calcium carbonate and potassium carbonate

[Aussieponic]

Where in Brisbane can I buy some calcium carbonate and potassium carbonate?

AP

[bryan]

Where in Brisbane can I buy some calcium carbonate and potassium carbonate?

Try Unimin www.unimin.com.au for the CaCO3. Not sure about the Potassium though. Just phone them at Salisbury. Excuse my ignorance, but what are you using it for? Maybe potassium bicarbonate is cheaper, & not as alkaline, from memory.
Hope this helps,
Bryan

[GaryD]

Hi,

Both products are used to raise pH.

GaryD

[Hamish]

Why not just use some shell grit? Cheap and self regulating. It raised my pH from less than 6 to 7.6 in a couple of weeks and held it there. I put it in a filter bag and put it in my canister filter. You could just bury it in the grow bed or hang it under the return pipe for so the water flows over it.

[GaryD]

Hi Hamish,

You can use shellgrit......I have done so on several occasions.....but it's the dust and tiny particles in shellgrit that causes the initial effect. Breaking down the big stuff is a very gradual thing.

Potassium carbonate and calcium carbonate are useful for buffering water which is tending toward the low end of the pH scale.

Gary

[Hamish]

Hi Hamish,

You can use shellgrit......I have done so on several occasions.....but it's the dust and tiny particles in shellgrit that causes the initial effect. Breaking down the big stuff is a very gradual thing.

Potassium carbonate and calcium carbonate are useful for buffering water which is tending toward the low end of the pH scale.

Gary

That would explain why my bag of shell grit took a couple of weeks to gradually increase my pH from 6 to 7.6

I washed the shell grit using a sieve to get rid of all the dust and fine particles.

[DecanFrost]

I purchased big lots of both,calcium and potasium carbonate(Calcium was cheap) and had no benifit in raising ph at all.Wikipedia says that this will not actually raise ph but will alter kh(Buffer water,i think from memory).Ended up using a clearpond product ph up suitable for ponds(with plants) and seems to have worked well.Rainbow trout uneffected and ph has never been more stable.Suspect Calcium carb responsible for keeping it all stable now,doesnt drift much at all in 4 mnths.

[Ianc]

Where in Brisbane can I buy some calcium carbonate and potassium carbonate?

AP

Potters use lots of calcium carbonate under the name of whiting or calcite, in their glazes. This is obtainable in Brisbane from:
Pottery Supplies
51 Castlemaine Street
Milton, Qld.
ph: 07) 3368 2877

Price for Whiting (Calcite) is $5.10 for 5kg or $15.25 for 25 kg bag.
It is quite pure, 99.9...something% pure ground calcite. It is also quite fine, probably around 200 mesh. I used some a few days ago to get the pH up ready for fish, and it seemed to work fairly quickly. I simply sprinkled it onto the bubbles opposite where the water gets pumped in from the sump.

My system has 1000 litre fish tank and about the same volume of grow beds, and I used 5 tablespoons of whiting. This got the pH from at or below pH 6 up to about pH 6.8 in a short time. I checked it after 4 days and that was the result.

[Outbackozzie]

Always be careful when raising pH, ideally you want to raise it 0.1 points per day at the quickest. Any faster and you run the risk of causing ICH and other problems with your fish.

[Ianc]

Always be careful when raising pH, ideally you want to raise it 0.1 points per day at the quickest. Any faster and you run the risk of causing ICH and other problems with your fish.

Thanks for that Ozzie. Luckily this was before I put in any fish. They went in a week ago now. 100 Jade Perch of which I've lost 4 over two days... and I'm trying 10 Sleepy Cod in the sump (bathtub) as an experiment... they seem ok so far. Cheers.... Ian