I have really good quality tap water with a pH of about 7.5ish and some good trace minerals (and prime to get rid of any chemicals).
What's the benefit of Aragonite? I've heard that if you have good water quality to begin with and maintain it, aragonite really has no benefit. What else could lower my pH?
Are there any bad things that could come from using aragonite? It only raises the pH to around 8 right? It's not like it can infinitely continue to raise it, can it?
I have two GSPs and will hopefully get some sand-burrowing snails. I'm working on a new tank for them.
Aragonite Sand?
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Pufferpunk
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Re: Aragonite Sand?
The pH in tap water can fluctuate week to week. BW tanks should have a steady, stable pH of 8.
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RTR
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Re: Aragonite Sand?
Aragoniter is the most soluble form available as a substrate. Puffers are messy fish, so their tanks put pressure on the alkalinity of the water (two milli-equivalents of HCO3 are used for each milli-equivalent of ammonia oxidized to nitrate). That can cause the alkalinity of the the tank to fluctuate between partials. This is especially true in BW, and most prominently in light BW up to mid-level BW. Full-strength SW has far more buffering ability or stability of alkaliniyy than light to mid-level BW.
BW puffers can and do in the wild visit and move freely among a variety of water conditions, but in captive semi-closed systems they live longest and healthiest in stable conditions. We do not in captivity try to emulate their wild lifestyle. Instead of that we attempt to give them the best captive situation that we can easily provide.
Aragonite dissolves as it buffers. Long-term tanks require topping up the substrate periodically to maintain the same alkalinity just as the shallow sand beds in reef tanks require aditions over time. Over months the loss is all but undetectable, over years it is obvious. So long as aragonite is present, it is available for buffering, but the available mass does decrease with time. That is part of its job and its utility.
Unless the source water you use gives a from the tap pH greater than 8.0, your BW tank will operate better with aragonite substrate. The information you were given to the contrary was incorrect.
BW puffers can and do in the wild visit and move freely among a variety of water conditions, but in captive semi-closed systems they live longest and healthiest in stable conditions. We do not in captivity try to emulate their wild lifestyle. Instead of that we attempt to give them the best captive situation that we can easily provide.
Aragonite dissolves as it buffers. Long-term tanks require topping up the substrate periodically to maintain the same alkalinity just as the shallow sand beds in reef tanks require aditions over time. Over months the loss is all but undetectable, over years it is obvious. So long as aragonite is present, it is available for buffering, but the available mass does decrease with time. That is part of its job and its utility.
Unless the source water you use gives a from the tap pH greater than 8.0, your BW tank will operate better with aragonite substrate. The information you were given to the contrary was incorrect.
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