Duradrakon Hardener Salt

Hardener salt combination for reverse osmosis water

Pure RO water is not suitable for direct use in an aquarium, except in a few special cases (pure flow tanks, black water biotopes). The little remaining amount of minerals would be absorbed to quickly. In order to provide the right supply for fish and plants, it is therefore appropriate and correct to increase the water hardness to a carbonate hardness of 1 - 3 °dH. If you do not wish to blend in tap water (or if the tap water is not pure enough!), needs a hardener salt that provides the water with a defined amount of minerals.

• Approximately the standard ion ratio is set
• Supply with all trace elements is ensured
• No chemical tricks such as the addition of organic or acid salts are used (therefore no oxygen consumption or strange pH jumps during application)

Requirements

This hardener salt is only suitable for tank water with a sufficient amount of free CO₂ (preferably provided by a well-adjusted CO₂-device) and a pH-value significantly below 7, as otherwise some ingredients would only dissolve very slowly or not completely!

For Malawi- and Lake Tanganyika tanks, please use other hardener salt combinations.

Ingredients

22.2 % Carbonate, 17.0 % Hydrogencarbonate, 16.8 % Calcium, 12.9 % Sulfate, 9.9 % Chloride, 5.7 % Sodium, 4.6 % Magnesium, 2.1 % Potassium, 0.05 % trace elements, remnant: crystal water

At a dosage of 10 grams per 100 liters of fresh water, this is equivalent to approximately the following addition of important substances:

62 mg/l Hydrogencarbonate, 17 mg/l Calcium, 13 mg/l Sulfate, 8 mg/l Chloride, 6 mg/l Sodium, 5 mg/l Magnesium, 2 mg/l Potassium

Dosage

3.5 g salt combination / 100 l osmosis water produce 1.0 °dH CH or 1,2 °dH TH respectively
2.9 g salt combination / 100 l osmosis water produce 0.8 °dH CH or 1.0 °dH TH respectively

Common measurements

• Level teaspoon: 1.6 g
• Heaped teaspoon: 6.4 g
• 5 ml measuring spoon (as found in medicine packs): 2.9 g

Application

The heavy soluble calcium carbonate contained in the mixture, dissolves itself by using CO₂ to convert itsself into the form of soluble calcium hydrogencarbonate (it disintegrates into CO₂ and calcium carbonate during drying, which is why it only exists dissolved). The more available free CO₂ that is provided, as well as the lower that the pH-value is, the faster that this process can progress.

By pH 6.0 this process can complete in a matter of minutes, especially when a controlled CO₂ system is in operation, but if the pH-value is a little under the neutral point and when relatively low CO₂ is present in the water, the process can however then take a some hours.
The short lived water “clouding” is in no manner damaging for fish or plants.

One can also dissolve Duradrakon through strong water circulation in an external water preparation container before performing the exchanging water.

When neither the first nor the other method is practically possible then it is however also possible to apply the very easily soluble mixtures Duradrakon CH-Plus and Duradrakon TH-Plus, though there is a slightly increased complete-salt content.