[MiamiAG]

Benicio,

Your substrate has peat and Akadama soil. The combination will lower your GH/KH substantially for a period. In addition, your pH will be lowered to around 6 for a while. Please compensate for this by increasing your GH/KH manually for a couple of weeks. After a couple of weeks, the Akadama will no longer pull on your KH and it will be stable from then on.

What happened is that the Akadama had a very acidic pH; that means that a large proportion of the CEC in the clay was occupied by hydrogen ions. If it was hydrogen ions, then calcium and magnesium in the water was exchanged for hydrogen on the Akadama. This is a common reaction -- the same reaction used in the cation exchange part of a deionizing water filter. The hydrogen ion was released into the water where it combined with the bicarbonate and lowered the KH. The calcium and magnesium was bound to the Akadama particles.

 

[MiamiAG]

Benicio,

Sorry it took me so long to reply. You can also try the following:

Eckerd Drugs: epson's salt (magnesium) 1/4 teaspoons x 6.5 per 50 gallons
Eckerd Drugs: calcium carbonate (calcium) 600 mg tablet x 4.5 per 50 gallons
Winn Dixie: baking soda 1/4 teaspoons x 4.5 per 50 gallons

Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[MiamiAG]

BMS,

Sorry, I've been busy and haven't been looking at the forums lately.

If you can, I would urge you to go to the LFS and get a small bottle of Kent's Turbo Calcium. Then go to Eckerd drugs and get Epsom Salts. These should provide excellent sources of calcium and magnesium for you. We can then talk about how much to dose.

As for the Akadama, it is a very good substrate and is commonly used in Europe and Japan. Unfortunately, it is hard to get here in the States. Amano used to use it extensively. His Aqua Soil line is very similar.

As I mentioned, it will "eat calcium and magnesium" for the first 2-3 weeks. It also may bind phosphate for a while. This is actually a good thing as it would be available to your plants via roots and provide you a buffer from it getting out of hand.

Regards,

Art

 

[MiamiAG]

Benicio,

Stop adding phosphate. I think you may getting a false reading from your kit either because 1) it is bad or 2) the phosphate may be binding itself to the substrate. If 2), your plants would be able to take up the phosphate from the substrate.

How do your plant's look?

Also, don't go by the pH/KH/CO2 table as the peat in the substrate may cause that to be unreliable.