Janmitch22
- #1
Do any of y'all have carbon dioxide systems for your plants? I went toplant geek to investigate the DIY route; it looks hardcore!
It's necessary once you hit 2wpg and over because you will have TONS of algae. Personally if you do it right you will not have any problems and of couse if you spend the mega bucks on a pressurized one well then your'e in good shape, and you have lots of loose money. I'm going to use it because I RREEALLYY want a planted tank, now if I put fish in it, that's a different story. I haven't decided on that yet and won't until I have it the way AI wnat it, then maybe I will.
Austin
Kh=2 or 40ish ppm
Or start a nano reef! Just add salt2 tbs BS and it brought the kH up to 9 dkh and 8.0 pH
You know I knew that and dosed the baking soda hard like I use to dose the 55 gallon when it was ACFs before I switched to seachem regulators, but this is the 10 gallon (dahh). Thankfully I have no fish in it. 2 tbs BS and it brought the kH up to 9 dkh and 8.0 pH so I'll see what its reading mid day tomarrow. Don't have no coral on hand but I do have seashells and cuttle bone, will either work or should I get some coral? I noticed that I can adjust the bubbles per second by raising or lowering the pond pump that's defusing the CO2, I knew depth made a diff but not that much.
Or start a nano reef! Just add salt
I don't know what Dena's thoughts are, but I keep my Freshwater planted at 3dKH, 4 would be better, but, IMO I think your tap water would be fine the way it is. (3dKH gives me a pH of about 7.4 with a daily fluctuation down to around 7/7.2)
Dena - your thoughts?
Luckily you do not have fish or inverts (that you care about) in that tank. That is enough of a change to kill everything! This is why I suggested mixing some up in water so you can dose by the drop. But, now that you've done this, use it as an experiment. Monitor your pH just before lights on and just after lights off. And, you will need to take some tank water out, add to a bucket, and aerate to gas off all CO2 to know what the actual water's pH level is now.
In most cases 3 dKH is acceptable; however, not when the pH swings as much as the OPs tank. 6.4 to 7.6 in a 24 hour period. That is too drastic for live fish. I am thinking that either the dKH is too low or too much CO2 is going into the tank. The only way to know if too much CO2 is to raise the hardness parameters and then monitor pH.
As there are no fish in the tank, it is much easier to run through these tests to work through what's up. For example, the plants may not yet be growing strong and taking in all that much CO2.
Totally agree Dena - I thought it important to mention my pH swings (max 0.4 in a day) for comparison.
Mark - follow along with Dena on this one - she's giving you great advice.
Yes, that is a common thing. Be aware that a drop checker monitors pH and is not immediate. It takes close to 2 hours to level out.
is it DIY?I built a co2 now everything finish except I don't have a diffuser.
help anyone?
did you have a bubble counter between the reactor and the aquariummy goodness. I place the diy co2 output in the tank and bubbles started to comeout but after like 10 minutes the mix went to the water. so immediately took it out and did 50 percent water change.