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DIY Remineralisation for RO or Rain Water


jayc

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Shipping would be humongous from Sweden. Maybe it would be more suitable for our European members. Thanks @AquaLars

 

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On 26 juni 2017 at 1:33 AM, jayc said:

Shipping would be humongous from Sweden. Maybe it would be more suitable for our European members. Thanks @AquaLars

 

Lol you're probably right. It's not Chinese shipping rates in Sweden ?.

But like you mention... For the European people.

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Have a tip for you.

This link goes to another calculator. It calculates nutrition and gh(ca and mg). The best thing is that it shows the ca:mg ratio. I really like the possibility to type in my tap waters ca and mg and the values I would like to have and it automatically calculates how much I should add. So the hole process of calculating ratios is done automatically. It can also calculate aquarium volume and how much substrate you'll need to your aquarium. It's only in Swedish but mostly abbreviations wich is the same all over the world. Google translate the few Swedish words and your good to go.

https://eketjall.se/akvariekalkylatorn/

Edited by AquaLars
Misspelled
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  I just checked this out and there is a translator at the bottom of the page so it can be read in English ?

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6 hours ago, ineke said:

  I just checked this out and there is a translator at the bottom of the page so it can be read in English 1f600.png

Great ?. I use this and Rotala butterfly simultaneously.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 22/03/2017 at 2:18 PM, jayc said:

Aquarium Online Store (AOS) has closed down.

On a search today I found a store called that that sells chemicals in bulk. Maybe they re-opened?

 

I will start this otherwise by saying the technical side of the water is doing my head in prepping for getting my first tank. I never did anything other than basic science at school so this is like some crazy weird language.

Mquestion is that they are selling magnesium sulphate as two different.... errr.... types? I am guessing one may be more soluble than the other? Trihydrate and pentahydrate.

Would it matter which of the two I picked in theory? 

So far I have trihydrate on my list since it is only 500g... where the pentahydrate is 1kg (though this will leave some for post-gym baths I guess lol).

 

Any help for this newbie is appreciated! =)

 

PS. This would be for Neocaradina if that matters..?

Edited by Ishtarduzzie
Removing images I some how added on iPad trying to move quote box
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6 hours ago, Ishtarduzzie said:

Mquestion is that they are selling magnesium sulphate as two different.... errr.... types? I am guessing one may be more soluble than the other? Trihydrate and pentahydrate.

Your guess is correct. 

Pentahydrate is just more soluble.

It does not matter which you get,  unless you want it to be more soluble. 

 

Can you post a link to the Web site? 

Edited by jayc
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Ahhhh thank you, thank you! Had hoped that was the case.

this forum is such an informative read but is taking a while to go through lol

 

25 minutes ago, jayc said:

Can you post a link to the Web site? 

http://aquariumonlinestore.com.au/product-category/aquarium-accessories/chemicals/

No calcium carbonate on their site yet at least... but they do say:

Quote

We are still trying to upload all the products available, please let us know if you are seeking something that used to be on our old website and it has not been uploaded yet.

 

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1 hour ago, Ishtarduzzie said:

Ahhhh thank you, thank you! Had hoped that was the case.

this forum is such an informative read but is taking a while to go through lol

You're welcome. 

Trihydrate just means 3 water molecules, where tri = 3.

Pentahydrate means it has 5 water molecules, where penta = 5.

So Magnesium (Mg) Sulfate (SO4) Penta (5) Hydrate (H2O) will be written as = MgSO4.5H2O

The more water molecules, the easier it will be to  dissolve in water.

 

 

1 hour ago, Ishtarduzzie said:

http://aquariumonlinestore.com.au/product-category/aquarium-accessories/chemicals/

No calcium carbonate on their site yet at least... but they do say:

Thank YOU!!!

AOS is back! That is the site I used to purchase my aquarium chems. I can update the sources on the first post now.

 

You can skip calcium carbonate for now and go with Calcium sulfate for Neocaridina. Just add a pinch of Bicarb of Soda to your mix to raise KH.

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11 minutes ago, jayc said:

The more water molecules, the easier it will be to  dissolve in water.

Excellent... finally learning science... my fiancé will be happy about that!

 

21 minutes ago, jayc said:

You can skip calcium carbonate for now and go with Calcium sulfate for Neocaridina. Just add a pinch of Bicarb of Soda to your mix to raise KH.

Plenty of bicarb here so that is one less thing to buy for now.

Sweet... nice and easy and crosses one more piece of research off my list!

 

No problem. Your post has saved me money on this DIY for much more product *grins*

Glad I could be useful even in a tiny way lol

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  • 1 year later...

Thank you for this great article . Finally got the answers I have been looking for. I have all the items just need to try it out. Will let you all know the results at a later date. 

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59 minutes ago, Photo fish said:

Will let you all know the results at a later date.

Will be good to hear your thoughts on this specific mix after using it for a while.

Most bought remineralisers don't use Potassium, which I think is an important mineral for shrimps.

 

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I just started using the potassium in my 75 gallon planted tank to get away from the sodium.  Use about 1 teaspoon a day to keep ph and kh up. Used about 3 times in the 4 gallon shrimp tanks. Very powerful can only use maybe about 1/16 of a teaspoon at a time in a 2 gallon RO water change. TDS is running about 160. Gh about 6, Ca about 30.   Thanks for all your info. 

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Sorry I do use potassium sulfate in the planted tank,but I was using potassium carbonate in my planted tank and the shrimp tanks. Do not use potassium sulfate in the shrimp tanks.  Would it be better to use the potassium sulfate in the shrimp tanks. 

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22 minutes ago, Photo fish said:

Would it be better to use the potassium sulfate in the shrimp tanks. 

If you keep Caridina, then Potassium Sulfate is better, as it does not raise KH (and pH).

If you keep Neo Caridina, then Potassium Carbonate is recommended to give you the carbonates to keep KH up a bit.

So the answer depends on the type of shrimp you plan on keeping.

 

Edited by jayc
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Thank you. 

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Hi all. Obtained some calcium sulphate dihydrate and with a 2g per l solubility in water whilst it appears to dissolve eg no big chunks, when the bottle settles there's a clear layer of clear solution on top of about half a bottle of cloudy white solution. Will the ratios still be ok so long as the mix is shaken thoroughly before dropping into the RO or am I better off finding some heptahydrate (which is seemingly impossible at the moment!)

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4 hours ago, mtchye said:

Will the ratios still be ok so long as the mix is shaken thoroughly

Yes, that's fine, it will still work.

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Is the mix only the calcium or does it also have other elements ? I know from my experience you can not mix  carbonates with high levels of calcium . I mixed up Jaycee  recomend mix into 500 ml of water it did not dissolve completely so I kept it stirred as I with drew it with a syringe and then added it to my bucket of RO water it all dissolved and seemed to work well. In approximately 4gallons of RO I added 13 ml of mix the tds was 150, gh was 6, kh was 0.  After it was mixed I then added my carbonate to get kh to 4 and adjusted ph to 6.8. 

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2 hours ago, TaVinci said:

Adeplast IM-99

Yes, that's plaster of paris, or gypsum.

gypsum is CaSO4 hemihydrate, which dissolves 4 times more readily than dihydrate. So if you find plaster of paris or gypsum that is pure and has no other additives, than you can use it.

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Thanks all. Looks like the consensus is so long as everything is suitably shaken into suspension it'll work. Cheers

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Thanks to all for the information. Will try the plaster of Paris .

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Am still a little confused. CaSO4 hemihydrate is plaster of paris, hemihydrate being 0.5 H2O i.e the less soluble version. Gypsum is dihydrate 2 H20. the more soluble version (marginally, gypsum = 2.4g/l and plaster of paris = 2.1g/l. 

I can't find any references to heptahydrate except a different way of writing dihydrate is H4CaO6S

In either case, hemi nor dihydrate is unlikely to really dissolve 58g/l or per 500ml. Really we're talking suspension rather than solution.

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