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Originally Posted by CraigThor  Thanks. The Chloride is what I was wondering about. I've been told by several not to use it because of too much chloride.
I also did order some CaSO3/4 dont remeber which from Aquariumfertilizer.com also. I will be using it in my shrimp nanao tank as a form of calcium for the shrimp and snails
Craig |
I do not recommend adding sulfates to NPTs, especially those with a potting soil or organic substrates. H2S generated from sulfates in the anaerobic environment is highly toxic to plant roots.
Chloride is only inhibitory in massive amounts, much less than what you need to add for increasing water hardness. For example, to bring GH up to my water's hardwater levels, you would need to add 30 ppm of CaCl2. This addition would bring with it 60 ppm of chloride. This is 60 mg/l, which is only 0.006% chloride. Plants are inhibited by salt (sodium chloride) at 0.1%.
Bottom Line: The amount of chloride you're adding to get GH up to increase water hardness is much less than what would inhibit plants.
If you have a clay or gravel substrate with no organic matter, CaSO4 will probably cause no problems. But in an NPT with an organic soil, you risk getting reduced plant growth and other problems.