water 
the seller said it was used for make tofu coagulant ( food grade )

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