[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index][Index by Month]

Re: [AGA Member] CO2 efficiency in hard water



You said, below:

At the end, my point was that in hard water conditions CO2 has a less impact
than in soft ones. This is wrong to assume but in a way I think there is
something right about it.


To which I must reply that I'd recheck equipment. Perhaps your diffuser iwan't working or you have a leak in your system, and it isn't getting into the water, or you're simply not injecting enough of it.
CO2 can have a tremendous impact on pH if it's working right. In previous summers our tap water has been pH 8.0 with 200 ppm calcium hardness. (And no, I wasn't interested in Rift Lake cichlids, which I agree is a shame.)
Simple DIY yeast bottle CO2 brought it down to pH 6.5 with 5 ppm Ca hardness.
We're NOT talking pressurized system that can inject 3-4 bubbles a second.
Great results within a week of starting it up. The plants were **vastly** happier, algae problems significantly improved, over many years of living with hardwater with no CO2 injection. (Thank you, Krib archives.)
For planted tanks, I don't believe I'd ever go without the CO2 again. Since the problem with the yeast bottle approach is to be consistent, I have had occasion to find out if the fish can tolerate wild swings in CO2 amounts, and fairly short-term swings in pH--and they were fine with it. Having hard water means you have a great buffering system available, so you don't have to worry about wild swings the way that the soft-water folks do.


I don't think I'd worry too much about putting a *little* more CO2 in that tank.
Which is why IMHO the replies about subtracting existing numbers & the experiment suggestions so far are right on the mark.




Amit Brucker wrote:

Agreed!
Will increase CO2 levels only at the beginning.
Sure the PH will fall (It did once to 6.8 at 1 bubble per second.
As I decreased the CO2 levels went up again - Done this 6 months ago.
The only effect here will be to speed up the growth with I sure it will ;-).
Bottom line I still claim that (and almost sure of) is that if I had used
the same parameters and the same flora at my tank without adding CO2 the
tank would be pretty similar that what it looks like today.
At the end, my point was that in hard water conditions CO2 has a less impact
than in soft ones. This is wrong to assume but in a way I think there is
something right about it.
----- Original Message ----- From: "S. Hieber" <shieber@yahoo.com>
To: <aga-member@thekrib.com>
Sent: Saturday, April 24, 2004 7:21 PM
Subject: Re: [AGA Member] CO2 efficiency in hard water





--- Amit Brucker <amitb@gtek.co.il> wrote:


Thanks!
Well I did increase a bit the CO2 levels...
I will stop aerating in a couple of days.
I will try to target to PH 7.0 hopefully at about 30ppm.
Although I still think that as for now the CO2 system
wasn't that dominant
in the process because of my water parameters - Would be
nice to try this
for a period of time (just a thought ;-))
I am thinking that even removing the system - thus would
generate a slight
increase in about 0.1/0.2 degrees in PH, assuming as well
that KH levels are
the same - I would end up at about 14-16 ppm of CO2.


With adding CO2, you won't have CO2 levels that high --
maybe lots of gas right out of the tap but it won't last
for days.

Try this. Let's assume normal CO2 level is 5 ppm. It's
really lower than than but I want to leave some room for
safety. Take some aquarium water in a glass and aerate the
heck out of it to drive off the CO2 -- even better, also
let it sit over night. Then check the KH and pH. Now read
the CO2 value on the table. If it's more than 5 ppm, then
subtract 5 from that CO2 value you got from the table.
Treat that result of that subtraction as the error in your
table reading when checking the CO2 levels in your
aquarium. I'll bet with the error correction you get more
realistic values, with or without adding CO2. Could be your
CO2 levels are simply not very high and you need to inject
more CO2 than you have been. Let's see what happens if you
try the error correction value. Don't change your CO2 to
get 30 ppm using teh error correction. Let's jsut see what
it comes out to first.



I
still think that
plants at least the hard water lovers of them can do
quite well in hard
water conditions, even without injecting CO2.


Yes, some plants (e.g., vals) can get carbon from
carbornates in the water but it's more work for them than
getting it from CO2. And Claus Chrstiansen, from Tropica,
showed slides at the AGA 2003 Convention of echinodorus in
Brazil growing in a bed of pure caclium carbonate!



But I will take the opposite approach thus - adding more
CO2 and even more
lights.


No, leave the lights alone. The point of raising the CO2 to
30 ppm is just to see how it impacts the pH. We're just
testing the effect. Besides, if you change too many things
at once, it will be hard to tell what's happening and
you'll risk setting of an algae bloom of some kind. CO2
will have a noticeable impact even at low light levels.

sh


===== - - - - - - - - Field Trip to the Baltimore Aquarium and The Aquarium Center First event of the AGA Annual Convention Nov 12, 13 & 14; Details & Registration at www.aquatic-gardeners.org & www.gwapa.org




__________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Photos: High-quality 4x6 digital prints for 25¢ http://photos.yahoo.com/ph/print_splash ------------------ To unsubscribe from this list, please send mail to majordomo@thekrib.com with "Unsubscribe aga-member" in the body of the message. Archives of this list can be found at http://lists.thekrib.com/aga-member/




------------------ To unsubscribe from this list, please send mail to majordomo@thekrib.com with "Unsubscribe aga-member" in the body of the message. Archives of this list can be found at http://lists.thekrib.com/aga-member/





------------------ To unsubscribe from this list, please send mail to majordomo@thekrib.com with "Unsubscribe aga-member" in the body of the message. Archives of this list can be found at http://lists.thekrib.com/aga-member/