Yep. That's why I was concerned.
So many people say that having a fish tank in a window will be way too *much* light, so it's strange to hear of this described as a low light situation.
There's a degree of accuracy knowing that I'm nowhere near where I want to be. 26 ppm is outside any margin of error these tests provide.
Are you offering?
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I'm not trying to be snarky here. It's confusing to hear that a drastic change in pH makes sense then that it doesn't and that I should be getting fancier tests and tests aren't worthwhile and that the plants have enough but then they also don't.
My husband is also telling me about how using the air pump to add atmospheric air is adding more CO2 than a DIY system can deliver, which is just..... exhausting. He says all we need is a tank of CO2 and a needle valve, but I'm pretty sure people wouldn't be spending all this money if it were so simple.
You can't be snarky then say 'I'm not trying to be snark here' it doesn't quite work like that [emoji23] this is why I made a point of a putting a smiling emoji after the sentence 'you need a proper co2 system' and saying 'don't think I am trying to derail you' [emoji846]
Anyway my frustration only grows when I see people in the same situation I was only a year or so back.
DIY CO2 is always the precursor to a full setup. It's just an inevitability and I was hoping to encourage you to avoid it. They are fiddly, messy and laborious. They just have too many negatives that will only lead to frustration. It's a step that in my opinion should be avoided. The fluval system won't be much better either I'm afraid.
I was reluctant to use co2 when I joined the forum. So much so that went down the Walstad route. It failed for a number of reasons and one of them was co2.
Naturally I am a big reader and I enjoy science. Particularly biology then chemistry. It was only going to be a matter of time before I got the gist of the planted tank. Am I perfect? Absolutely not. There are so many variables in a fish tank that it becomes so difficult to know what to do for the best. You shouldn't feel disheartened.
If you have any concerns just ask.
I share the same views about test kits as dw1305 does in this post
http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/accurate-method-of-mesuring-nitrates.33948/
Here it is common knowledgeable that test kits may not be as accurate as what we would like to think they are. On this forum people very rarely use test kits. The phosphate one is supposed to be worse.
That's why I believe I still get nitrate and phosphate inductive algae when even when the vial colours can go any deeper.
Ph drop due to weak acids do not cause harm to fish or inverts.
Here is a picture of my ph dropping to 5.9 from 7.6. I had ottos and amano shrimp in there that were carrying eggs.
Ph is often used to roughly achieve 30ppm co2. You can see from the ph/ph chart that a 1 unit ph drop equals much more in theory but the when we take in to consideration the other things that contribute towards KH and pH values in our tanks this is actually much less.
