diy co2 - ph crash?

[K. Elliot]

I currently have a 55g freshwater tank with two clown plecos and 5
bleeding heart tetras. In addition to the fish I have recently added
few live plants (green cabomba, moneywort, anachris) of which I have
been told that my lighting conditions should be sufficient.

I have been reading about diy CO2 injection. My understanding is that
with enough light & nutrients CO2 injection will help plant growth. I
would like to try this but I am concerned that my pH will crash.

My KH is two degrees, the pH at 7.2. I have read many conflicting
reports about when a pH crash might occur.

Can anyone help clear this up? I dont want to risk my fish health in
order to help the plants.

Also, if you have a recipe for the CO2 system I would greatly
appreciate it.

Thanks for any advice you can afford.

[-=Almazick=-]

use Baking Soda in DIY CO2 to keep your PH/KH up




"K. Elliot" > wrote in message
om...
> I currently have a 55g freshwater tank with two clown plecos and 5
> bleeding heart tetras. In addition to the fish I have recently added
> few live plants (green cabomba, moneywort, anachris) of which I have
> been told that my lighting conditions should be sufficient.
>
> I have been reading about diy CO2 injection. My understanding is that
> with enough light & nutrients CO2 injection will help plant growth. I
> would like to try this but I am concerned that my pH will crash.
>
> My KH is two degrees, the pH at 7.2. I have read many conflicting
> reports about when a pH crash might occur.
>
> Can anyone help clear this up? I dont want to risk my fish health in
> order to help the plants.
>
> Also, if you have a recipe for the CO2 system I would greatly
> appreciate it.
>
> Thanks for any advice you can afford.

[Dave Millman]

KH is used up slowly in a planted tank. Since pH falls as KH falls, pH can
crash when KH falls significantly below 1.0.

You can easily raise your KH to a comfortable 3 or 4 with baking soda if
you have an issue.

Start your reading here:

http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_co2chart.htm

http://www.qsl.net/w2wdx/aquaria/diyco2.html