I find the easiest way to tell if the CO2 injection is working right is to take a small water sample from your tank in the middle of the day, plop in the usual bromothymol blue pH indicator drops, and note the pH. Then let the sample SIT for a few hours (still with the indicator drops). The CO2 should outgas, and the color should change. You should be able to correlate the change on the KH-PH-CO2 chart of your choice. If the color does not change, your reactor isn't working.
You are entering this in the home show, right? - Erik On Thu, 14 Jan 2010, Matt Staroscik wrote:
I would appreciate it if any of you planted tank geniuses could check out my setup and let me know if you think any adjustments are in order. Sorry for all the posts lately, but seriously trying to have a nice planted tank instead of settling for low-light weeds is a new thing for me. *Hardware * Tank: 90 gallons, Eco-Complete substrate Lighting: 4 55W T5 HO tubes with individual reflectors, in 2 separate banks. Filtration: Fluval 404 w/ sponge filters, floss, ceramic rings, and cuttlebone CO2: Pressurized, with solenoid. If you have seen my other posts I am still fiddling with how much to inject to get to 25-30 ppm. Diffuser is a mini powerhead<http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/diy-aquarium-projects/44053-tiny-super-efficient-co2-reactor.html>. *Water parameters, settings & chemicals * Tank is 6 dKH, 6 dGH (from cuttlebone), pH from 6.8 to 7.2 with CO2 injection, 78F. Photoperiod: 10 hours of 1/2 power (110W T5 HO) with a mid-day burst of 4 hours at 100%. CO2: Starts 1 hr before the lights come on, and turns off 1 hour before the light turn off. 4-5 bubbles per sec. (According to the ph-KH-CO2 chart the tank should be 25-30 ppm CO2. The drop checker color seems to agree but I cannot be sure my CO2 instruments are all working properly yet.) Ferts: I am planning on dosing on the schedule from Shango's Tom Barr link earlier today but that won't happen til the weekend at best. *Plants* Well, they ... exist. They include dwarf and giant hairgrass, some kind of val, some kind of sword, a bronze wendtii, elodea, java fern & moss, and a few others that I can't name because I didn't write them down. :) *Observations: *CO2 has been running for about 4 days. * *No plant pearling has been observed. Of course, I have no macros in there, and the CO2 may also be too low still. No algae explosion... yet? One plant IS growing like a weed, though. [image: 93642439425882520562.jpg] *Changes? * 10 or 12 hours of light?From some things I just read, the mid-day light burst may be over twice aslong as it should be. Some advised starting at just one hour. (I don't want to get into a split photoperiod, at least not yet.) It would also be possible for me to run 3x55W tubes for the entire photoperiod, if not the full bank. Ideas? Many thanks! MS _______________________________________________ GSAS-Member mailing list GSAS-Member@thekrib.com http://lists.thekrib.com/mailman/listinfo/gsas-member
-- Erik Olson Sent from my crusty old Linux box erik at thekrib dot com _______________________________________________ GSAS-Member mailing list GSAS-Member@thekrib.com http://lists.thekrib.com/mailman/listinfo/gsas-member