goodiehard
Seedling
Hi All,
Having some trouble with choosing the right substrate. Using kittylitter now in my first tank (here in the netherlands the "foetsie bah" brand is similar to the tesco stuff), but it's just too course to hold any plants. For my non-existing experience and skills anyway.
I've read about the baked clay substrates on the forum. But ADA is expensive and hard to come by in Holland. Akadama, the bonzai soil, looks a lot like the big grainsize of kittylitter.
Ebi gold is available, is a nice black color and a small grain in the powder variant. But the thing I'm worried about is that is says that it lowers the PH.
Because adding CO2 lowers the PH, if the substrate also lowers the PH (to about 6,5 according to spec), doesn't this limit the amount of CO2 I can add?
Tapwater PH in amsterdam is 8,0.
There a nice journal on this forum where the user stated that more co2 is better and to keep upping the bubbelrate untill the PH checker is almost yellow, I guess that's a PH of about 6,0. I think most fish dig 6,0 and maybe a little less, but not much below that, right?
Is this a real worry or can I add enough CO2 even if the substrate lowers it from 8,0 to 6,5?
Ciao
Alex
Having some trouble with choosing the right substrate. Using kittylitter now in my first tank (here in the netherlands the "foetsie bah" brand is similar to the tesco stuff), but it's just too course to hold any plants. For my non-existing experience and skills anyway.
I've read about the baked clay substrates on the forum. But ADA is expensive and hard to come by in Holland. Akadama, the bonzai soil, looks a lot like the big grainsize of kittylitter.
Ebi gold is available, is a nice black color and a small grain in the powder variant. But the thing I'm worried about is that is says that it lowers the PH.
Because adding CO2 lowers the PH, if the substrate also lowers the PH (to about 6,5 according to spec), doesn't this limit the amount of CO2 I can add?
Tapwater PH in amsterdam is 8,0.
There a nice journal on this forum where the user stated that more co2 is better and to keep upping the bubbelrate untill the PH checker is almost yellow, I guess that's a PH of about 6,0. I think most fish dig 6,0 and maybe a little less, but not much below that, right?
Is this a real worry or can I add enough CO2 even if the substrate lowers it from 8,0 to 6,5?
Ciao
Alex