[Having difficulty hitting the right CO2 concentration]

On 10/24/2022 at 4:54 PM, TheSwissAquarist said:

Just wanted to say: I love the scape of the tank!

Thank you very much!

[Having difficulty hitting the right CO2 concentration]

On 10/22/2022 at 5:06 PM, Mmiller2001 said:

Your looking for a 1 to 1.5 pH drop from a degassed sample. Set some tank water out for 12 to 24 hours and then pH it. That's your degassed starting point. 

Also keep in mind that seiryu stone raises KH and your numbers will fluctuate because of the stone. I would check KH at the time of testing and compare the KH and pH against a co2 chart.

https://barrreport.com/articles/co2-ph-kh-table.41/

I managed to lower the co2 injection rate to around 3 bubble per second and here are my pH readings (de-gassed water pH is 8.33 (meter) and 8.2 (API):

1 hour - 7.24 (meter), 6.6 (API)

2 hours - 7.1 (meter), 6.6 (API)

3 hours - 6.97 (meter), 6.4 (API)

4 hours - 6.95 (Meter), 6.4 (API)

7 hours - 6.92 (Meter)

 

Its interesting that both meter and API readings agree with each other at higher pH (>8), but at lower pH they don't.

[Having difficulty hitting the right CO2 concentration]

On 10/22/2022 at 2:39 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

What you're showing here looks accurate to me to perform well for plants.  The only think you really want to see at this point (apart from PH) is that you want to see the micro bubbles across the entirety of the tank when dosing.  You're typically looking for a 0.5-1.0 PH drop.

Thank you! So I should be looking at fresh tank water pH and not the off-gassed tank water pH?

I do see CO2 bubbles all over the tank, most are at the side where the diffuser is and fewer towards the filter pipes.

[Having difficulty hitting the right CO2 concentration]

On 10/22/2022 at 2:33 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

 

This all depends on where you start. It's not about dropping the PH to X..... the thing you're measuring is what was the PH drop from being dosed with the CO2 compared to off-gassed water.

Yes, I have posted my starting pH. But I am not sure whether to take fresh tank water pH or off-gassed tank water as a starting point. 

Could you take a look and advice me on the pH target I should be hitting?

[Having difficulty hitting the right CO2 concentration]

Hi guys! It's my first time doing a high-tech tank and I need some advice regarding the adequate CO2 concentration for my setup (1 week old). Livestock has not been added to the tank yet.


Hardware:
Tank: 90x30x30cm (81L)
Effective water volume: ~60L
Hardscape: Spider wood, seiryu rocks, tropica aquasoil in filter bags capped with ADA sand
Lighting: Week Aqua P900 at 30% intensity for 8 hours a day
CO2: Too many bubbles to count, but it gets turned on 1 hour before the lights go up and stops one hour before lights retire
Filtration: Oase biomaster 350

Plants:
 

Quote

 

Background:

Pogostemon erectus

Rotala macrandra

Alternanthera reineckii ‘Rosanervig’

Rotala green 

 

Midground:

Anubias nana

Anubias barteri

Anubias nana ‘golden’

Eriocaulon sp Vietnam

Bucephalandra ‘green broad leaf’

Bucephalandra ‘velvet’

Bucephalandra ‘kadagang’

Cryptocoryne lutea ‘hobbit’

Cryptocoryne balansae

Echinodorus ‘reni’

Staurogyne repens

Hygrophila pinnatifida

Hygrophila polysperma ‘rosanervig’

Hydrocotyle tripartita

 

Foreground: 

Marsilea crenata

 

Water parameters:
I'm using a cheap pH meter and API test kit to test for pH.

Aerated tank water (bubbled overnight)
pH (meter): 8.33
pH (API): LR7.6, HR8.4
GH: 8
KH: 8

Fresh tank water before CO2 injection
pH (meter): 7.67
pH (API): LR7.2, HR7.4
GH: 8
KH: 3

CO2 injection pH stats
CO2 gets turned on 1 hour before lights go up. So at the 1 hour reading, that's when the lights just start.

1 hour: 6.6 (API), 6.84 (Meter)
2 hours: 6.4 (API), 6.64 (Meter)
3 hours: 6.0 (API), 6.63 (Meter) <- weird that API registered such a change while the meter did not
Will be updated~

Optimal CO2 concentration based on pH drop
What I understand is that the optimal CO2 concentration is achieved with a pH drop of 1. But which starting pH should I be looking at? Fresh tank water or aerated tank water?

What should be the pH my tank water should stabilize at during CO2 injection hours?

 

[60cm WRGB2 with a 90cm low-profile tank]

Hi guys, I am currently planning to set up a 90cm x 30cm x 30cm high-tech tank.

I am looking for light options and I currently have a Chihiros WRGB2 60cm light on hand, and I was thinking if it would be adequate for a tank of this size. I am planning to use a hanging kit to suspend the light over the middle of the tank (Side note, has anyone used the hanging kit on 6mm thick glass before?).

If I were to run it at 100% intensity, how high should the light be above the water level?

Here are the stats of the 60cm light:

[Low maintenance denitrifying tanks, 5.5 gallon with nearly zero nitrates.]

How do you know if the reduction in nitrates was due to the plants (especially floating duckweed) or anoxic filtration?

[Anoxic denitrification in canister filters?]

Thank you everyone for confirming what I suspected. I do have a bachelors in Biological Sciences so I could pick up all the bullshit that guy was spouting, but just had to confirm it with the experts. 

[Anoxic denitrification in canister filters?]

So, I got into a discussion with someone about overstocking tanks (e.g. 10 fancy goldfish in a 3ft tank) and my stance was that it would be inhumane due to space and water quality concerns. 

But there was this guy who claimed that it's perfectly fine because "as long as you have enough filtration you can achieve 0 nitrates". He shares his experience with his "3 ft tank with numerous small tetras, corydoras, altum, discus, plecos that has 0 nitrates" with 2 Eheim Classic 350 filters with 3-4kh of biohome media.

Sensing something amiss, I enquired further and it turns out that that he has peace lilies growing out of his tank as well, which I think would be the one responsible for 0 nitrates. 

If anyone is interested in what the guy said exactly, click here.

So, my question is: Can one reasonably achieve adequate denitrification using canister filters to bring nitrates down to 0?