what to measure when using CO2?

[Electrobes]

Okay I currently have in my 10 gallon, Hagen's yeast CO2, 2 red ludwigia, 3 viseria, 1 anacharis, and 2 banana plants. with is I have one small filter, one 100W heater, and about pure laterite mixed with plain aquarium gravel. I want to put neons in, and currently had 3 Otos, but one died today (I got all three today). I am thinking it may be something in the tank chemical-wise that is hurting them... well that and they weren't taken well care of in the LFS. If it is chemical-based, what should I be keeping track of to make sure the conditions are right for both plants and fish (otos and neons in particular) and where should they steady at??? Thanks a bunch everyone.

 

[Electrobes]

Oh yeah I forgot to mention, I have lighting equal to that of about 40 watts of PC lighting running about 12 hours a day. Hope it helps

 

[shawmutt]

How did you acclimate the ottos? Adding CO2 will drop the pH of your tank, which is good, because ottos and neons like low pH (I have 3 ottos and 9 cardinals). Unfortunately, most pet stores have their tanks at a 7.0 pH. It is possible that the ottos could have been shocked by the change in the pH.

I bought the freshwater master test kit by aquarium pharmacuticals. It has all the necessary tests, and it's cheaper than buying all the kits seperately. I measure ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, pH, gH, and kH. By using the formula found on http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_co2chart.htm , you can easily tell how many ppm of CO2 is dissolved in your tank. If you run all of these tests, you probably will find your problem.

What's more important than what the readings should be is that they should be steady. Ideally, a neon should be in soft (1-4 dH gH) and acidic (as low as 5.5 and even lower in some cases)--but they will survive in harder water and a higher pH, as long as the parameters are steady.

Good Luck!

 

[Electrobes]

Thanks a alot shawmutt, I am seriously considering the neons, and the freshwater kit is definately a must. I think the otos may have been shocked.. I did measure the pH and it was surprisingly high... a 7.1 AFTER the CO2 was implemented. I expected it to be lower but I guess not I won't make the same mistake with the tetras as I did with the otos, thanks again 8)

 

[www.aquatic-sto]

There also are a few different items you can put in your tank that measure your co2 azoo makes one andso does anothother company. can't remember off the top of my head

Marcus Russo

http//www.AQUATIC-STORE.com