PH, KH, CO2 interactivity
I am going to start injecting CO2 and wanted to make sure that I don't mess
anything up too bad. I plan on doing this with a 1 gallon DIY CO2 reactor. I have a 50 gal (48x15x16) tank with the following parameters 120w of NO fluorescent PH 7.5 KH 2 I think this gives me a CO2 level of about 2.5-3 ppm. My question is should I raise the KH before injecting CO2. I plan on raising the KH with baking soda. I think I understand the relationship between these properties but would like to make sure. From my understanding if I raise the KH to 4 it will bring the PH up to around ~8. And then injecting CO2 will bring it back down. Not sure if it is important but tank inhabitants are 4 neon tetras 3 glolite tetras 6 black mollies 6 white cloud danios 2 bronze cories 2 candy tetras 1 male betta 1 common pleco 7 apongeton plants growing from bulbs, not very big yet dwarf grass 1 red melon sword 5 stem plants I plan on adding some java fern, java moss and maybe some Amazon swords. I can post pictures of what I have in the binaries if it will help. |
PH, KH, CO2 interactivity
Sounds absolutely fine to me - almost exactly the parameters I had (though
you have more light), and I add roughly half a teaspoon of baking soda with the water change (40% odd weekly) to bring the KH up to 4.5-5, and then CO2 to bring the pH back down to 6.7 or so. Might be worth two smaller CO2 reactors changed on alternate weeks to stabilize the CO2 output - I got too much variation on my 46G with one bottle. In the end I gave up and bought pressurized instead - far easier, I've not touched it in months... Colin "Jason" wrote in message .com... I am going to start injecting CO2 and wanted to make sure that I don't mess anything up too bad. I plan on doing this with a 1 gallon DIY CO2 reactor. I have a 50 gal (48x15x16) tank with the following parameters 120w of NO fluorescent PH 7.5 KH 2 I think this gives me a CO2 level of about 2.5-3 ppm. My question is should I raise the KH before injecting CO2. I plan on raising the KH with baking soda. I think I understand the relationship between these properties but would like to make sure. From my understanding if I raise the KH to 4 it will bring the PH up to around ~8. And then injecting CO2 will bring it back down. Not sure if it is important but tank inhabitants are 4 neon tetras 3 glolite tetras 6 black mollies 6 white cloud danios 2 bronze cories 2 candy tetras 1 male betta 1 common pleco 7 apongeton plants growing from bulbs, not very big yet dwarf grass 1 red melon sword 5 stem plants I plan on adding some java fern, java moss and maybe some Amazon swords. I can post pictures of what I have in the binaries if it will help. |
PH, KH, CO2 interactivity
Jason wrote:
I am going to start injecting CO2 and wanted to make sure that I don't mess anything up too bad. I plan on doing this with a 1 gallon DIY CO2 reactor. I have a 50 gal (48x15x16) tank with the following parameters 120w of NO fluorescent PH 7.5 KH 2 I think this gives me a CO2 level of about 2.5-3 ppm. According to Chuck's calculator (http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_co2chart.htm), this gives a CO2 level of about 2ppm, which means you probably measured pH late in the day, after the plants were sucking CO2 out of the water for a while. If you measure again first thing in the morning, before photosynthesis starts, you will probably get pH 7.3. This yields a CO2 concentration of about 3ppm, which is the level in an uninjected tank in equilibrium with the atmosphere. My question is should I raise the KH before injecting CO2. I plan on raising the KH with baking soda. I think I understand the relationship between these properties but would like to make sure. From my understanding if I raise the KH to 4 it will bring the PH up to around ~8. And then injecting CO2 will bring it back down. At KH4 and a CO2 level of 3ppm (before lights on), pH will probably be about 7.6. After the plants start sucking the CO2 out of the water, it will probably rise up to 7.8. Now, regarding your CO2 plans: DIY CO2 works great. But to have a significant impact on a 50 gallon tank will take a lot of CO2: at least two, 2-liter bottles working in tandem (Start bottle A on Day 0, start bottle B on Day 5, change bottle A on day 10, change bottle B on day 15, etc.) This works fine, many people do it. If this sounds like too much work, consider pressurized CO2 instead. |
PH, KH, CO2 interactivity
"Dave Millman" wrote in message ... Jason wrote: I am going to start injecting CO2 and wanted to make sure that I don't mess anything up too bad. I plan on doing this with a 1 gallon DIY CO2 reactor. I have a 50 gal (48x15x16) tank with the following parameters 120w of NO fluorescent PH 7.5 KH 2 I think this gives me a CO2 level of about 2.5-3 ppm. According to Chuck's calculator (http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_co2chart.htm), this gives a CO2 level of about 2ppm, which means you probably measured pH late in the day, after the plants were sucking CO2 out of the water for a while. If you measure again first thing in the morning, before photosynthesis starts, you will probably get pH 7.3. This yields a CO2 concentration of about 3ppm, which is the level in an uninjected tank in equilibrium with the atmosphere. My question is should I raise the KH before injecting CO2. I plan on raising the KH with baking soda. I think I understand the relationship between these properties but would like to make sure. From my understanding if I raise the KH to 4 it will bring the PH up to around ~8. And then injecting CO2 will bring it back down. At KH4 and a CO2 level of 3ppm (before lights on), pH will probably be about 7.6. After the plants start sucking the CO2 out of the water, it will probably rise up to 7.8. Now, regarding your CO2 plans: DIY CO2 works great. But to have a significant impact on a 50 gallon tank will take a lot of CO2: at least two, 2-liter bottles working in tandem (Start bottle A on Day 0, start bottle B on Day 5, change bottle A on day 10, change bottle B on day 15, etc.) This works fine, many people do it. If this sounds like too much work, consider pressurized CO2 instead. I don't mind the work at all. I want to see what CO2 can do for me before I spend alot of money on a pressurized system. Jason |
All times are GMT +1. The time now is 02:04 AM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
GardenBanter