HC... what a pain

[Antipofish]

Scrubbed it with a pipe brush, then left it overnight in about a 7% solution of H2O2, rinsed and used the pipe crush again. There was some amount of crud out of it! I believe others use a bleach solution. I just used H2O2 as I had some that I use to spot treat algae.

I did this yesterday, and already the finer mist has made a huge difference. HC is pearling nicely! I think before I was relying too heavily on my drop checker, and the larger bubbles were not giving me a genuine reading on dissolved co2 content.

Thanks mate. H202 is hydrogen peroxide right ? Where and in what form would i most usually obtain it ?

 

[omen]

I buy it off ebay, best to buy the 35% concentration, and dilute it down with water. Try to aim for 5% solution for dealing with algae. I use it just before a water change so there isn't too much of it in the water column.

eg:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Food-Grade-Hy ... 2ebb4df69c

Though, I think I paid a lot less than that tbh. And it does tend to last ages. I've had a litre of it for a couple of years now.

 

[plantbrain]

..I cannot imagine it is to do with CO2 level or distribution...

This is exactly why people fail with HC. Try imagining it.
Cheers,

I had a small crack in one of my pipes on my CO2 regulator, could not find it, even though I knew it was a CO2 issue.

NEVER rely on a drop checker, it's got only 3 real measurements, too much, too little, just right and even these are VERY relative, 30ppm might not be enough for one tank, and another it's fine.........

The rates of degassing and addition of CO2 can and do change, often quite a bit, so I think this leaves us with more relative measures like the plants and fish. Get good at watching them. Use the pH.Kh table and then adjust upwards from there very slow and observe closely, do small changes every few days and watch close after.

 

[LondonDragon]

This was my tank 6 weeks after planting:

I agree with what Mark and ceg say, its all about the CO2, after introducing fish on week 7 and having to reduce the CO2, the entire carpet just melted away in two weeks!

 

[Antipofish]

This was my tank 6 weeks after planting:

I agree with what Mark and ceg say, its all about the CO2, after introducing fish on week 7 and having to reduce the CO2, the entire carpet just melted away in two weeks!

Firstly, AWESOME pics Paulo ! Can I take it that the melt down was because you ALTERED/REDUCED the CO2 ? It should have been possible to maintain a HC carpet with fish at lower CO2 levels surely? (Albeit it may have taken longer to establish) and this would not have happened had it not got used to the massive levels you would have been using prior to fish introduction ? Just trying to work out how what you described fits together

 

[Wallace]

This was my tank 6 weeks after planting:

I agree with what Mark and ceg say, its all about the CO2, after introducing fish on week 7 and having to reduce the CO2, the entire carpet just melted away in two weeks!

Wow! Those pics are simply stunning!

I'm hoping to try and achieve a HC carpet when I rescape/replant my 60l, somehow I don't think I'll be able to achieve one quite like that though.

 

[omen]

Show off!

Impressive HC carpet!