Biollante

Hi,

If what I write makes you angry, please go away, that is okay, I am not trying to make anyone angry, life is really too short.

If you are new to aquatic plants don’t worry about the whys and wherefores, this is stuff that may never be important to you. (Or anyone else on the planet.)

This is an example of both observation and what I mean by replicating things in various forums. Many times replicating situations takes some time and effort, sometimes not.

I have found replication a good way to separate the wannabes, phonies and liars. At the same time places me in a position to learn something. It was by replicating things; I found this website and came to trust the information. Though to be honest, I kind of “knew” Tom Barr from olden days posting and had already been “influenced.”

What I love is running across a situation, I think I understand and being led “down the rabbit’s hole,” an innocuous post complaining about mixing Calcium chloride and Epsom Salt, but blaming it on the Calcium chloride, stating that it was because Calcium chloride “does not dissolve that well in water.”

I jumped on the obvious error, mixing Calcium chloride (CaCl2.2H2O, the dehydrate) and Epsom Salt (MgSO4.7H2O, the heptahydrate) I had made it myself, though I had less excuse than most to make such a mistake.

Mixing CaCl2 and MgSO4 will just make a mess, though it will not do any harm either, no need to throw it out, just mix it well before using and let it remind you each time why we do not mix Calcium and Magnesium, these metals simply to not work and play well together. My very smart friend Jonny explained that that the “mess” was, Calcium sulphate (CaSO4) that is not highly soluble, this is plaster of Paris.

I mix stock solutions of Calcium chloride regularly. Being not very bright, I did not know, nor did I look up how much Calcium Chloride can go into solution. In a 500 ml Erlenmeyer flask, I poured 250 milliliters of distilled water.

I mixed 50 grams (about 11 teaspoons) of CaCl2, 5 grams (call it a heavy teaspoon) at a time into the aforementioned flask while swirling said flask.

Personally, I have never had problems with CaCl2, I mix and keep it separate.

I mix all my fertilizer solutions with distilled water; remember CaCl2 in water is exothermic, capable of reaching 140 F (60 C).

The first 35 grams went almost immediately (7 or 8 swirls) into solution, 40 and 45 grams each took several times longer. After 45 grams, I did notice an almost fractured surface forming, a few swirls and that went away. The last 5 grams did take 35 or 40 seconds swirling; I also recorded a temperature of 110 F (43.33 C).

Thirty-five minutes later, the solution cooled to room temperature, 72 F (22.22 C) from a high (recorded anyway) temperature of 114 F (45.56 C). Swirled in front of a bright light, it is a milky, say 10-15% opaque solution; I can indeed see individual particles suspended in the fluid.

About this time Dan of Philosophos fame who is very knowledgeable about formulas and such, though a little fuzzy on “ides” and “ines” came up with numbers for Calcium chlorides solubility in distilled water. If I worked at it, I should have been able to get at least 150 grams or three times as much into my 250 milliliters of distilled water.

I mixed 20 grams, 5 grams at a time, of anhydrous Calcium chloride (anhydrous, just means without water so it is CaCl2) into 250 ml aquarium water (392 mv).

It took me several times longer to incorporate the Calcium chloride into the aquarium water (392-mv) at 80 F (26.67 C). The resultant solution is milky, 25% opacity, with some fine (40-60 microns) white particulates suspended in solution and a few larger, darker (~100 microns) particulate matter, that I had not noted in examining the aquarium water in front of a bright light.

I mixed 20 grams of anhydrous Calcium chloride into 250 ml aquarium water (392-mv), as above then added 10 grams of Epsom Salt.

The resultant product was an opaque milky mixture, immediately precipitate began forming and dropping out. Within 20 minutes, the upper third was clear.

I swirled the flask, got everything back into suspension. I removed 40 ml and dumped it into my hapless 2.5-gallon aquarium (378 mv).

I watched the glimmering, since we have established that I am not Anna Torv (we learned this disappointing truth earlier), I know that this is a difference in density and not a tank from an alternate universe, water swirl the fine particulate around the tank.

Since the tank has a dolomite cap on the substrate and a high water turnover rate (32 times an hour) I was unable to follow what happen to the suspended fines. The tank which had been 368-mv, dropped to 318-mv, one would expect the ORP values to drop with the addition of calcium or magnesium. One hour later the water was 365-mv; I do not know the significance (well I kinda do, but that is for another blog post).

When I emptied the flask, I found a tough crystalline coating on the bottom of the flask. Poking and scraping with glass stirring rods only scratched the surface; distilled water did next to nothing. Heating 250 ml of water to boiling in the flask, removed some. Distilled white vinegar of course did the trick and cleaned the flask. Dan had affirmed the nasty flask bottom.

Along the way, it caused a few of us to think about how we get Calcium into our tanks, the value or lack thereof chloride (another blog post), even a thought about dosing Phosphate (definitely another blog post).

Sometimes I just do things, nothing has gone wrong, so I never consider what, how or why I do it, until someone asks an honest question, thank you, honest questioner.

Biollante