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lighting & tap water filter questions
hello all,
I have a 46-gallon bow front freshwater aquarium and have a few questions about lighting and replacing water using a tap water filter. Fist, I seem to have a problem growing certain plants, especially ones in the foreground. I have a coralife 192-watt compact fluorescent light, 6700k. Which should be sufficient for any high light plant, right? I purchased the stands for the light housing but I'm not sure it would help to offset the light 2" off the top or not? The tank is bowed, so maybe that is why I have a problem growing plants in the foreground. I have two one-gallon glass jugs for DIY Co2 as well, with the tubing routing through the intake of my canister filter. One of the plants I am talking about is; Micro sword-lilaeopsis (looks like grass) I have standard gravel and some laterite mixed in as well. The grass just seems to grow algae and die off. My water parameters are, PH 6.5, ammonia is good, nitrite is good, and water hardness is low. Second, the way I filter my water is with a "tap water filter" by aquarium pharmaceuticals. I was wondering if there was a cheaper alternative to filter tap water other than purchasing a replacement filter every month. I have been looking at the RO filters, like the deluxe maxxima 35 HI-S by Kent Marine. Would something like that save money later on down the road? Or should I keep on buying the tap water filter replacements? My tap water out of the faucet is very hard and high in PH. Any help is appreciated!!! Thanks, James -- JAMES BISHOP |
#2
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lighting & tap water filter questions
"James" wrote in message
hello all, I have a 46-gallon bow front freshwater aquarium and have a few questions about lighting and replacing water using a tap water filter. Fist, I seem to have a problem growing certain plants, especially ones in the foreground. I have a coralife 192-watt compact fluorescent light, 6700k. Which should be sufficient for any high light plant, right? I purchased the stands for the light housing but I'm not sure it would help to offset the light 2" off the top or not? The tank is bowed, so maybe that is why I have a problem growing plants in the foreground. I have two one-gallon glass jugs for DIY Co2 as well, with the tubing routing through the intake of my canister filter. One of the plants I am talking about is; Micro sword-lilaeopsis (looks like grass) I have standard gravel and some laterite mixed in as well. The grass just seems to grow algae and die off. My water parameters are, PH 6.5, ammonia is good, nitrite is good, and water hardness is low. sounds like the DIY CO2 isn't making enough gas, do you have a way to measure your CO2 output?? Try this link http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/articles.htm and then http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_co2chart.htm will measure your CO2... It seems as though you are on the right track, and this must be a 55, 75, or 90g tank, because 192 is a buttload of light and without the CO2 to keep up, algae seems to be taking all the CO2 and thriving....IIRC, you have to have an abundance of nutrients for the plants, allow them to strip it from the water, adjust when algae appears, backing off your lights timing if necessary, guarding against any natural sunlight, and you'll be closer. Second, the way I filter my water is with a "tap water filter" by aquarium pharmaceuticals. I was wondering if there was a cheaper alternative to filter tap water other than purchasing a replacement filter every month. I have been looking at the RO filters, like the deluxe maxxima 35 HI-S by Kent Marine. Would something like that save money later on down the road? Or should I keep on buying the tap water filter replacements? My tap water out of the faucet is very hard and high in PH. I have a tap filter, a Pur, and there are many ppl who have tried, but that doesn't really make water 'safe' for fish, it only take out some things using salts, and you'll basically wear it out prematurely.... Get some Wardley's Chlor out and or Prime, AmQuel or something and use it as a water conditioner.... it's ok to use RO/DI, but you'll have to supplement to add the stuff that is taken out with RODI water... again, not an expert, but you're so close, be patient, wait for Chuck Gadd, Dave Milman, NetMax and others to chime in, they ARE the experts... I just play one on the newsgroups.... hahaha... btw, get rid of the html, it's hard for the text only ppl to see your actual post instead of the markup language.... Red |
#3
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lighting & tap water filter questions
"James" wrote in message
hello all, I have a 46-gallon bow front freshwater aquarium and have a few questions about lighting and replacing water using a tap water filter. Fist, I seem to have a problem growing certain plants, especially ones in the foreground. I have a coralife 192-watt compact fluorescent light, 6700k. Which should be sufficient for any high light plant, right? I purchased the stands for the light housing but I'm not sure it would help to offset the light 2" off the top or not? The tank is bowed, so maybe that is why I have a problem growing plants in the foreground. I have two one-gallon glass jugs for DIY Co2 as well, with the tubing routing through the intake of my canister filter. One of the plants I am talking about is; Micro sword-lilaeopsis (looks like grass) I have standard gravel and some laterite mixed in as well. The grass just seems to grow algae and die off. My water parameters are, PH 6.5, ammonia is good, nitrite is good, and water hardness is low. sounds like the DIY CO2 isn't making enough gas, do you have a way to measure your CO2 output?? Try this link http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/articles.htm and then http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_co2chart.htm will measure your CO2... It seems as though you are on the right track, and this must be a 55, 75, or 90g tank, because 192 is a buttload of light and without the CO2 to keep up, algae seems to be taking all the CO2 and thriving....IIRC, you have to have an abundance of nutrients for the plants, allow them to strip it from the water, adjust when algae appears, backing off your lights timing if necessary, guarding against any natural sunlight, and you'll be closer. Second, the way I filter my water is with a "tap water filter" by aquarium pharmaceuticals. I was wondering if there was a cheaper alternative to filter tap water other than purchasing a replacement filter every month. I have been looking at the RO filters, like the deluxe maxxima 35 HI-S by Kent Marine. Would something like that save money later on down the road? Or should I keep on buying the tap water filter replacements? My tap water out of the faucet is very hard and high in PH. I have a tap filter, a Pur, and there are many ppl who have tried, but that doesn't really make water 'safe' for fish, it only take out some things using salts, and you'll basically wear it out prematurely.... Get some Wardley's Chlor out and or Prime, AmQuel or something and use it as a water conditioner.... it's ok to use RO/DI, but you'll have to supplement to add the stuff that is taken out with RODI water... again, not an expert, but you're so close, be patient, wait for Chuck Gadd, Dave Milman, NetMax and others to chime in, they ARE the experts... I just play one on the newsgroups.... hahaha... btw, get rid of the html, it's hard for the text only ppl to see your actual post instead of the markup language.... Red |
#4
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lighting & tap water filter questions
"James" wrote in message
hello all, I have a 46-gallon bow front freshwater aquarium and have a few questions about lighting and replacing water using a tap water filter. Fist, I seem to have a problem growing certain plants, especially ones in the foreground. I have a coralife 192-watt compact fluorescent light, 6700k. Which should be sufficient for any high light plant, right? I purchased the stands for the light housing but I'm not sure it would help to offset the light 2" off the top or not? The tank is bowed, so maybe that is why I have a problem growing plants in the foreground. I have two one-gallon glass jugs for DIY Co2 as well, with the tubing routing through the intake of my canister filter. One of the plants I am talking about is; Micro sword-lilaeopsis (looks like grass) I have standard gravel and some laterite mixed in as well. The grass just seems to grow algae and die off. My water parameters are, PH 6.5, ammonia is good, nitrite is good, and water hardness is low. sounds like the DIY CO2 isn't making enough gas, do you have a way to measure your CO2 output?? Try this link http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/articles.htm and then http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_co2chart.htm will measure your CO2... It seems as though you are on the right track, and this must be a 55, 75, or 90g tank, because 192 is a buttload of light and without the CO2 to keep up, algae seems to be taking all the CO2 and thriving....IIRC, you have to have an abundance of nutrients for the plants, allow them to strip it from the water, adjust when algae appears, backing off your lights timing if necessary, guarding against any natural sunlight, and you'll be closer. Second, the way I filter my water is with a "tap water filter" by aquarium pharmaceuticals. I was wondering if there was a cheaper alternative to filter tap water other than purchasing a replacement filter every month. I have been looking at the RO filters, like the deluxe maxxima 35 HI-S by Kent Marine. Would something like that save money later on down the road? Or should I keep on buying the tap water filter replacements? My tap water out of the faucet is very hard and high in PH. I have a tap filter, a Pur, and there are many ppl who have tried, but that doesn't really make water 'safe' for fish, it only take out some things using salts, and you'll basically wear it out prematurely.... Get some Wardley's Chlor out and or Prime, AmQuel or something and use it as a water conditioner.... it's ok to use RO/DI, but you'll have to supplement to add the stuff that is taken out with RODI water... again, not an expert, but you're so close, be patient, wait for Chuck Gadd, Dave Milman, NetMax and others to chime in, they ARE the experts... I just play one on the newsgroups.... hahaha... btw, get rid of the html, it's hard for the text only ppl to see your actual post instead of the markup language.... Red |
#5
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lighting & tap water filter questions
I have a 46-gallon bow front freshwater aquarium and have a few
questions about lighting and replacing water using a tap water filter. Fist, I seem to have a problem growing certain plants, especially ones in the foreground. I have a coralife 192-watt compact fluorescent light, 6700k. Which should be sufficient for any high light plant, right? 1/2 this lighting will grow _any_ plant I know of. The issue is too much lighting likely. But we can figure out what you need to do about it. purchased the stands for the light housing but I'm not sure it would help to offset the light 2" off the top or not? The tank is bowed, so maybe that is why I have a problem growing plants in the foreground. This has not been a problem for several large bow fronts I've set up over the years, they had massive fields of Gloss that did fine with 1/3-1/2 this lighting. I have two one-gallon glass jugs for DIY Co2 as well, with the tubing routing through the intake of my canister filter. One of the plants I am talking about is; Micro sword-lilaeopsis (looks like grass) I have standard gravel and some laterite mixed in as well. The grass just seems to grow algae and die off. My water parameters are, PH 6.5, ammonia is good, nitrite is good, and water hardness is low. Well at high light you place more demand on the CO2, DIY CO2 + over 4 watts gal of lighting is a BAD combination, you should have gotten the Gas tank CO2 first,before the high lighting. CO2 is your weak link here and you need to either keep up on the DIY and work at getting it to maintain enough CO2, 20-30ppm the entire time the lights are or use gas tank CO2. Second, the way I filter my water is with a "tap water filter" by aquarium pharmaceuticals. I was wondering if there was a cheaper alternative to filter tap water other than purchasing a replacement filter every month. Sure, use tap water. The tap water is fine for plants, you migfht want soft water for only certain species of fish, but what is wrong with the tap water that makes you use tap water filters or want to use RO? I'll tell you this, you are not helping the plants by doing this, CO2 is what they are concerned about, soft vs hard water makes no difference in plant growth. This is myth that plants prefer soft water. I have been looking at the RO filters, like the deluxe maxxima 35 HI-S by Kent Marine. Would something like that save money later on down the road? Or should I keep on buying the tap water filter replacements? My tap water out of the faucet is very hard and high in PH. But you use CO2, it makes no difference as far as the plants are concerned. I've got pictures in TFH with very hard tap water plant tanks, KH 10 , GH 24 etc. Plants grow fine if you add enough GH/KH roughly 3, but I do not know of any upper limits, some folks do fine at 20KH and I know from years of growing at 10KH, 24GH, high GH seems to help more than anything, not harm plants in any way. It's all about the CO2, if you want to save $, buy an CO2 system, you do not need a RO for helping plants grow better. I've only seen a couple of cases where it was well water with high salt content and once with high copper in their pipes/supply etc. But barring these very rare exceptions, it's a myth soft water helps plant growth. Now your fish might prefer softer water, but the plant could care less. I've had and used both hard and soft water with some 250+ species of aquatic plants. Buy the Gas CO2 or keep up on the DIY. Use plain tap water, adjust the pH using only CO2 gas to get a CO2 level of 20-30ppm during the entire light cycle. see the pH/KH/CO2 table to determine the CO2 by measuring the KH first, then seeing what pH you'll need to get a CO2 level of 20-30ppm. Use only CO2 gas to change the pH, this is what the plants want, not soft water/low pH etc. Regards, Tom Barr Any help is appreciated!!! Thanks, James |
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