Hudson
Member
I'm currently trying !!! to fine tune my Co2 on a 4 week old scape but finding it a tad difficult due to having to do water changes every other day to deal with a algae outbreak.
I set the scape 5 weeks ago on Saturday, during the second week i had a faulty light timer while i was on late shift and for 3 days the scape had no light but loads of Co2 being pumped in (no livestock).
This caused an outbreak of BBA on the wood and Java Fern/Buce and green slime/fuzz on the monte carlo and stem plants and I've been fighting them ever since then.
Over the last 3 weeks of lockdown i've been trying to get control of things with 90% water changes every other day and spot dosing with excel on the BBA and syphoning the Green Slime/Fuzz algae out. Once i get into day 2 the Slime/Fuzz algae starts to take over and i need to do a water change although I'm starting to win with the BBA
Any how this is setup and current Co2 profile
ADA 60p
ADA Solar 1 @ 30cm above tank
Oase Biomaster thermo 350, 3 x pre fillters 1 x Large Blue, 2 x half tray Matrix 1 x Floss
Co2 Art Reg wit FE, Twinstar Diffuser.
Eheim Surface Skimmer
Daily Dose of Ei @ aquarium plant liquid mix amounts of 10ml alternative days rest sat
Tank Kh = 6
Tank Ph = 7.4 Before lights on
Tap Kh = 4
Tap Ph = 7.5 after 24hrs or 6.8 before degass.
Co2 Profile is as follows (day after water change)
7.4 @ 12pm
6.7 @1pm
6.6 @2pm (lights on)
6.5 @3pm
6.5 @ 4pm (drop checker green)
6.6 @5pm
6.6 @6pm
6.6 @7pm
6.6 @8pm
6.6 @9pm (Co2 off @9.30pm)
6.6 @10pm (lights off)
Ideally based on a tank Kh of 6, I should be aiming for a ph at lights on of 6.8 but the drop checker is not lime green more a bottle green. The drop checker only gets lime green at 6.6 suggesting a kh of 5 !!
I'm stuck as to why the drop checker and PH/KH don't tally up and wondering where the issue is
I've got a good quality Ph pen that is calibrated prior to use with both Dkh 7 and 10 and always stored wet.
TDS of tap is 160 and tank about 190 which a Kh 5/6 but that tds could be anything not just cal/mg.
Are the water changes the fault as the 2dkh diffrence on a 90% water change may be casuing ph/kh swings damaging plant tissue and triggering the out break in algae.
The one thing i will add is that bio master does have the old style head and i get large amounts of trapped air which i manually shake out daily this will no doubt cause a flux in Co2 flow and distrubution. I was due to get the nes style head before the lockdown but thats currently on hold and i only have 5 amano shrimp and 1 horned nerite as CUC due to the lockdown as well which has not helped.
Cheers for reading and any help or suggestions
Take care
I set the scape 5 weeks ago on Saturday, during the second week i had a faulty light timer while i was on late shift and for 3 days the scape had no light but loads of Co2 being pumped in (no livestock).
This caused an outbreak of BBA on the wood and Java Fern/Buce and green slime/fuzz on the monte carlo and stem plants and I've been fighting them ever since then.
Over the last 3 weeks of lockdown i've been trying to get control of things with 90% water changes every other day and spot dosing with excel on the BBA and syphoning the Green Slime/Fuzz algae out. Once i get into day 2 the Slime/Fuzz algae starts to take over and i need to do a water change although I'm starting to win with the BBA
Any how this is setup and current Co2 profile
ADA 60p
ADA Solar 1 @ 30cm above tank
Oase Biomaster thermo 350, 3 x pre fillters 1 x Large Blue, 2 x half tray Matrix 1 x Floss
Co2 Art Reg wit FE, Twinstar Diffuser.
Eheim Surface Skimmer
Daily Dose of Ei @ aquarium plant liquid mix amounts of 10ml alternative days rest sat
Tank Kh = 6
Tank Ph = 7.4 Before lights on
Tap Kh = 4
Tap Ph = 7.5 after 24hrs or 6.8 before degass.
Co2 Profile is as follows (day after water change)
7.4 @ 12pm
6.7 @1pm
6.6 @2pm (lights on)
6.5 @3pm
6.5 @ 4pm (drop checker green)
6.6 @5pm
6.6 @6pm
6.6 @7pm
6.6 @8pm
6.6 @9pm (Co2 off @9.30pm)
6.6 @10pm (lights off)
Ideally based on a tank Kh of 6, I should be aiming for a ph at lights on of 6.8 but the drop checker is not lime green more a bottle green. The drop checker only gets lime green at 6.6 suggesting a kh of 5 !!
I'm stuck as to why the drop checker and PH/KH don't tally up and wondering where the issue is
I've got a good quality Ph pen that is calibrated prior to use with both Dkh 7 and 10 and always stored wet.
TDS of tap is 160 and tank about 190 which a Kh 5/6 but that tds could be anything not just cal/mg.
Are the water changes the fault as the 2dkh diffrence on a 90% water change may be casuing ph/kh swings damaging plant tissue and triggering the out break in algae.
The one thing i will add is that bio master does have the old style head and i get large amounts of trapped air which i manually shake out daily this will no doubt cause a flux in Co2 flow and distrubution. I was due to get the nes style head before the lockdown but thats currently on hold and i only have 5 amano shrimp and 1 horned nerite as CUC due to the lockdown as well which has not helped.
Cheers for reading and any help or suggestions
Take care
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