I doubt it is bad readings if what you see is consistent every day. I think your assessment is correct about the temperature and plants/fish/bacteria releasing CO2. I would bet that the PH start slowly increasing shortly after lights go on.So what does that mean? Heck I am not sure. One theory would be that cooler water holds more dissolved gas, and plants use O2 and expel CO2 at night. If anyone knows of Sudipta Shaw’s non CO2 tank the same kind of theory. Big part of the equation would be the cooler temp. Or could be a dozen other things affecting pH or bad readings or who knows what else. All I can say for sure is that the pH was about 5.85 at 7:00 in the morning and back to 6.25 at 7:00 at night. Every single day. If it’s from CO2 then that is a fairly significant amount that could have helped the plants stay a bit more stable.
Yeah I am pretty meticulous about calibration and reading pH. And I agree those are likely the reasons. You would be correct pH did begin to rise when lights came on and did so slowly until it hit 6.25 later in the day. The first few days I thought oh something must be off but it happened the same way every day.I doubt it is bad readings if what you see is consistent every day. I think your assessment is correct about the temperature and plants/fish/bacteria releasing CO2. I would bet that the PH start slowly increasing shorty after lights go on.
Your question actually brings up a couple of questions. What is the best way to inject and disperse CO2, and the more general question is what is good flow??How come you run your co2 on a third filter rather than say a dc pump?
I originally ran a fluval 407 (55gallon ugh) with a reactor out to a spray bar but I flattened my circulation pretty badly.
I now run an fx4 and just an in tank diffuser. Slowly growing tired of the insane amount of bubbles I have. I am just using the normal inlet outlet it comes with. The circulation with this combination is just about perfect though and I worry an additional pump to reactor to spray bar may be enough to turn my tank in to a washing machine.
is that samolus parviflorus red and hyptis laciniata? I've heard both are pretty weedy. must be a lot of work maintaining this tank😅After 10 days with no CO2 I got it back running on Monday. As mentioned above going to keep light levels low for a while now (71 PAR). Tank perked back up with CO2. Here's from a few minutes ago. Scape is a jumbled mess of indecision. I always figure if I stare at it long enough some inspiration will eventually hit me and I'll tidy it up.
View attachment 185727
Yes and yes and it IS a lot of maintenance. Almost everything in there is weedy.is that samolus parviflorus red and hyptis laciniata? I've heard both are pretty weedy. must be a lot of work maintaining this tank😅
Hey good to see you here my friend!Glad to also join up on this forum!
Tank looks good Gregg, I've been missing the updates as of lately.
What are your opinions on LFS not allowing their employees to sell individual rainbows? Happened to me twice at 2 different stores - they could only sell pairs. I understand they don't want to be left with all females after the males have been picked through but... I've also never seen a for sale tank with only females left in it (with no regulation on selling pairs) so I'm torn on whether to be upset with the policy or understanding of it.
Regardless, I told both stores no thanks and walked - one thing I have learned in the hobby is to try and not settle for anything less than what you want. If you put the effort and have patience, eventually you will source what you really want.
The first store employee said he ordered males only, and of the 3 species that arrived, only 1 species was male only, the other 2 were 50/50. I think the stores know how the trends go so they try and be proactive and request only males from the suppliers, but like you said it's not a guarantee and thus, the pairs only policy is implemented. Just one of those things we'll have to deal with!Yes I have see this trend of only selling pairs creeping up more and more. I know a LFS owner locally here and he said in the past many times he would end up with a tank full of females that nobody wants. So I have to say I don't like it but I do get it.
The other option is to work with a breeder. But even that is hit and miss. Some will ship only males but others won't even guarantee the M/F ratio at all. And then you have shipping costs to factor in.
In the US there is one online retailer who will let you pick males and females, but they are the only one I know of. So yeah it seems to have become more and more of an issue and likely will continue.
hooked CO2 back up last night, but am going to leave the lights just as they are for a few weeks or a month. I want to see if I can find where the sweet spot is. A place where plants grow a bit less quickly, but still show very good color.
I feel that I need to find the place where my light hungry plants are a bit happier but the tank isn’t running at super speed and I don’t think I’m quite there yet. Hopefully the very small increments of increase will help me find my sweet spot.
It will take time to understand the effect. Once things get really stable and I know what is what I can start slowly increasing PAR in small increments. Or might first try running a shorter burst of high light during the day. These things take patience.You’re coming down, I’m coming up. Spooky huh! 😂😂
Different planting I know, but will certainly be watching this ‘experiment’ with interest. Curious to know at what PAR level you hit that sweet spot! 👍
I use a Seneye Reef. I've had it for years and have loaned it to dozens of people in the US. I have found it to be very reliable and close enough for our purposes. Knowing your PAR can help sometimes help explain things you are seeing in the tank.How are you measuring PAR?
Random question for you @GreggZ - do you have other tanks running? I get that this one is your pride and joy, and rightfully so, but I don't think I've heard mention of another.
LOL yeah I just saw that driftwood the other day on a basement shelf. Brings back lots of fond memories. It got to a point where it was almost entirely covered with plants. Here's the last pic of it in the tank. for a LONG time.I'm almost positive he has a secret tank set up for the sole purpose of housing his piece of driftwood, with enough peer pressure he finally removed it from this tank but we all know he still loves that driftwood piece.
Good question. I only keep the one tank.Random question for you @GreggZ - do you have other tanks running? I get that this one is your pride and joy, and rightfully so, but I don't think I've heard mention of another.