"RedForeman ©®" wrote in message ...
Interspersed comments...
|| 2x 23W 5000K lights (4.6W/gallon)

a bit high on wattage, 1 23W would be ok, unless you're growing Ricca or
glosso...hahaha....

I love the appearance of carpet plants such as glossostigma and
microsword, and plan to try my hand at them as soon as I feel I've got
the basics under "control".

You really should find out the kH and gH of your tank... they play a vital
role in your CO2 production and pH problems... use Chuck Gadds excellent
calculator or website to accurately find your CO2 levels, using your pH and
kH http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_co2chart.htm which is on this
page http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/articles.htm

Will obtain this test ASAP and work from there.

|| 4) After the accident, I was *not* able to bring the pH back up after
|| removal of the CO2 and vigorous aeration over two days. It took
|| water changes to bring it back up. Did I cause some non-reversable
|| chemical reaction?

You probably killed your bio filter, bacteria doesnt' grow below 6.2-6.4 or
so, which is probably why you had a crash...

I didn't think of that, but now that you mention it, it makes perfect
sense. Decomposing organic material, including bacteria, would lower
the pH. I just checked ammonia and nitrite and they're both
undetectable, so it looks like the tank fortunately suffered no
long-term effects.

Thanks!

-Chris