# the effects of KH with ADA AS and nature soil



## Mark Evans (6 Apr 2009)

simple question.....

these products lower the kh of our water right? at what point and for how long do these products continue to keep lowering kh?.... endlessly? or if they become "stable" how do they stabilise kh?


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## Hoskins (7 Apr 2009)

I have rescaped with ADA Malaya AS six weeks ago. My reminaralised RO has a kh of 6 but the tank water is currently zero.

I am not sure as to how long this will continue or the benefits but as a low kh requires very little in the way of additional CO2 I have had to turn the BPS of my CO2 down to stay in the lime green zone and is quite easy to drift into the yellow if I did not have a computer to control the dose.

Are you experiencing the same effect?

I was warned that this would happen together with the nh3.


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## spider72 (7 Apr 2009)

I have got Malaya in my tank from about 6 months, and tap water hardness 2dKH and 6dGH, and substrate is still driving hardness in the tank to 0dKH and 2dGH.
Anyway, this is because of cation exchange capacity (CEC) properties of the substrate, which is catching cations from the salts disolved in water and giving back hydrogen ion and this process is producing acids lowering pH, and softenning the water which is messure of disoved Mg and Ca cations.

CEC-H + KHCO3 -> CEC-K + H2CO3 
CEC-H2 + MgSO4 -> CEC-Mg + H2SO4 
CEC-H2 + Ca(NO3)2 -> CEC-Ca + 2HNO3 

After some time substrate will be full of cations and this process will end. Bigger the water hardness, than sooner this will happen. Finally KH will stabilaze in the tank at the same hardness level as hardness of water poured to the tank


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## Stu Worrall (7 Apr 2009)

isnt a low KH bad for your shrimp as they need it for their shells?  (or is that GH?)


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## a1Matt (7 Apr 2009)

I'd say GH (semi-educated guess) based on the fact that GH is made up of calcium and magnesium and I recall that it is calcium that shrimps need for their shells.

I would also hazard a guess that calcium is more important in their diet than in the water.


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## spider72 (7 Apr 2009)

Both are caused by Ca and Mg presence.
KH is caused by carbonates and bicarbonate like CaCO3 or Mg(HCO3)2 for example
GH is caused by all salts  like MgSO4, Ca(NO3)2 etc. together with carbonates

My shrimps are getting all necessery minerals from food, and they are all fine living in very soft water from about 6months.


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