Damien Buckley
Seedling
- Joined
- 28 Sep 2013
- Messages
- 2
Greetings from Brisbane (Australia). I've just come back into the hobby following a fairly extended hiatus and have set up a Fluval Edge 46l with the following equipment:
Stock filter & lighting (LED strip, Aquaclear hang-on)
Eheim Jager Heater
Fluval 88g CO2 kit with Dennerle shut-off valve
The tank has been running for 3 weeks and is looking good thus far - ammonia, nitrite & nitrate all 0, 6dKH. Water temp 25 degrees (can rise to 27 depending on ambient temp…).
I'm dosing approx. 1 bubble CO2 per second, starting a couple of hours before lights on and shut-off a couple of hours before lights off. Tank is getting 10 hours light a day - the Fluval LED's look nice but are a bit weak.
pH seems to be 7.4 on a morning before Co2 / lights dropping to 6.8 by the evening. I have a Sera Co2 indicator which is showing green but having read other posts here I need to get hold of some 4dKH solution - its currently filled with tap water.
My question is, are these kinds of daily pH fluctuations acceptable or should I does CO2 24 hours instead? I'm assuming that the overnight drop is due to the hang-on filter causing CO2 loss.
Things have changed a fair but since my first Dennerle tank a couple of decades ago and I saw some mention here that I should not worry so much about indicated pH values which is entirely contrary to when I was in the hobby before so just thought I'd throw it out there for some opinions.
Fish and plants all seem pretty happy. 6 x Black Phantoms, 3 Corydoras Julii and a couple of Ottocinclus plus a nice crew of cherry red shrimp that I was lucky to inherit with the plants. I'm planning on finishing the stock off with a pair of Rams but want to ensure that the tank is fully matured and stable first.
REALLY nice forum by the way. I'm a web-developer by trade and rarely see forums look as good as this one.
Stock filter & lighting (LED strip, Aquaclear hang-on)
Eheim Jager Heater
Fluval 88g CO2 kit with Dennerle shut-off valve
The tank has been running for 3 weeks and is looking good thus far - ammonia, nitrite & nitrate all 0, 6dKH. Water temp 25 degrees (can rise to 27 depending on ambient temp…).
I'm dosing approx. 1 bubble CO2 per second, starting a couple of hours before lights on and shut-off a couple of hours before lights off. Tank is getting 10 hours light a day - the Fluval LED's look nice but are a bit weak.
pH seems to be 7.4 on a morning before Co2 / lights dropping to 6.8 by the evening. I have a Sera Co2 indicator which is showing green but having read other posts here I need to get hold of some 4dKH solution - its currently filled with tap water.
My question is, are these kinds of daily pH fluctuations acceptable or should I does CO2 24 hours instead? I'm assuming that the overnight drop is due to the hang-on filter causing CO2 loss.
Things have changed a fair but since my first Dennerle tank a couple of decades ago and I saw some mention here that I should not worry so much about indicated pH values which is entirely contrary to when I was in the hobby before so just thought I'd throw it out there for some opinions.
Fish and plants all seem pretty happy. 6 x Black Phantoms, 3 Corydoras Julii and a couple of Ottocinclus plus a nice crew of cherry red shrimp that I was lucky to inherit with the plants. I'm planning on finishing the stock off with a pair of Rams but want to ensure that the tank is fully matured and stable first.
REALLY nice forum by the way. I'm a web-developer by trade and rarely see forums look as good as this one.