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Calcium Chloride

Contents:

1. Calcium source
   by Paul Sears <psears/nrn1.NRCan.gc.ca> (Wed, 19 Nov 1997)
2. Calcium source
   by "Louis Lin" <lhclin/aw.sgi.com> (Wed, 19 Nov 1997)

Calcium source

by Paul Sears <psears/nrn1.NRCan.gc.ca>
Date: Wed, 19 Nov 1997

> From: Stephen Pushak <teban-at-powersonic.bc.ca>
> Subject: Calcium source
> 
> what is a good chemical source of calcium that won't increase carbonate
> hardness? CaCl? Will it affect pH?

        CaCl2 will work, and will not affect the pH.  You will end
up with pretty high Cl- concentrations, 12.6 ppm for each degree
of GH.  I don't know if that would be a problem.
> 
> do humic acids interfere with measurements of carbonate hardness? would
> it cause a positive or negative error in measurement?

        Any weak acid anion will cause a false high reading.  


- -- 
Paul Sears        Ottawa, Canada

Calcium source

by "Louis Lin" <lhclin/aw.sgi.com>
Date: Wed, 19 Nov 1997

Stephen Pushak wrote:

> what is a good chemical source of calcium that won't increase carbonate
> hardness? CaCl? Will it affect pH?

It's unlike CaCl will affect your pH, unless you overdose it
to a point the calcium starts to percipitate with the carbonate.

However, some form of calcium carbonate (crush coral, aragonite, etc)
will be easier to handle even though they increase carbonate hardness.
The reason is calcium chloride is quite soluable and there is a
chance of overdosing, while calcium carbonate is very hard to
dissolve.  You can simply leave a bag of calcium carbonate in the
filter or the tank and check the hardness from time to time.

Louis Lin

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