# diy Gh booster



## barbus (31 May 2016)

hi there,
 Is it ok to make a gh booster with calcium nitrate instead of the calcium sulphate?
I know the other ingredients, I was wondering what effect wil it have if I change that element ?
is there anyone here , who can give a good explanation  ?
I have read in several places that the best would be to add calcium chlorid , since adding too much sulphate to plants won't do much good. 
I ask all this, because my water hardness is around 3 GH, I don't see too much growth in my low tech , could that be a reason?
thanks


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## rebel (31 May 2016)

You could, the nitrates will also help the plants. calcium nitrate will increase kH mainly AFAIK.

Too much sulfate will be neutral to plants I think.

Your growth issues in low tech could be a variety of issues not just gH; it probably has nothing to do with your gH.


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## xim (31 May 2016)

Calcium nitrate [Ca(NO3)2.4H2O] is not a good choice if it is the only chemical you use to raise GH. Because you will get far too much nitrate for a low tech setup before getting a meaningful amount of calcium.

You will get 3 PPM of nitrate for every 1 PPM of calcium from calcium nitrate.
1 PPM of calcium is 0.14 dGH.



rebel said:


> You could, the nitrates will also help the plants. calcium nitrate will increase kH mainly AFAIK.
> 
> Too much sulfate will be neutral to plants I think.
> 
> Your growth issues in low tech could be a variety of issues not just gH; it probably has nothing to do with your gH.



How does calcium nitrate increase KH? It should not have anything to do with KH.


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## rebel (2 Jun 2016)

xim said:


> How does calcium nitrate increase KH? It should not have anything to do with KH.


Correcto! My mistake. That should read gH.


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