General hardness and aragonite substrate

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Minipuff
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General hardness and aragonite substrate

Post by Minipuff »

I'm considering aragonite as substrate in one of my tanks. It will buffer pH to 8'ish, but what about GH - how much will it increase? My tap water is soft, with GH 3 dH (and pH 7.1, KH 3 dH). I should test some in a bucket, but it is very expensive to buy aragonite, so I'd like to have some idea about the potential for affecting hardness to see if it's appropriate at all.
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Iliveinazoo
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Re: General hardness and aragonite substrate

Post by Iliveinazoo »

I'm not sure how much to be honest but the more surface area of aragonite that is exposed to the water column will affect the rate that the calcium carbonate will dissolve.

Here's a link which has loads of complicated stuff in it about hardness:

http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/CO2/khgh.html
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