Anyone here know how many cups in a pound for epsom salt and calcium chloride flakes? Trying to up my gh and do it slowly, by adding a cup a day of each. Up to 4 cups of each without a budge in 4500 gallons. Joanne
Anyone here know how many cups in a pound for epsom salt and calcium chloride flakes? Trying to up my gh and do it slowly, by adding a cup a day of each. Up to 4 cups of each without a budge in 4500 gallons. Joanne
Are you sure your test kit is good? Seams to me you should have seen a change with that. This is what I use. I believe this is a quart milk container, and it's 4 pounds. The calcium chloride is about the same weight/volume. Every time I dump my vortex (500 gal) I add one cup each of Epsom salt, calcium chloride, and baking soda. This is enough to see my GH and KH come back up to where I want it, in a 6700 gal pond. This is why I was wondering about your test kit.
I am not sure as I don't have anyway to test it. It came with KH and that is working fine
yes, I know that. I am trying to raise both Kh (with BS) and GH (with epsom and CC) The test kit I bought had both tests in it for KH and GH. I have added BS and GH is rising, according to test. I have added epsom and CC, but haven't gotten any movements yet when testing. Could be I am not adding enough. Roddy states 1 pound of each per 1000 gallons. My epsom is in 2 lb bags and CC is in 50 lb bag. I thought I should add in slow so I started with a cup of each and tested 8 hours after adding it. Nothing. I am up to only 4 cups of each and still nothing yet for the GH test. That's why I was curious as to how many cups actually make up a pound since thats Roddys instructions, by the pound. I am 4500 gallons so it might take a while.
What I meant by "I have no way to test it" is I have no way to know if the gh kit is working. Have no GH in my water. Maybe if I fill a glass with epsom and CC and test that, this way I'll know the test works at least.
2 cups is ABOUT a pound of this. for 4500 at 1 lb per 1000 your talking 9 cups each for the pond. The 2 lb bag of epsom salt is less than Roddy said to use, if you haven't put the whole bag in, I would do that. The flakes, I would add 5 more cups. Test again after 24-48 hours.
it's okay to dump that much in? I asked how much at a time was okay and I was just told "slowly". The flakes don't seem to dissolve well. I have tried mixing them with hot water and it's still clumpy. Do you just "toss" in the pond? Can I add BS as well at same time? KH was up to sevin drops, but last night I had to take out some 450 gallons and now its at 6 drops.I have yet to even get the originally "orange" color for gh. Just goesto the clearish green color.
Here's a quote from Roddy Conrad regarding adding Epsom and Cc:
Don't forget that 60 ppm = 3-4 drops on your test kit, if you're using the drop kind. I find that the AP test for Gh is very hard to read, The color change from yellow-ish to green-ish is subtle. I use one test tube with only a couple drops in it to see the yellow and then another test tube that I keep adding drops to till they change (ie.- it's easier to see the change when you are comparing it to the yellow in the first tube - holding them side by side)
Cheers,
Cindy
Okay, just so you don't think I am slow, I do know that 2 cups equals 16 oz which equals a pound but not everything is the same, what's the word???. I mistakenly said my epsom was in 2 lb bag, its a 4lb bag and if I measured cup for cup correctly it's a little over 9 cups for the 4 lb. I am going to add the epsom and CC, but I also want to add 1 cup BS as I changed some water and my KH dropped a little. Okay, so I poured the CC, epsom and BS in a bucket and added warm water. Everything is fizzing. Am I going to blow something up doing it this way?? Is it still safe to add to the pond??? The CC is hard to dissolve so I figured I would mix them in a bucket, wait a little, add some pond water and them put into filters? or directly in water??? It will mix pretty rapidly as my air diffusser are running 120l of air and the pond is moving at a good pace. Can I add the fizzing mess??? Is it okay if the CC is not dissolved and the fish decided to eat it??? Joanne
Yes, Dump It In. Baking Soda Fizzes In Confines Of Butcket, Not As Noticable In Big Pond. Fish May Try Stuff But Will Spit It Right Out.
A CUP IS 16 LIQUID OZ. THAT WHY I SAID "ABOUT" IN MY POST. I GOT THIS FROM MEASURING KNOWN POUNDAGE OF SOME DIFFERENT SOLIDS IN CUPS TO SEE HOW MANY CUPS WILL BE A POUND. WITH WHAT YOU ARE PUTTING IN CLOSE IS OK. A CUP OF FEATHERS AND A CUP OF LEAD VASTLY DIFFERENT, A POUND OF FEATHERS AND A POUND A LEAD WEIGHT THE SAME.
BUT YOUR BEST WAY IS TO TAKE YOU BAG POUNDAGE AND MEASURE HOW MANY CUPS AND FIGURE IT OUT. HARDER TO DO WITH THE LARGE BAG OF FLAKES. DIGITAL SCALES ARE GOOD.
Last edited by IMSALSMOM; 09-25-2007 at 10:16 AM.
Ounces are used in two differnt types of measure. One is measure of volume the other is a measure of weight. If you are given a number of pounds, you cannot use cups to measure it. I weigh 170 pounds. That does not equal 340 cups.
I DISAGREE A BIT, WHEN I GET ST IT COMES IN POUNDS, I POUR IT INTO A BIG MEASURE CUP TO FIGURE OUT APPROXIMATLY HOW MANY CUPS TO A POUND, IT'S NOT EXACT BUT IT'S CLOSE ENOUGH FOR SOME APPLICATIONS.
AS I SAID, YOU CAN'T USE THE SAME CUP TO POUND MEASUREMENT FOR DIFFERENT THINGS ex. A CUP OF LEAD TO A CUP OF FEATHERS. BUT YOU CAN FIGURE HOW MANY POUND OR OUNCES OF THE LEAD YOU HAVE WILL FILL A CUP. IF I HAVE FOUR POUNDS OF SOMETHING AND I POUR IT IN MEASURING CUPS AND GET EIGHT CUPFUL, THEN ONE POUND IS 2 CUPS.
LUKE, WE COULD PUT YOU IN A MEAT GRINDER AND FIND OUT HOW MANY CUPS YOU WOULD FILL.
Last edited by IMSALSMOM; 09-25-2007 at 10:32 AM.
Roddy says no no to mixing ES, CC and CC in a bucket and then putting into pond. One out does the other when you do this, so I dumped the bucket. Maybe that's why my GH is not rising after 4 cups each of ES and CC. I mixed a cup of each at a time figuring it would dissolve better and then I would pour into pond. Roddy says just toss the stuff in. Doesn't matter if fish eat any of it (ES, CC, BS or PP) it won't hurt them? So, I am back at square one. Is there an order to throw the stuff in?? Should I toss all 4 lbs of epsom in and wait till I put CC in. How long? Or do I just toss all the dry ingredients in at once? After dumping my mixture, I still have a 4 lb bag of epsom and the remaining 50 lb bag of CC. My GH this morning was 1 drop.
Imsalsmom, I understand and am not disagreeing with you......I read back and saw that you said it equals "about" two cups and is obvious that you had done the work to find the relationship between cups and pounds. I was just throwing that out there because 16 fl oz dont necessarily equal 16 oz ....wasnt sure everone was on the same page because of Majedderr's post, "Okay, just so you don't think I am slow, I do know that 2 cups equals 16 oz which equals a pound but not everything is the same, what's the word???."
EDIT: And I dont like the meat grinder idea.
Last edited by luke-gr; 09-25-2007 at 11:11 AM.
After reading Roddy's quote above, maybe that is why I dont have much algae on my walls......low GH.
Yep, 16 Fluid Oz Is Not The Same As A Pound. Volume Vs. Mass I Guess, I Can't Grasp The Word, But I Can Figure Out How To Dose My Pound, Although Sometimes It Takes A While, My Brain Is Not As Young And Quick As It Use To Be.
I'M WARMING UP THE MEAT GRINDER.
What do you mean from yellowish to greenish. I am using AP test kit. Gh directions say 1st drop will be orange? My first drop is pale greenish yellow. Test says its complete when color turns from orange to green. And I do have short fuzzy algae on the walls of pond. Is this not the right algae? Joanne