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Please help me get my tank back under control

Chrispowell said:
It's 2 ehiem e1501, with lilly pipe outlets.
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2 EHEIM e1501? Do you mean 2 JBL e1501? That should be more than enough.

foxfish said:
Did you get a PH pen?
I know a lot of the experts on here believe a drop checker is the best way to establish the correct C02 levels but I wonder what you might find out by checking the PH drop.
I strongly suspect you don't have enough available C02 for your plants to really thrive.
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I find my drop checker quite useless, to be honest... The Seneye device is very useful to me.
 
Sorry! Yes jbl.

PH pen in order, I must have a leaking system or blocked diffusers if the. co2 is low.

I'm running about 4bps at the mo?
 
Bubbles per second can be deceiving when measuring the amount of CO2 you are providing... they are only useful for yourself, because different bubble counters will generate different sized bubbles.

You should check the PH drop in comparison with your KH instead.

I have this chart that someone posted here in the forum some time ago (I think it was zozo). It shows the relation between dKH, PH and the amount of CO2 (in ppm) in the water.

Ideally, you want to be on a gray cell (around 30ppm), so for me with 16dKH, my PH should drop to 7-7.2.
If you have 4dKH, your PH should drop to 6.4-6.7 when CO2 is on.
co2_ph_kH_chart.png

Test it just before turning the CO2 off, to get a more accurate and stable value.
 
Tested tonight with my new ph pen. at 7:30pm (co2 off at 5pm) PH was 6.6

Will test tomorrow morning before lights on and at around 5pm tomorrow evening too 🙂
 
8.4-6.6 seems like a big drop Chris, best way to profile your ph is take a reading as the Co2 turns on then every hour untill lights on (if this is possible 🙂) you should aim for a 1 point drop by lights on then every hour untill lights off, this should remain around the 1 point mark for optimum injection. Example 8.4 at Co2 on dropping to 7.4 at lights on then holding steady at around 7-7.4 untill the Co2 turns off, should be ideal for flora and fauna.
 
To have such high PH (like me), your KH is probably around 15 or above... so your ideal PH level with CO2 on should be around 7-7.4, as @tim mentioned.

This means you should use less than half the CO2 you are using at this moment.
 
Atmospheric C02 levels are around 400ppm, I don't know what the max water will hold, maybe 40ppm but no where near the levels that the plants could use.
That is why, virtually all the plants we keep before we buy them, are grown with their foliage out of water.
Anyway if you can do a PH profile that will tell us quite a lot.
 
Thanks everyone, I was under the impression that more co2 would cure algae issues as the plants would grow better..

I'm going to have to do a profile tomorrow as I was at work when lights came on today. Just tested now and it's already fallen to 7.1...
 
Right, this morning I have started to record the co2 levels...

8am - ph8.5 (co2 turns on)
9am - ph8
10am - 7.4
11am - 7.2
12 - Lights on ( I was out so unable to record)
1pm - 6.9

I dont think there is any need to continue recording - its obviously getting way too muh co2. Currently including "sunrise" and "sunset" periods my lights are on for around 9 hours a day. Should I go back to basics?

1 period of 5/6 hours a day of say 80% light, get the co2 to drop by the time lights on and then stay steady?
I have also turned down the heater as the rotala that is struggling is right under it and Im wondering if this is the reason for that struggling?

Thanks for all the help so far, hopefully we can crack this!
 
Hi Chris, I find this situation fascinating, so you have 250lt & a PH drop of almost two points with 3BPS.
I don't think I have every read about such a large drop with so little gas.
I assume this has something to do with your tap water parameters?
Anyway your C02 bottle is going to last a long time 🙂
The normal issues on this forum is how to get a one point drop, even on 60lt tank some folk have problems, so you must be doing something right!
Even Ian M will be impressed... 😉
 
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So here we are...

Just finished my weekly maintenance, cleaning of the glass, sand vac, rock scrub, plant care and a 50% water change.

Here's how things look..

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following all of your advice I have made some changes I hope will get me back on track..

Modified bubble count to about half what it was..

Co2 on 2.5hours before lights and off 1 hour before lights out

Lighting period reduced to 6 hours of same intensity.

Moved heater from directly above the rear plants

I plan to do a ph map this week and then see how everything goes.

I auto dose 30ml of ferts every day now and 10ml of easy carbo, does it matter that these go in hours before the lights go on?

Thanks, Chris
 
Day 1 of the new regime!!

Ph at lights off was ph7, I'm unable to check what it measures during the day at the min as I'm at work.

I have manually removed any algae again today and vac'd the sand. I'm now doing a 50% water change.

I have heard of people spraying the plants with hydrogen peroxide? Has anyone any experience doing this?

Thanks
 
Day 2!

Cleaned the sand, wiped down wood and rock and give all plants a good rub.

Very slight discolouring of sand but hopefully things will start to improve.. Im hoping the plants will pick up and in turn stop algae.

50% water change
 
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