dosing and water changes

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m-man

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Jul 31, 2006
Messages
78
Location
Orangevale CA
i was wondering if i have to add fertilizer after doing a w/c, ,also how do i know when to add more csm+b since there is no tests for iron?
and my other problem is that i cant get co2 into the water , i have it going through a power head, which creates tons of little bubbles that linger in the water, that must be the best you can do right, but i can only get about 6ppm,
 
How often are you doing PWC's? I do mine once a week, 50%. After the PWC, you dose your macros on the same day, then the micros on the following day, etc. I dose my macros 3x a week, and micros 3x, alternating days. Then have 1 day off before the PWC, which I then start over again.

What is your kh and ph? Should be able to get more than that running it into a powerhead.
 
How much light and what kind of ferts? I add my first dose after my weekly water change. I add my traces to .2 ppm iron. Tests available for iron are not really any good so I go on faith.

As for the CO2. Leave a cup of water out over night and see what your KH and PH numbers are. Do you have any surface agitation?
 
well lets see how much of a help I can be:

Not too sure about your CSM+B issue, aside from dosing on a schedule I don't think overdosing has any harmful affects on your fish.

as for the CO2, how much turbulence is on your waters surface? also do you have any airstones running? If there is a movement at the surface of the water it allows the CO2 to escape and equalize with what is in the air.

While a powerhead works, the longer you keep the CO2 in the water the more that mixes in. There are lots of DIY CO2 reactors out there that will do this, just got to do a little searching.
 
Also, does your filter have a biowheel? These are also great at gassing off CO2 and making it difficult to get good CO2 levels.
 
i use greg watsons, i have potassium, phosphate, and the csm, i have a good amount of fish so my nitrates dont bottem out, at least yet, im using a 96W Compact floresent on my 46 gallon tank, i think i have a pretty good idea about the ferts now

yeah, i took out the biowheels and air stones previously, which helped, but its still low, and when the water exits the filter it is very smooth back into the tank, so i dont think thats a big problem, i have a low Kh here its about 1 or 2 ph is always around 7.2, perhaps using one 2 liter is not enough for my tank 46 gallons?
 
I would say on that size tank, you need at least 2 2L bottles, or preferably go pressurized. Also, you might want to add some Crushed Coral to your filter. That will slowly dissolve and bring up your kh some naturally. Just use a small handful in the filter. And if you can't find any, I can always send you some, I have a 20lb bag sitting collecting dust. It will take more than a lifetime for me to use it all. I could spare a couple pounds if you like.
 
It will slowly raise the ph a little as well, due to the kh going up. But more CO2 will bring it back down. Having that low of a kh could cause a ph crash when introducing CO2 at higher levels.

Edit:
Also the CC won't work instantly. It will take 2-3 weeks before you notice any change. It's like adding driftwood to lower the ph, does it over time, naturally.
 
I use 3 x 3L bottles on my 36 gallon tank, I would suggest at least 2 for your set up. If that doesn't have the desired effect, you start looking into more efficient diffusion methods.
 
In most cases you'll need 2 Liters total volume for generating CO2 for every 10 gallons in tank volume. This will be affected by how effective your diffusion method is. With an extremely effective diffusion method you may need less, or with an extremely ineffective method you may need more. With a 46 gallon tank you're looking at about 8 Liters for CO2 generation. You could use four 2 Liter bottles or two 1 Gallon bottles. Both of these give you the benefit of having multiple bottles running so that you can stagger when you cange the mixture helping to maintain a steadier CO2 level. You may not want to add all the new bottles simultaneously, just in case your diffusion method is pretty effective. This will give you a chance to measure the levels and decide how many you actually need as you add each additional bottle.
 
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