Alder cones in aquarium
How does alder cones affect pH and color in aquarium?
New! list with alder cones for sale
2005-06-14 I have read that you can lower the pH of the aquarium with the help of alder cones and have made this little experiment. 4 glasses with 3 dl of water each First glass with 0 alder cones Second glass with 1 alder cone Third glass with 2 alder cones Fourth glass with 6 alder cones Picture of how alder cones affect the pH and changing the color of water:
Picture is taken after 12 hours
300 cones are sufficient to get down to pH 6.86 after 36 hours in a 100
liter aquarium. There are likely to be even lower pH after a few days. My
experiment show nothing but what happens after 36 hours with 1, 2 and 6
cones in 3 dl of water.
I know nothing yet about long-term effects from alder cones.
If you are going to try alder cones yourself I suggest not to put in too
many cones in the beginning, but take fewer and measuring the pH
continuously.
Now I will test what influence one cone has in 10 liters of stockholm water.
I'll be back later with results.
I have now made measurements with one cone in 4 liters of water respectively 10 liters of water. Some strange results! 2005-06-16 The bowl with 4 liters of water got pH 7.37 after 2 days. The bowl with 10 liters of water got pH 7.17 after 2 days. Cones was approximately of equal size. Weird to say the least! It differs a lot from cone to cone, which was perhaps expected. One reason may be that I picked some of the cones from the ground while most of them were picked directly from the tree. The cone in the 4-liter was perhaps one from the ground and watered from the recent rains. Cones from the tree can also have had very different amount of rainwater pored over them. New measurements in the glasses After 84 hours, it has now the follwing pH: Glass with 0 cones: 7.81 Glass with 1 cones: 6.82 Glass with 2 cones: 4.98 Glass with 6 cones: 4.11 (The colors are much darker than in the picture)
New measurements 2 weeks later 2005-06-29 Glass with 0 cones: 7,88 Glass with 1 cones: 6,74 Glass with 2 cones: 4,79 Glass with 6 cones: 3,84 4-liter bowl with a cone: 7.68 10-liter bowl with a cone: 7.56 (odd, see above)
Results from test
After 2 days with alder cones picked from the trees around June 10, 2005 10 cones in 100 liters of water can lower the pH from 7.8 to 7.56 (significantly colored) 25 cones of 100 liters of water can lower the pH from 7.8 to 7.68 (watered-down cone, should be slightly above 7) After 17 days with alder cones picked from the trees around June 10, 2005 333 cones in 100 liters of water can lower the pH from 7.8 to 6.74 (looks like a cup of tea) 666 cones in 100 liters of water can lower the pH from 7.8 to 4.79 (strong tea) 2000 cones in 100 volumes can lower the pH from 7.8 to 3.84 (almost impossible too see through the glass) Notice! If you want to use alder cones to lower the pH or change the color of your aquarium water, start with a small amount of cones and measure the pH continuously. Written by Mike FalkMore to read