Will plant food increase hardness?

I have what would be deemed "very soft" water at home (average of
13ppm). I always use the "blue crystals" to increase hardness when
setting up a new tank, or doing water changes.

I always use the recommended amount.

I had my water tested at my LFS last weekend, and the hardness was HARD
(390ppm).

I had added some plant food in the week prior to the test. Am I correct
in assuming that all the goodies in the plant food may have sent my
hardness through the roof?

Rod Bacon wrote:
I had added some plant food in the week prior to the test. Am I correct
in assuming that all the goodies in the plant food may have sent my
hardness through the roof?

I don't believe so. Water hardness is determined by the amount of
calcium, magnesium, and carbonate ions in it. Plant food designed
specifically for aquariums (at least the stuff I use, anyway) mainly has
potassium and iron, with only minute traces of other miscellaneous elements.

- Logic316


"Those who beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those who don't."

On Tue, 30 Aug 2005 23:11:48 -0400, Logic316
wrote:

Rod Bacon wrote:
I had added some plant food in the week prior to the test. Am I correct
in assuming that all the goodies in the plant food may have sent my
hardness through the roof?

I don't believe so. Water hardness is determined by the amount of
calcium, magnesium, and carbonate ions in it. Plant food designed
specifically for aquariums (at least the stuff I use, anyway) mainly has
potassium and iron, with only minute traces of other miscellaneous elements.

- Logic316


"Those who beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those who don't."


They may be using a conductivity meter and guessing the hardness from
that. In that case it would read higher due to the plant food that
has been added. It would not be read (calcium/magnesium) hardness.

Rod Bacon wrote:
I have what would be deemed "very soft" water at home (average of
13ppm). I always use the "blue crystals" to increase hardness when
setting up a new tank, or doing water changes.

I always use the recommended amount.

I had my water tested at my LFS last weekend, and the hardness was HARD
(390ppm).

I had added some plant food in the week prior to the test. Am I correct
in assuming that all the goodies in the plant food may have sent my
hardness through the roof?

Not likely, unless you seriously overdosed. Target levels of Ca++ and
Mg++ in a planted tank are only around 5-10 ppm. How did LFS measure
the hardness? Perhaps their measurement was inaccurate.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com

Rod Bacon wrote:
I have what would be deemed "very soft" water at home (average of
13ppm). I always use the "blue crystals" to increase hardness when
setting up a new tank, or doing water changes.

I always use the recommended amount.

I had my water tested at my LFS last weekend, and the hardness was HARD
(390ppm).

One thing that could be happening is that you get a lot of evaporation.
If you top off your tank with "blue crystal" water, and don't do largish
water changes, you could be slowly adding hardness to the water. (As
evaporation removes water, but leaves the stuff that is dissolved in it
behind.)

What ever the cause of the increased hardness, taking out a large amount
of water and replacing it with water of known "good" hardness on a
regular basis will solve your problems.

I've been doing water changes to get it back down. PH is also higher
than expected, especially seeing as how I am injecting CO2 (DIY) and
have some wood in the tank (I assume as a result of the buffering
effect of the hardness?)

I watched the LFS owner use her master test kit (traditional drops) to
perform the test. It all looked fine to me. She had performed 2 similar
test before mine, and both were 'normal'.

En dposted.


"Rod Bacon" wrote in message
oups.com...
I have what would be deemed "very soft" water at home (average of
13ppm). I always use the "blue crystals" to increase hardness when
setting up a new tank, or doing water changes.

I always use the recommended amount.

I had my water tested at my LFS last weekend, and the hardness was HARD
(390ppm).

I had added some plant food in the week prior to the test. Am I correct
in assuming that all the goodies in the plant food may have sent my
hardness through the roof?


I add 1 jungle plant food tab to the stalks/leafs of my one amazon sword
plant once per week and I STILL have to add a lot of baking soda (arm and
hammer) to keep the carbonate hardness up so I doubt plant food would
significantly adjust the carbonate hardness (kh). I put a bag of carib sea
bermuda pink substrate in my fluval 104 for that tank and only the general
hardness goes up, which is strange as it is supposed to buffer water up
carbonate wise and coincidentally my aquarium pharmaceuticals nitrate
testing kit always shows a reading of 160+ ppm of nitrates in this very same
tank, I am going to try another test kit in a few weeks to a couple of
months. I change 15 % of this tank's water every 4 days and at the same time
squeeze out my sponge prefilters and filter in the resulting removed water
so the nitrites in this tank HAVE to be lower than measured, I can't see it
any other way. Good to keep in mind. Good luck, and later!