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Whats your pH profile?

Big clown, do you know how much par you have with your lights?

I'm not sure why my tank hasn't been fully degassing overnight. Both spray bars are right under the surface creating a fairly good ripple and I also have a slimmer which is skimming quite a bit in my opinion. PH stays stable at 6 so I'm assuming it equalizes with the degassing. The drop checker is at the very bottom and showing a good colour. I'll have to try and check the ph near the substrate and see if it's the same up top.

If running co2 24/7, couldn't you just add something extra to drive off a little co2 at night while keeping the co2 running? Just enough to allow the ph to return to a stable value before lights on.
 
mlongpre said:
Big clown, do you know how much par you have with your lights?

I'm not sure why my tank hasn't been fully degassing overnight. Both spray bars are right under the surface creating a fairly good ripple and I also have a slimmer which is skimming quite a bit in my opinion. PH stays stable at 6 so I'm assuming it equalizes with the degassing. The drop checker is at the very bottom and showing a good colour. I'll have to try and check the ph near the substrate and see if it's the same up top.

If running co2 24/7, couldn't you just add something extra to drive off a little co2 at night while keeping the co2 running? Just enough to allow the ph to return to a stable value before lights on.
Click to expand...
Yes I believe Amano uses air stones at night to drive off unwanted co2, there are lots of different ways of balancing co2 and o2 in the aquarium. Its all about balance if you drive off all the co2 at night then you need to add much more the following morning, I found that doing this with my tank made it much harder to achieve a stable level of co2 during the photo period. it was either climbing slowly throughout the photo period or not reaching the required level.
I wasn't trying to cause an argument in my earlier posts but trying to point out that each tank is different and require different methods to achieve results.
Tom Barr and Clive are both experts in planted tanks and if you do things slightly different to them then people start throwing quotes around from their posts. if you were to email Jim from the green machine I'm certain that you would find his approach was more like Amano's than Clive or tom, would you say they are not experts in their field? Clive, Tom, Jim, Amano all use different methods Who is right?... All of them, so learn from all of them! The right way to grow plants is the way that works best for you and your tank. Hope that makes sense
I've been neglecting my tank lately and have a sleight surface scum through not adding enough nutrients but here is a short clip of my surface movement

I have reasonable par not sure of the values but quite high I have a tmc colour plus 1500 tile running at 60% around 50 cms from the substrate over a 60l cube
I think many folk can be sloppy with their maintenance regime but most don't admit it, the most powerful weapon you have in your arsenal when dealing with various problems is water changes but this can sometimes make adjusting co2 levels quite tricky. for example if I change my water just before co2 comes on then my fish will be gasping at the surface at lights on.
 
Jose said:
So if you recommend EI to someone you need to show them your own experiments and data?Youve made your point, ive made mine let the op decide what he preffers.

Good luck if you think a hobbiests data/experiments would be better/more usefull than Tom Barrs results.
Click to expand...

Why? Tom bars started somewhere, and why wouldn't a fellow hobbiests data and experiments be useful to fellow hobbiest when that's what this whole forum is about? yes Tom bars is great but I can literally place my house on saying he himself learns from others experiments as well as us learning from his! Do you not experiment and find things out for yourself? I know I do

As of the comments above,

The whole idea of having an aquarium in your home is to mimic nature, in nature water has flow, surfice agitation and plants, lights and an abundance of nutrients, aswell as other things biologically that are out of my vocabulary,

So we need to juggle and cross each bridge when we come to it,

Also everyone stop locking horns and learn

One love
 
The reason why I add co2 24:7 is because if co2 is till climbing while i open my big window then i get algae because there is some indirect light hitting the tank. I could cover the tank but its a pain everyday.
 
Hi UKAPS,

this is my pH profile, along with a description of how I got the readings and a couple of followup questions 😉

I am using this probe, connected to an Arduino, set to take a reading every 15 minutes. This probe cannot be submerged below a certain level, so I inserted the probe into a length of PVC tube and sealed the probe "water sensitive" top part with a piece of tubing to create a water tight setup. This allowed to take readings @ substrate level, where co2 is expected to be at the lowest concentration. The probe was placed behind a rock, and almost below the spraybar, a place where flow is at minimum - see the picture below.

qs750m.jpg

pH profile taken on two consecutive days. On the 2nd day, I pushed a bit more co2 in the tank.

CO2 : 11:15 TO 18:00
LIGHTS: 12:30 TO 19:15
Ferts: EI
Substrate: molar clay (tesco cat litter)
A glass of tank water will read at 7.8pH within two days (equilibrium). Hence I suppose I have good surface movement and my water degases of co2 fully over night.

Day 1
mw7gv8.jpg

Day 2 (pushing slightly more co2)
2ntv812.jpg

Time for questions:
1. 45 minutes after co2 is on, I achieve a pH drop of 1 unit. Is it OK to start lights 45 minutes after co2 is on instead of 1h 15min and safe on gas?
2. I run 3 x 32w CFL bulbs 60cm above substrate (30cm above water surface). Does it make sense to have diatoms/ some hair algae (currently spot treating with excel) with this pH profile?
3. Given the spot on which readings are taken, is it likely that I still need to improve my circulation? I am asking since my hairgrass has black blades i/o green, growth is veeeery slow (+ some algae issues as above)

Thanks!!!
 
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