Peat Phreak
Well-Known Member
That was me in another forum. This is the info copied from here:I have Calcium EDTA, but someone said the sodium levels are pretty high in this version. Sometimes it gets hard to tell Bro-Science from real science.
When talking about Ca EDTA we should first understand that this is not simply a calcium ion with an EDTA molecule wrapped around it. In reality, the product we purchase as Ca EDTA, that contains 9.7% Ca by weight, is actually represented chemically as C10H12O8CaN2Na2·2H2O. The Ca EDTA product is actually four parts, a few waters of crystallization, the Ca+2 cation, the chelating agent anion that wraps around it (EDTA-4) and two sodium cations, Na+, that are used to counter the two excess negative charges coming from the Ca EDTA (which we should more accurately call (CaEDTA)-2).
When adding Ca EDTA we are actually adding four things, a little water, Ca, EDTA and Na. Most importantly Ca EDTA is in reality 12.15% sodium, meaning you’re adding more Na than you’re adding Ca when you use it.