sonicninja
Member
- Joined
- 15 Dec 2013
- Messages
- 307
Hi everyone,
I've had a planted tank for about a year now and have had a lot of issues getting the plants to stay alive and grow. I've finally got the hang of it after a few posts of these forums (thanks everyone).
I'm currently having success with easy species such as hygrophilia and staurogyne repens and have a good and steady routine with dosing ferts and injecting CO2. Ive also made a series of significant improvements on my tank to increase my chances of success but one bit still eludes me.
I've read a lot about trying to get a single point drop in pH before lights on. I'm currently injecting at a level that my fish are comfortable with but any higher the fish begin to show signs of stress. However despite pushing my injection rate as high as i can without upsetting the livestock I cant get near to the suggested drop. In fact even when I had no livestock i attempted the same thing and could only get close with a bubble rate of close to 7bps (hard to gauge when its that fast).
My surface agitation is at a minimum and the CO2 currently comes on 3 hrs before the lights, it seems like getting lower than 6.5pH is a struggle for me (my tank water is 7.0pH normally).
The CO2 is injected via an in-line atmoizer and then a spray bar running the length of the tank. The filter is an Eheim 3E 450 (1700lh) on a 65litre tank so even at half the stated output my flow is plenty and all the plants move visibly from the front to the back.
My KH is 6dH which means considering my pH is 7.0 before i even start injecting CO2 Im already at an ideal level (http://s171.photobucket.com/user/plantbrain/media/Aquatic plants/CO2_Graph_zps9c124ef0.gif.html).
Can someone explain this to me? Perhaps it could be my pH pen (cheapo ebay model) or alternatively its ability to read water with a high proportion of RO water. Very confused!!!
Any help would be great, should I continue to get a full point drop or give up and look elsewhere?
Cheers everyone!
I've had a planted tank for about a year now and have had a lot of issues getting the plants to stay alive and grow. I've finally got the hang of it after a few posts of these forums (thanks everyone).
I'm currently having success with easy species such as hygrophilia and staurogyne repens and have a good and steady routine with dosing ferts and injecting CO2. Ive also made a series of significant improvements on my tank to increase my chances of success but one bit still eludes me.
I've read a lot about trying to get a single point drop in pH before lights on. I'm currently injecting at a level that my fish are comfortable with but any higher the fish begin to show signs of stress. However despite pushing my injection rate as high as i can without upsetting the livestock I cant get near to the suggested drop. In fact even when I had no livestock i attempted the same thing and could only get close with a bubble rate of close to 7bps (hard to gauge when its that fast).
My surface agitation is at a minimum and the CO2 currently comes on 3 hrs before the lights, it seems like getting lower than 6.5pH is a struggle for me (my tank water is 7.0pH normally).
The CO2 is injected via an in-line atmoizer and then a spray bar running the length of the tank. The filter is an Eheim 3E 450 (1700lh) on a 65litre tank so even at half the stated output my flow is plenty and all the plants move visibly from the front to the back.
My KH is 6dH which means considering my pH is 7.0 before i even start injecting CO2 Im already at an ideal level (http://s171.photobucket.com/user/plantbrain/media/Aquatic plants/CO2_Graph_zps9c124ef0.gif.html).
Can someone explain this to me? Perhaps it could be my pH pen (cheapo ebay model) or alternatively its ability to read water with a high proportion of RO water. Very confused!!!
Any help would be great, should I continue to get a full point drop or give up and look elsewhere?
Cheers everyone!