BCarl's 26 gallon Bf Build

[Gillie]

Reboot and start over, a planted tank is little more than a science experiment and no experiment is without an occasional failure. Did you by chance have the co2 hooked up to a solenoid and timer?

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[bcarl_10gal]

Yeah, but the solenoid is not functioning properly anymore.

I am going to shower this thing with Co2 and less light and see what happens. Also im removing glut from my regimen.

Going to the LFS to get some algae eaters tomorrow.


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[bcarl_10gal]

Some observations, CO2 is cranking and i turned the light down to like 40%. The tank is still pearling like no tomorrow...


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[Sk3lly]

Some observations, CO2 is cranking and i turned the light down to like 40%. The tank is still pearling like no tomorrow...


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My advice to you Carl is to crank that light right back.

PEARLING DOES NOT MEAN HEALTHY PLANT GROWTH

As you know a correct combination of light, carbon and ferts creates healthy growth

Ferts are the easiest part to get correct. Dose a bog standard EI mix and you cannot go wrong! Ditch the PPS. Its fine for tanks that are going well but you've had issues for ages.

As you are able to dim your lighting then this is also easy to control. Light drives photosynthesis, therefore is the key element.

Co2 is arguably the most difficult part to get right. Therefore its best you make this the 'limiting factor' in plant growth.

Think of photosynthesis as an assembly factory. Each conveyor belt is part of the finished product (photosynthesis). The conveyor belts are LIGHT, CARBON, NITROGEN, POTASSIUM, PHOSPHOROUS. In an ideal world all the parts reach the assembly point at the same time to make photosynthesis. If one of the belts moves slower the whole production line is slowed to that speed.
For example. High light, high ferts, low carbon. Carbon is the limiting factor and photosynthesis will slow to the rate determined by carbon. The excess light and ferts are then readily available to algae.

Now another example...

High light, high carbon, low ferts. Now ferts are the limiting factor in the triangle. Plants will grow fast under the higher lighting/carbon conditions, but growth will be unhealthy and full of deficiencies. Algae will take advantage of the organic breakdown of the unhealthy plant.

Now if you make light the limiting factor, you get more room for manoeuvre. Your plants will demand less carbon and less ferts for growth. Think of the conveyor belt example. Algae cannot take a true foothold as there is neither unhealthy plants or excess light to take advantage of.

Hope this makes sense.....

Now you pm'd me asking about relationship between kH and co2.

To get the desired lime green drop checker it is believed you need to achieve a 1pH drop before lights on. This equates to roughly 30ppm co2.

For example you get a reading of 7.3pH before co2 on. At lights on your looking to get a pH reading of 6.3. This ensures a lime green drop checker and also provides a 'recommended' ppm of co2. A pH pen is a necessity for this. Liquid tests just are not accurate enough.

Now the lower the kH the less buffering ability the water has. This means the waters pH is easily affected by the acidic co2. The higher the kH the less affected the water is by co2.

Low kH = less co2 to drop pH 1 unit

High kH = more co2 to drop pH 1 unit

Research co2/pH solubility charts and pH profiles within aquariums.


Hope this is helpful for you. Information may not be totally accurate but this is my understanding of the chemistry and processes involved in our tanks


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[TMRC Exotics]

My advice to you Carl is to crank that light right back.

PEARLING DOES NOT MEAN HEALTHY PLANT GROWTH

As you know a correct combination of light, carbon and ferts creates healthy growth

Ferts are the easiest part to get correct. Dose a bog standard EI mix and you cannot go wrong! Ditch the PPS. Its fine for tanks that are going well but you've had issues for ages.

As you are able to dim your lighting then this is also easy to control. Light drives photosynthesis, therefore is the key element.

Co2 is arguably the most difficult part to get right. Therefore its best you make this the 'limiting factor' in plant growth.

Think of photosynthesis as an assembly factory. Each conveyor belt is part of the finished product (photosynthesis). The conveyor belts are LIGHT, CARBON, NITROGEN, POTASSIUM, PHOSPHOROUS. In an ideal world all the parts reach the assembly point at the same time to make photosynthesis. If one of the belts moves slower the whole production line is slowed to that speed.
For example. High light, high ferts, low carbon. Carbon is the limiting factor and photosynthesis will slow to the rate determined by carbon. The excess light and ferts are then readily available to algae.

Now another example...

High light, high carbon, low ferts. Now ferts are the limiting factor in the triangle. Plants will grow fast under the higher lighting/carbon conditions, but growth will be unhealthy and full of deficiencies. Algae will take advantage of the organic breakdown of the unhealthy plant.

Now if you make light the limiting factor, you get more room for manoeuvre. Your plants will demand less carbon and less ferts for growth. Think of the conveyor belt example. Algae cannot take a true foothold as there is neither unhealthy plants or excess light to take advantage of.

Hope this makes sense.....

Now you pm'd me asking about relationship between kH and co2.

To get the desired lime green drop checker it is believed you need to achieve a 1pH drop before lights on. This equates to roughly 30ppm co2.

For example you get a reading of 7.3pH before co2 on. At lights on your looking to get a pH reading of 6.3. This ensures a lime green drop checker and also provides a 'recommended' ppm of co2. A pH pen is a necessity for this. Liquid tests just are not accurate enough.

Now the lower the kH the less buffering ability the water has. This means the waters pH is easily affected by the acidic co2. The higher the kH the less affected the water is by co2.

Low kH = less co2 to drop pH 1 unit

High kH = more co2 to drop pH 1 unit

Research co2/pH solubility charts and pH profiles within aquariums.


Hope this is helpful for you. Information may not be totally accurate but this is my understanding of the chemistry and processes involved in our tanks


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Wonderful explanation. I just screenshot and saved this entire reply as a future reference.

Good luck Carl, I'm rooting for you (pun intended)

 

[bcarl_10gal]

My advice to you Carl is to crank that light right back.

PEARLING DOES NOT MEAN HEALTHY PLANT GROWTH

As you know a correct combination of light, carbon and ferts creates healthy growth

Ferts are the easiest part to get correct. Dose a bog standard EI mix and you cannot go wrong! Ditch the PPS. Its fine for tanks that are going well but you've had issues for ages.

As you are able to dim your lighting then this is also easy to control. Light drives photosynthesis, therefore is the key element.

Co2 is arguably the most difficult part to get right. Therefore its best you make this the 'limiting factor' in plant growth.

Think of photosynthesis as an assembly factory. Each conveyor belt is part of the finished product (photosynthesis). The conveyor belts are LIGHT, CARBON, NITROGEN, POTASSIUM, PHOSPHOROUS. In an ideal world all the parts reach the assembly point at the same time to make photosynthesis. If one of the belts moves slower the whole production line is slowed to that speed.
For example. High light, high ferts, low carbon. Carbon is the limiting factor and photosynthesis will slow to the rate determined by carbon. The excess light and ferts are then readily available to algae.

Now another example...

High light, high carbon, low ferts. Now ferts are the limiting factor in the triangle. Plants will grow fast under the higher lighting/carbon conditions, but growth will be unhealthy and full of deficiencies. Algae will take advantage of the organic breakdown of the unhealthy plant.

Now if you make light the limiting factor, you get more room for manoeuvre. Your plants will demand less carbon and less ferts for growth. Think of the conveyor belt example. Algae cannot take a true foothold as there is neither unhealthy plants or excess light to take advantage of.

Hope this makes sense.....

Now you pm'd me asking about relationship between kH and co2.

To get the desired lime green drop checker it is believed you need to achieve a 1pH drop before lights on. This equates to roughly 30ppm co2.

For example you get a reading of 7.3pH before co2 on. At lights on your looking to get a pH reading of 6.3. This ensures a lime green drop checker and also provides a 'recommended' ppm of co2. A pH pen is a necessity for this. Liquid tests just are not accurate enough.

Now the lower the kH the less buffering ability the water has. This means the waters pH is easily affected by the acidic co2. The higher the kH the less affected the water is by co2.

Low kH = less co2 to drop pH 1 unit

High kH = more co2 to drop pH 1 unit

Research co2/pH solubility charts and pH profiles within aquariums.


Hope this is helpful for you. Information may not be totally accurate but this is my understanding of the chemistry and processes involved in our tanks


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Great explanation of the photosynthesis factory. The plan of temporarily dimming the light was so I could dial in the appropriate amount of co2 and slowly adjust the light back upward along with the co2 to get the triangle back in sync.

While the KH scenario may be somewhat true, dropping the pH in the tank by a full point is not an accurate measure of how much co2 is in the water. There are other factors that affect pH besides KH. While a lower KH may allow the pH to drop easier it is not necessarily an accurate measure of how much Co2 is in the water. Co2 is one of the most important aspects of our tanks and by far the hardest to understand and measure. As Tom Barr says the best way to gauge your Co2 is watch plant growth and watch your fish. In high light aquariums we typically need to push our CO2 above the 'recommended' 30ppm mark in order to balance it within the triangle. My initial question was say I have a KH of 2 and I inject CO2 at a 3bps rate, would it take less co2 to reach 50ppm in the tank compared to a tank with a KH of 10?

Based on your statement above you point is it would allow ph to lower faster, and therefore I would have more co2?

 

[Sk3lly]

Great explanation of the photosynthesis factory. The plan of temporarily dimming the light was so I could dial in the appropriate amount of co2 and slowly adjust the light back upward along with the co2 to get the triangle back in sync.



While the KH scenario may be somewhat true, dropping the pH in the tank by a full point is not an accurate measure of how much co2 is in the water. There are other factors that affect pH besides KH. While a lower KH may allow the pH to drop easier it is not necessarily an accurate measure of how much Co2 is in the water. Co2 is one of the most important aspects of our tanks and by far the hardest to understand and measure. As Tom Barr says the best way to gauge your Co2 is watch plant growth and watch your fish. In high light aquariums we typically need to push our CO2 above the 'recommended' 30ppm mark in order to balance it within the triangle. My initial question was say I have a KH of 2 and I inject CO2 at a 3bps rate, would it take less co2 to reach 50ppm in the tank compared to a tank with a KH of 10?



Based on your statement above you point is it would allow ph to lower faster, and therefore I would have more co2?

Yea the pH drop by a point is a guideline. Same as all of our test kits give us a guideline. None of them are accurate enough to give a definitive answer.

Hmmm unsure on that co2 scenario.

I know from my experiences that when my kH was 16. I had to pump a lot more co2 into my tank to get a drop checker lime, than i do now at kH8


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[bcarl_10gal]

Do you use 4dKH solution water in your drop checker?

 

[Brookster123]

Oops,.sorry b, i had the kh thing backwards. I'll retest and see where I'm at, my kh may actually be a littler higher, i know my gh is low low, like 2-3.. i knew I dosed equilibrium for a reason! Lots of stuff to remember here hahah

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[bcarl_10gal]

Its all good. If anyone wants to learn more about the science behind CO2 injection read the barr report. Those guys are CO2 junkies, but their tanks don't lie.

 

[bcarl_10gal]

Most plants are looking a little better. Im holding off on a picture of the S.Repens cause I dont want to jinx it. I have 2 drop checkers now and one is yellow and the other is a very lime-yellow. I think my co2 is somewhere between 80-90ppm. Sounds crazy but the fish are fine. The AR mini is not stunted but I am seeing the new growth being slightly curled. The R.Macandra is still showing unusual color in new growth. Nitrates are up around 30ppm. Any thoughts?

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[Brookster123]

Good news man! Take lots of pics for comparison in the coming weeks..

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[bcarl_10gal]

Just gotta get the reds on board...


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[bcarl_10gal]

New regulator for a larger CO2 tank on order! Anyone interested in a complete paintball setup message me or keep an eye on the classifieds!


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[RadMax8]

Which one are you getting???


Definitely not wasting time. Nope.

 

[bcarl_10gal]

Went with GLA, great company and service. Debated on building one but i didnt want to search for all the parts.


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[RadMax8]

You're right, GLA is a great company. Very good choice! I couldn't bring myself to pay the extra money when I was getting my system set up... Next time I won't cheap out. Regulator works great but needle valve is giving me fits on my Aquatek.


Definitely not wasting time. Nope.

 

[bcarl_10gal]

I went the cheaper route the first time, with this high light i need more CO2 and i fly through the paintball tanks.


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[bcarl_10gal]

Getting closer, still some work to do.

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[Fresh2o]

Everything looks good! Hoping the is a trend that lasts.


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