Thanks Darrel,
My Duckweed is expendable I suppose so got to be worth a shot, my air pump isn't that powerful, in fact I'm not sure if it is powerful enough.
I have a TDS meter so I assume I could do similar with that and convert? As I'm not anticipating dosing the tank other than possibly some Magnesium initially, the gravel is inert and only using wood in the scape I think it's fair to assume that any rise in dissolved would mainly be from the Osmocote. I'll check to see if the Osmocote contains magnesium and if so leave it out for now then the TDS readings maybe have more credence.
Wasn't sure mate, I couldn't work out what would be classed as a high dose with only the terrestrial advice to go off. I also wrongly assumed that Osmo was pretty safe as I read a while ago Osmo was recommended over other similar types of fertiliser which did have dodgy properties. There you go, that's what you get for not doing your research.
Regarding co2 injection, not sure how much of it I will get to dissolve considering I'm using an air driven sponge and little flow so one would assume most would gas off pretty quick. I have a FE and spare diffusers so injecting some for now can't harm any. The plant cuttings I will be using are coming from a co2 injected tank so probably will be beneficial for them, from what I understand of Rubisco the plants will have to spend a lot of energy converting from high co2 to none so may help them transition and give them more of a fighting chance from the off. I can always reduce it back gradually later and finally knock off.
I also have plenty of Almond and Oak leaves which I could throw in as well, these might lower PH slightly combined with the co2 and keep me just the acidic side of neutral. Jeez, this was meant to be a low maintenance affair Sounds like I'm going to have to baby sit it for a while. Got dropped on me, thought I had until end of Feb so was going to deal with it during Xmas hols but everything got pushed forward a month.
If you can raise the sponge filter, so the top of the air lift is at surface level you will get more flow and greater levels of oxygen, but it might sink the Duckweed.
My Duckweed is expendable I suppose so got to be worth a shot, my air pump isn't that powerful, in fact I'm not sure if it is powerful enough.
Have you got a conductivity meter? It won't tell you how much NH3/NH4+ you have, but it will give you a good idea of how quickly the nutrients from the Osmocote have gone into solution.
I have a TDS meter so I assume I could do similar with that and convert? As I'm not anticipating dosing the tank other than possibly some Magnesium initially, the gravel is inert and only using wood in the scape I think it's fair to assume that any rise in dissolved would mainly be from the Osmocote. I'll check to see if the Osmocote contains magnesium and if so leave it out for now then the TDS readings maybe have more credence.
That is quite a lot of Osmocote you've added, and if it all went into solution you would get a rise of ~1000 microS (1 milliS).
Wasn't sure mate, I couldn't work out what would be classed as a high dose with only the terrestrial advice to go off. I also wrongly assumed that Osmo was pretty safe as I read a while ago Osmo was recommended over other similar types of fertiliser which did have dodgy properties. There you go, that's what you get for not doing your research.
Regarding co2 injection, not sure how much of it I will get to dissolve considering I'm using an air driven sponge and little flow so one would assume most would gas off pretty quick. I have a FE and spare diffusers so injecting some for now can't harm any. The plant cuttings I will be using are coming from a co2 injected tank so probably will be beneficial for them, from what I understand of Rubisco the plants will have to spend a lot of energy converting from high co2 to none so may help them transition and give them more of a fighting chance from the off. I can always reduce it back gradually later and finally knock off.
I also have plenty of Almond and Oak leaves which I could throw in as well, these might lower PH slightly combined with the co2 and keep me just the acidic side of neutral. Jeez, this was meant to be a low maintenance affair Sounds like I'm going to have to baby sit it for a while. Got dropped on me, thought I had until end of Feb so was going to deal with it during Xmas hols but everything got pushed forward a month.
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