Hi Daryl,
I think it was you that posted about the plaster of paris ph pill. I read that article too on Koivet awhile ago but was afraid to try it. So, I want to know: Have you ever tried it? and Does it cloud the water? I need a good buffer and this seems right down my alley. you can actually see when it needs to be replaced.

Most importantly: do the fish bother with the pill? Mine will taste anything.

I have never tried it - for the water around here is so hard you can drive a truck across it. The pH stays very stable at about 8.5.... I also have only tanks - and not that large of ones, too. I do not have the water to support anything over 60 gallons.

I have spoken to people from other places that have water that will benefit from it. All that I talked to (3, I would guess....?) used the "pill" in a medium sized pond situation. (brick sized pucks) They did not report any cloudy water. The "pill" was replaced on a seasonal basis - once in the spring and once in the fall. It went quickly in the spring/summer for the filters were agitating the water. During the winter the filteration is non-functioning - and all that is going is a light fountain for aeration and to keep the surface of the pond from freezing. This makes the pill last for the 6 months of down time....


I would guess that the fish would not bother them. I expect you could even get a little HOB filter - one with no biowheel or anything ( no cartridge, etc.) and drop the smaller pills into it for tank use. The fish would have no access and they would have plenty of water flow to dissolve them. They may even dissolve too quickly if the flow was very high.

Thanks for the input! I think I am going to try it out in a bucket first and use an extra filter with it and see how it goes. I will try to get a clear one so I can see whether it clouds or not and I can conduct tests to see what it does to my ph. etc.. as for the fish...I think I can make a small basket out of plastic canvas. that should keep them out of it.
I am sorry to say I don't like hob filters because I have power outages here and I have found that the hob filters don't re-start without human help and I can't have something like that happening while I am at work.
I use the kind of filter that goes right in the water on the side of the tank. It never needs priming. It does have a chamber for charcoal; I think if i crunched some of the pill up and put it in there instead of the charcoal, it might work.
It should be interesting..........