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Potassium

Here's the report. They are green but the sag looks like it has a yellow tinge to it and the odd leaf just melts away all of a sudden. The leaf in the picture melting has a yellow tip. My Val's have stopped growing and sending runners. I'll dose the pottasium and magnesium see how it goes. Should I be waiting a week for any tell tale sighs of results?
 

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I'm thinking maybe pottasium as the report has pottasium quite high? The report says the pH is 7.1 but goimg back 6 months ago before I used ro tank pH was 8, could this be because of the co2 I'm the water out the tap evaporated in the tank?
 
Maybe someone else can comment on the conductivity as I tend to work with degrees of hardness or TDS so not sure how to convert, I think it may be divide by 64 to get TDS but I could be wrong. At first glance it does look like hardish water, I'm seeing Calcium, Magnesium and Sodium in there and also Nitrates and Iron so a few things are coming out of the tap that are actually beneficial although you are only using a third tapwater if I remember right? Adding some Magnesium won't do any harm either way and the buck shee Nitrates are a bonus. Just remember though this is just an average of samples and not coming out the tap every day.

It usually takes a couple of weeks or so to see improvement in plants when you add something that is missing as the plants adapts. I would definitely take a look at diy co2 as well mate. just a case of putting sugar and yeast in a bottle and keeping that bell topped up. Maybe also treat yourself to some new plants as well, the more you have initially the less chance algae will get the upper hand. Good news is from what I understand Vallis loves hard water. Also wouldn't worry about PH too much either.
 
Ok mate thanks alot, I'll be getting a few more plants Monday fill in all the empty spaces, thanks for your time pal much appreciated
 
Thanks for jumping in Darrel, I may be being an idiot here but dividing the 685 microsemens by 64 a TDS of 10? Got that wrong haven't I or is that because most of the hardness is made up of temporary?

No problem Craig, hope things work out. If there's a pets at home round your way they tend to have a good selection of Tropica plants in and are labelled by their level of difficulty so aim for easy for now, like I said earlier any species of crypts tend to do well in non co2 and there's plenty of varieties to choose from.

Darrel also has a technique which I've also used to good effect called the duck weed index where you use certain floating plants to monitor whether you have a lack of nutrients or certain ones. Essentially floaters don't suffer from co2 related issues and show up deficiency quicker being closest to the light and hungry feeders. Have a search for it in the forum to read up on the technique.

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Doh, yeah makes sense. So hard water in the scheme of things. For some reason you just assume Yorkshire water with Northern Geology and lakes about would be a lot softer.
Looking at the report if it was anything to go by with magnesium, Iron and Nitrate in it should be good to go straight in other than the sodium looks quite high.

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Well I've took the plunge and got a few on the way. So far I've got a 2kg Fe ordered, reg and solenoid and a drop checker. Just need a diffuser but not sure what one there is alot of ceramic disk types? Also do you think this reg/solenoid is upto the task
https://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/barn-Co2-r...6962fff95d75&_mwBanner=1&_rdt=1&ul_noapp=true
is there anything else I would be needing apart from tubing? Is there a specific tubing for the co2 to buy or just the rubber stuff from a local LFS?
 
Wow! That escalated fast mate :D No experience on the regulator I'm afraid but I will be interested to hear how you get on with it, I also have it on my watch list on Ebay so wondered of they fair as a lot of people who fancy taking the plunge into co2 are frightened off by the initial outlay so if these are ok then its a cost effective entry into it so I'll be watching this thread. I think you can also get these from Ireland.

As for co2 diffusers the worlds your oyster. Lot of people using the Neo from Aquarium Gardens and recommend it although never had one myself, I will be getting one soon for a nano cube. Quite a lot of people also use inline diffusers but lately I've been hearing mixed reports about them cracking and leaking. Ultimately it breaks down like this, the smaller the bubbles they create the more surface area they have and diffuse better in the water. You tend to find that to get tiny mist like bubbles you need to force the co2 through fine pored ceramics at high pressure. This has the downside of working at high pressures so first thing to find out is if your regulator can work at these pressures and secondly all your connections need to be sound as any small leak will stop it from working. These include the Bazooka style and inlines.

Diffusers that don't need to be high pressure tend to generate bigger bubbles and are a bit more wasteful of gas, dosing co2 is already a wasteful experience as most of it just leaves the water without doing anything. You can buy the cheapish glass ones off ebay usually from China if you want to wait for them coming. I've bought many of these including higher priced UK shop variations and TBH I've never noticed any difference between them, they all seem to generate the same sort of sized bubbles. Only bonus probably with getting cheap Chinese ones is you can get maybe three of them so you can have one cleaning in bleach while one is running and a spare as you will definitely smash one at some point.

That brings us back to the Neo which is acrylic so not as breakable, I've also used the Tropica one which is also acrylic and has a built in bubble counter and check valve so less connections=less chance of leaks and you can buy spare ceramic discs to change out. I had one running on a 100ltr tank to good effect so should be fine in your 70ltr. As for tubing from what I hear it needs to be co2 proof, not sure how much co2 is lost through normal airline of if it's worth worrying about but the thing with co2 is it tends to make plastic go hard and brittle. If you are going down the road of glass diffusers soft co2 tubing works out best as it goes on easier, forcing tubing on to these things is what breaks them shortlt followed by dropping in sink ;)

2kg should last you a long time in your size tank, obviously it all depends on how much you dose but in my 100ltr I would get about 6months from one and that was heavyish dosing. In your tank if you keep the existing lighting there shouldn't really be high demand for co2. Lighting and plant mass drives demand. You may also need to look into your fertiliser regime again when dosing co2, co2 speeds up growth and puts extra demand on nutrients with it which is why a lot earlier on in the post I was suggesting an all in one fertiliser mate. You need to have some of everything in there so adding them all separately and trying to work out if something is missing will turn into a headache and problems will show up quicker with faster growth and heavier plant mass. Dry salts are the future mate and most cost effective, then you can forget about dosing and concentrate on getting the co2, cleanliness and distribution right.
 
Well taking the misses to airport Monday morning so thought it's the best time to do it, let her know a few thousand miles away there is a fe in the front room I've already wasted money on unnessary things... Aresoul co2 and the 20g pressurised bell system so just do it right this time get it rather than let it hinder my mind. The reg in the link is from Ireland mate. Well inline is out the question i don't have a cannister filter so it's going to be a glass ceramic diffuser just a large variety like the ones with spirals or without. I heard they block up quick? I suppose to find out if the reg can work at pressures for the glass defuser is contacting the seller? Dry fert salts can you buy them ready mixed or do you make them yourself? Also I will have the Fe,reg/solenoid, diffuser,drop check will I need a non return valve and obviously need to get a bubble counter.
 
Not sure where you are with this at the minute mate, do you already have the diffuser?

If not you could get the Tropica one https://tropica.com/en/plant-care/co2/co2-diffuser/ this already has a bubble counter and check valve built in and IMO provides better bubbles than any of the glass ones I've ever had.

The spiral glass diffusers are just diffusers with a built in bubble counter really. None of the in tank diffusers block up any quicker than any of the others they all need cleaned now and again.

I would hazard a guess and say the regulator will work with most if not all diffusers. The glass ones and the Tropica one also the Neo I linked earlier will all run on fairly low pressure. The only time you will need to work at higher pressure will be with the inline stuff and the bazooka atomisers really mate so check the links I posted earlier.

Which aerosol system did you get? If it's the Tropica one that should have came with a check valve BTW. I may be interested in buying the bell bit if you want to sell it.

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I've just looked again and the reg has a bubble counter attached too it's a 3 in one
Oh yeah, haha just looked again. Regarding the salts, yes you buy them dry and mix yourself or you can buy them premixed if you fancy paying for a bottle and some water

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I just got 3 of these diffusers as I don't need bubble counter now
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Glass-CO...959546&hash=item28213b0ee2:g:GncAAOSwTA9X6qNr
Yes actually the aresoul did come with a non return valve good thinking mate I'm assuming it's ok to run with a higher pressure set up do you think? Not the tropical one it's an ista, I've actually got to bell's I'd be happy so sell to ya mate. Still have a full can of aresoul and one 20g co2 disposable too?
 
Which setups have you got? I'm looking to start a nano 300cube up soon but don't have a cabinet to put it on and hide equipment so it will probably just end up on a side board. Thinking of just running it with a small internal filter and maybe some diy co2 or one of the small pressurised systems but not sure if I can put a solenoid on the small pressure ones otherwise it's going to get expensive for gas.
 
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