Newsgroups: rec.aquaria

I haven't seen the origianl post yet, so I'll respond to some of Jim's 
responses:

In rec.aquaria, jimh@ultra.com (Jim Hurley) writes:

    In <2A67AF6B.1069@noiro.acs.uci.edu> jward@orion.oac.uci.edu (John Ward) writes:

    >Now that I have decided to take the CO2 plunge I wish I had saved more
    >articles from the recent CO2 threads....  I have a few questions and want
    >to make sure I have some concepts straight.  

    >1. The couple books I have talk about CO2 but not in much detail regarding
    >injection.  What books do you recommend?  Dupla's "Optimum Aquarium"?

If you can find it, _The_Complete_Book_Of_Aquarium_Plnats_ by Allgayer and
Teton (Hard Rock Limited, London) gives about the best discussion of CO2
I've seen in books, including DIY ideas.

    >2. Any pH controller recommendations?  I see the adds for Jenco's and
    >Sandpoint's.  I thought someone on the net was going to post DIY plans.
    >Did I miss them?

    There are lots of pH controllers in the commercial chemical engineering
    places - Hach, Markson, Cole-Parmer, etc. I believe they are quite
    expensive. I think someone on the net has a Saunders controller, or 2.

We have two Sandpoint II (pH and ORP) and are very happy with them.  Sandpoint
is advertising a new line of controllers now; I think I saw prices in either
That Fish Place or Pet Warehouse catalogs that were around $250 including 
probes.  The chemical places have controllers for about the same range.
 
    >3.  Water Chemistry?  The basic equations are: CO2 + H2O -> H2CO3 (Carbonic
    >acid),  H2CO3 + CaCO3 (Calcium carbonate) -> Ca(HCO3)2 (Calcium bicarbonate)
    >pH, CO2, and KH (carbonate hardness) are directly related.  One measures pH
    >and KH and then can calculate CO2 (usually in mg/l or ppm).  I'd like get
    >one of the posts that explained this relationship and included the table.
    >Is this correct?

    George Booth posted a lot about this and how to adjust your water chemistry
    with Calcium Carbonate and Sodium (Bi?)Carbonate.

Watch for this info in part 2 of our story in the September AFM.  

    The table is in an appendix in The Optimum Aquarium. You should use
    the Tetra GH/KH test and maybe the Lamotte dissolved CO2 test to
    get some of the parameters.

    >4.  Test Kits, which tests are mandatory? recommended?  Since I am a little
    >color blind I prefer tests that use either a single color gradient or
    >titration.

    >  CO2: Is a CO2 test useful or just a waste since you can calculate CO2
    >anyway?

    The dissolved CO2 test is a royal pain to use. I've used it, maybe,
    twice.

Huh?  The LaMotte CO2 test is simple!  Are you thinking of the O2 kit? 
For the CO2 test, you get 20 ml of water in the titrator bottle, add 8
drops of color indicator, titrate with a calibrated syringe until the 
sample just turns pink and simply read the ppm off the syringe (this 
description may be slightly wrong - always read the instructions and 
safety data completely before attempting this at home :-). 

I prefer to use the CO2 test kit and LaMotte pH test kit and look up the 
KH on a chart.  The KH kit has the poorest resolution of the three (but
is still adequate for general aquarium use).

------
George
From: booth@hplvec.LVLD.HP.COM (George Booth)
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 1992 19:35:10 GMT
Subject: [F] Solution Ground seems to work
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Co., Loveland, CO