Weird kH/gH discrepancy...why aren't my plants growing? (long)
Measured today:
kH: 3.5 (degrees)
pH: 6.6
gH: At least over 50, it's unmeasurable with my kit
Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate: nil/nil/50ppm (dosed the tank with PlantGro Iron
Enriched before measuring this, not sure if it has any effect)
Lighting: a bit over 1.5 watts/gal
CO2: 26.375 according to a web calculator
Lighting maybe a bit low, CO2 is about as high as you'd want to drive it.
and I replaced the tubes yesterday (PowerGlo and SunGlo were originally in
it, replaced the SunGlo with a FloraGlo, and changed to a fresh PowerGlo).
I use Life-Glo's - a bit more expensive but highly effective.
I tend to leave bodies in the tank if they're not diseased
How can you tell? I'm not sure that's such a good idea.
I'm assuming my water's not loaded with phosphates...it comes
out of the tap hard as a rock, though.
So I'm wondering if it's something that's accumulated in the water that
might be causing problems, like minerals from the unusually high gH
reading?
I really don't want to do massive water changes, too afraid of completely
throwing everything out of whack. If there's a chance the gH is part of
the
problem, how could I lower that without phucking with my kH/adding
phosphates and causing an algae bloom/etc?
You can get water softening pillows that you put in the tank that will
reduce the Gh.
If it's not likely to be part of the problem, what else would be most
likely
to be causing the problem? And should I somehow try and reduce the amount
of CO2 my tank's getting? It's a yeast reactor...
Surface movement or an airstone....
rgds
I.
Thanks!
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