So whats the deal again? Too much Amquel will cause
a pH crash?
Amquel and pH?
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Ghazanfar Ghori
- Site Admin
- Posts: 3258
- Joined: Sun Nov 23, 2003 5:26 am
- Location: United States
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sherrymitchell
- Posts: 226
- Joined: Mon Nov 24, 2003 3:12 am
- Location: Northern Virginia
Yes, too much Amquel causes the pH to go way
down for me. I age the water in one gallon jugs and
got to the point where I was just squirting the
Amquel in the jugs of water instead of measuring it
out. You know, just laziness on my part. Well, after
awhile I noticed that the bettas didn't look right and I
tested and found that the water was at a pH of 6.0.
It took me awhile to figure out it was the Amquel. I
was actually overdosing the Amquel and bringing
down the pH....
I set up an experiment and found:
Out of the tap the pH is 7.6
1/16 teaspoon of Amquel (10 drops) drops the pH to
7.4 in about 72 hours.
A larger dose of 1/8 + teaspoon (20 drops) brought it
down to 6.5 in about 72 hours.
AND, an even larger dose of 1/4+teaspoon Amquel
brings it down to 6.0 in only 48 hours.
Plain tap water (my control) stayed at the same 7.6
pH over the entire three day period.
Tap water with Wardley's declor (5 drops per gallon)
stayed at the same pH of 7.6 over the three day
period.
I'm still experimenting with Prime, so the results are
incomplete, but so far it lowers the pH a little bit but
not as drastic as the Amquel.
I'm not sure if this is a good way to create low pH
water or not. It's just a glitch I hit on in my aquarium
keeping. The Amquel literature says that Amquel is
safe even if you overdose it, so I would think it's okay,
but who knows over the long haul?
Also, I'm no chemist so I don't know if the lower pH
would also soften the water. You might be able to
bring down the pH this way, but the water might still
be moderately hard. So if I was going to use Amquel
to produce lower pH water, I might cut it with fresh
rainwater just to be sure that the hardess was
reduced as well as the pH.
So that's basically the whole story.... Stay tuned for
further development's....
sherry
down for me. I age the water in one gallon jugs and
got to the point where I was just squirting the
Amquel in the jugs of water instead of measuring it
out. You know, just laziness on my part. Well, after
awhile I noticed that the bettas didn't look right and I
tested and found that the water was at a pH of 6.0.
It took me awhile to figure out it was the Amquel. I
was actually overdosing the Amquel and bringing
down the pH....
I set up an experiment and found:
Out of the tap the pH is 7.6
1/16 teaspoon of Amquel (10 drops) drops the pH to
7.4 in about 72 hours.
A larger dose of 1/8 + teaspoon (20 drops) brought it
down to 6.5 in about 72 hours.
AND, an even larger dose of 1/4+teaspoon Amquel
brings it down to 6.0 in only 48 hours.
Plain tap water (my control) stayed at the same 7.6
pH over the entire three day period.
Tap water with Wardley's declor (5 drops per gallon)
stayed at the same pH of 7.6 over the three day
period.
I'm still experimenting with Prime, so the results are
incomplete, but so far it lowers the pH a little bit but
not as drastic as the Amquel.
I'm not sure if this is a good way to create low pH
water or not. It's just a glitch I hit on in my aquarium
keeping. The Amquel literature says that Amquel is
safe even if you overdose it, so I would think it's okay,
but who knows over the long haul?
Also, I'm no chemist so I don't know if the lower pH
would also soften the water. You might be able to
bring down the pH this way, but the water might still
be moderately hard. So if I was going to use Amquel
to produce lower pH water, I might cut it with fresh
rainwater just to be sure that the hardess was
reduced as well as the pH.
So that's basically the whole story.... Stay tuned for
further development's....
sherry
Amquel recognizes this problem. It is incompatible with low-KH water. They make a buffer version to avoid the issue (I have heard that it works, but I am not low KH so can't certify that).
Sherry - just retest for KH as well as pH and see if it pulled it down measurably in line with the pH drop.
But I am bit picky about calling KH mods "softening" the water. It is common usage, but "reducing the alkalinity" or "reducing the buffering" is much more clear and meaningful. For fish (if not plants) hardness is really aimed at calcium and magnesium and breeding or other osmotic requirements of blackwater fish or highly mineralized water fish. The old addition of carbonate/bicarbonate to "hardness" creates no end of confusion for hobbyists.<edited><editID>RTRJR</editID><editDate>37952.6684953704</editDate></edited>
Sherry - just retest for KH as well as pH and see if it pulled it down measurably in line with the pH drop.
But I am bit picky about calling KH mods "softening" the water. It is common usage, but "reducing the alkalinity" or "reducing the buffering" is much more clear and meaningful. For fish (if not plants) hardness is really aimed at calcium and magnesium and breeding or other osmotic requirements of blackwater fish or highly mineralized water fish. The old addition of carbonate/bicarbonate to "hardness" creates no end of confusion for hobbyists.<edited><editID>RTRJR</editID><editDate>37952.6684953704</editDate></edited>
