Recent content by ceg4048

When the DC turns yellow (or whatever is the target color) that's really the beginning of the gas/light interaction so do not turn the gas off. You'll need another 5 hours of gas and then it can be turned off. The best thing to do is to measure the pH at 1/2 hour or 1 hour intervals until the...

Hello, The only time RO water is "needed" is if you intend to breed soft water fish or if you municipal water report shows high concentrations of herbicides or other toxic components. As mentioned above, it is a far easier task to simply use the water from your tap. There are only a...

Hello, My first advice is to stop thinking about plants in terms of how much light they need. There are no plants that "need" high light. More light simply causes plants to grow faster, but that also means that algae can grow faster. On the other hand, there are plants that do not like...

Hi Paul, In order to properly track a dynamic pH you'll really need to use a pH probe and record the data every half hour or so. The DC is just too slow and clunky to give you accurate data. Getting accurate pH readings will help you to assess the behavior of the gas. It may be, for...

Okay, yes, this is what we want to see. If you have the reagent style pH test kit you can take the measurements while you wait. I'm an advocate of purchasing high quality pH probes, such as the Hanna brand and other top brands. As much as people winge about pH you'd think they would invest in a...

Hi Libba, The term "potash" refers to any salt of potassium. So this could be Potassium Carbonate, Potassium Sulfate, Potassium Nitrate and many others. Without knowing which Potassium salt is included an exact concentration cannot be calculated. I've not heard of any...

Yes, I know. It's very difficult to compare tanks because no one knows how much PAR is entering the tank. That is THE most important parameter, because it drives the demand for everything else, but, due to cost, few people have a PAR meter, so it's impossible to draw meaningful conclusions...

Hi kschyff, Well, I can see that there is algae on the hardscape which is an indication that there is too much light. I wouuld try turning of one of the lamps for a while in order to arrest the spread. If it is not possible then you can always obscure the light by placing something between the...

Hello, A very high probability that this is due to poor CO2 brought on by either too much light, inadequate CO2 technique or poor flow/distribution - or, any combination of these. If there is anything left remove them from the tank and keep semi-submersed in a plastic cup. Some new...

Paul, Is that a typo? There is no way plants require 30ppm of Calcium. I'm not sure from where the source of this data originates. Calcium is a micronutrient, which means you only need microscopic amounts. It just has to be present, so there is no need to add any more than what is in your tap...

As mentioned above, get plants that display red naturally and which do not require starvation tactics. Alternanthera is an excellent example of a red plant that does not require tricks, and the more you feed it the more it turns red. Cheers,

Hi dcurzon, I might have missed it, but I thought in one of your earlier post you stated that you actually turned the CO2 down? Have you turned it back up? Also, I'm not seeing a DC in the photo. Have you performed a pH profile to help understand how the CO2 is behaving? We...

This is not really true. All one has to do is supply non-limiting levels of nutrients and the plant will uptake what it needs. There is no correlation between the nutrient concentration in the plant tissue versus the concentration that must be supplied. This is yet another version of the...

Hi, I would be lying to you if I were to provide a number. Fixing the timing is one of the corrections we can make to our CO2 technique, however, typically we see a decrease in the rate at which the leaves turn translucent within a few days. It would be a good idea to remove as many of the...

Hi Mohamed, Nitrogen uptake and assimilation are tricky. On one hand, the N that is bound in NH3/NH4 is very easy for plants to use and is more abundant per unit weight. For example, NH4 by weight is mostly N since the Hydrogen (H) is the lightest element. In NH4 78% of that...