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Q- what's a good way to treat my water without using salts and stuff =
like that?
A- I use my own salt mixture - not the commercial one. Actually I use a mixture of Calcium sulphate - CaSO4 (not very soluble, mixing in hot water required), Calcium carbonate - CaCO3 (in very small quantities as it is very slightly soluble), Magnesium sulphate - MgSO4, Sodium bicarbonate - NaHCO3, Sodium chloride - NaCl and Potassium Chloride - KCl. The last four are added in significant quantities while the calcium compounds to their solubility limit. The quantities I add can't be used as a guideline because it is all depending on the water you start with (tap water's content). I have in our site some tables, which will tell you how much of each chemical in ppm (mg / litre) you have to add in order to achieve a specific GH and KH. The table gives the values in both gallons and litres so you could easily use it. Just go to the Information Index from the Homepage and click on the GH and KH tables. If you have any questions just let me know. I buy the chemicals from MERCK Darmstadt (the cheapest they have, since their quality is always top class). You can't just use the table salt as this contains iodine and special "flowing aids". For the sake of economy, I buy them in 5 Kg packs (the calcium and magnesium compounds), 10 Kg pack (Potassium Chloride) and in 50 Kg packs (Sodium Chloride and Sodium bicarbonate). These quantities will allow me a year of water changes (about 1 ton of water / month or 12 tons of water in total =3D 3.174 gallons). The calcium compounds will let you at least ten times more). The cost of all these chemicals in Greece is about 310 USD. Of course, you have to mix them and the alike (less convenient). You can also see the new article on water changes (again from the Information info in our site), which shows with pictures how you have to deal with that stuff. The site is at www.rddiagnostics.com/aquaria.html My water values are KH=3D14, pH=3D8.5 (starting pH=3D7.7) and GH=3D12. If you keep the same recipe you will have a very steady environment. I would suggest you make an excel file, get the values (per litre) in it and then just add the volume you want to treat in order to get the quantities you need (at least this saves me some time). For your information I stopped all commercial salts and GH-raising stuff about a year ago, and the fish seem to do better now. Even if this sounds biased, still they are not doing worse..
You could try this (in our Website: Malawi Cichlid homepage) go to: Sodium bicarbonate (baking soda; NaHCO3) - Carbonate Hardness (KH): http://www.rddiagnostics.com/malawi10.html
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