c02

[Fishlover94]

Will a c02 kit where you add Water, Baking Soda, and Citric Acid. Work on a 60-gallon aquarium? It's 24 inches deep.

[Colin_T]

They do for a while but it can be difficult to control the amount of CO2 that ends up in the tank.

What sort of plants do you have?
How many plants do you have?
How much light is above the tank and how long is it on for each day?
What sort of fertiliser are you using and how often do you add it?

How much aeration/ surface turbulence do you have?
Are there any fish in the tank?

What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply?
This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website (Water Analysis Report) or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

[Fishlover94]

Originally Posted by Colin_T

They do for a while but it can be difficult to control the amount of CO2 that ends up in the tank.

What sort of plants do you have?
How many plants do you have?
How much light is above the tank and how long is it on for each day?
What sort of fertiliser are you using and how often do you add it?

How much aeration/ surface turbulence do you have?
Are there any fish in the tank?

What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply?
This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website (Water Analysis Report) or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

Amazon Sword, Windelov Java Fern, Scarlet Temple, and Water Spite.

Kh300
Gh0
Ph7.5
Bubble Wand, 2 hob filters moving the top of the water.
Yes I have fish
Aquasky 2.0 10 hours a day
Seachem Flourish, Seachem Potassium, Seachem Nitrogen both 2x a week

[Colin_T]

Why is your KH so high?

If you have a lot of aeration, it will drive out excess CO2 and it will be pointless adding CO2. You can counter this by having the air pump on at night and off during the day. That will allow the CO2 to remain in the aquarium longer for the plants, but the airstone coming on after lights out will prevent the fish suffocating.

Aquarium plants get their nitrogen from ammonia that is produced by the fish and other creatures in the tank. You don't need to add nitrogen to an aquarium and it can be fatal if you do. The filter bacteria will try to use it along with the plants.

Most aquatic plants don't use much if any potassium. It is used by terrestrial plants to produce fruit and flowers. Most aquatic plants don't produce fruit or flowers when kept underwater.

The plants you listed don't need supplemental CO2. They should get plenty from the fish, filter bacteria and from the atmosphere.

If you want to try CO2, monitor the pH and KH daily and keep an eye on the fish's breathing. Too much CO2 will normally drop the pH and KH and cause the fish to breath more rapidly or gasp at the surface. If you see this happening, turn off the CO2 and increase aeration.

[Fishlover94]

I have extremely hard water where I live

[Colin_T]

Originally Posted by Fishlover94

Amazon Sword, Windelov Java Fern, Scarlet Temple, and Water Spite.

Kh300
Gh0
Ph7.5
Bubble Wand, 2 hob filters moving the top of the water.
Yes I have fish
Aquasky 2.0 10 hours a day
Seachem Flourish, Seachem Potassium, Seachem Nitrogen both 2x a week

A GH of 0ppm would suggest very soft water.

Are you using well water or does the water come from a company that pipes in river or dam water?
Most water companies buffer the KH of the water to stop the pH dropping below 7.0 so the chlorine/ chloramine lasts longer and doesn't damage the water pipes as readily as acidic water does. This buffering can cause the KLH to be really high while the GH is low.

[Fishlover94]

My water is known for being very hard to aggressively hard we must use a water softener

[Aiken Drum]

If your water has gone through a water softener it would explain the zero GH and high KH. A water softener removes the calcium and replaces it with sodium so the GH will be low. But it leaves behind the carbonates and so the KH stays high.

Be aware that sodium isnt great for freshwater fish. And if you started with very hard water that's a lot of sodium going into the water to replace the calcium coming out.

Does your softener have a bypass?

[Aiken Drum]

Im reading through some of your historic posts and wonder if the water softener is the cause for some of the issues you have been seeing. Some people get away with it, some people dont.

A water softener doesn't actually reduce the amount of stuff disolved in the water. It just changes what that stuff is. Even though your water is now very soft from a GH PoV it still has high levels of disolved solids in there.

[Fishlover94]

Originally Posted by Aiken Drum

Im reading through some of your historic posts and wonder if the water softener is the cause for some of the issues you have been seeing. Some people get away with it, some people dont.

A water softener doesn't actually reduce the amount of stuff disolved in the water. It just changes what that stuff is. Even though your water is now very soft from a GH PoV it still has high levels of disolved solids in there.

I was looking on getting Brightwell Aquatics Remineraliz to add the minerals the softener removers.

[Aiken Drum]

Im really not sure that would be beneficial.

Its not what the water softener removes that is the problem, its what it adds back in its place.

If you are going to remineralise water i think you would be better off doing this to water that is low on disolved stuff like RO water, whereas your water is already high in disolved stuff and your plan would just add more. Or bypass the water softener for your water changes and maybe dilute things down by using 50% unsoftened tap water and 50% RO water.