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Ok so, if i reach 30ppm of co2 at X rate at kh 3. When i'll switch to RO water, i dont need to decrease CO2 injection? It'll only change the pH of the water, but the drop remains the same (example starting 6.6 to 5.4)?
Yeah make sense, i reread more carefully your comment, but I want to leave my statement above anyway, just to understand if I understood correctly. You don't have to chase co2 injection, when the kh swings, if you already found the rate that let you drop ph of 1.0 - 1.4.
Nice to hear. I'll start with 30ppm of Ca because i heard that is the "safe" spot, especially for who plan to have shrimps. I'm a bit "afraid" that a lower hardness will harm Rotala ramosior Florida but im sure that every plants will appreciate the switch.
I've increased my light intensity to 60% from 55, i'm going very slowly ahaha. In the next weeks i'll go for 70% after that i'll increase photoperiod too.
If you already found your injection rate for CO2 to get you that pH drop you won’t need to adjust it. I don’t think you are using a pH controller so you will not need to worry about adjusting the set points there.
For the rotala Florida, I think it has issues with low alkalinity not general hardness. I could be completely wrong as the only rotala I’ve had success with has been macrandra and that’s only been recently.
That’s one of the confusing things with this hobby. A lot of information uses hardness when referring to alkalinity as well as calcium and magnesium. Some times they do so interchangeably in the same sentence! I personally try to stick to hardness meaning Ca and Mg (GH) alkalinity as alkalinity (KH).
Some times they do so interchangeably in the same sentence! I personally try to stick to hardness meaning Ca and Mg (GH) alkalinity as alkalinity (KH).
Yep. low alkalinity. Strange thing is, with my KH3-4 water, every plants has nice roots system (some more, some less but all has a roots system) while the rotala florida is still without any single root, it has new growth on top, leaves have nice but the stems are still rootless after almost 1 month.
I would highly recommend front loading Macros in the mixing/RO container. This way removes any mystery with water change volume, stabilizes macro dosing and is just plain easier. It’s definitely a quality of life improvement as well. Then all you’ll need to do is dose micros over the week. I really hated guessing how much water a removed before going this route.
Yeah, i heard somewhere that is a nice thing to do, then only dose micro through the week. I'll follow your suggestion and maybe update how plants react.
I was planning to get 150L resevoir, but for few cm, i'm not able to place it in the closet, i have to buy 120L ones, so around 40-42% WC capacity
Yeah, i heard somewhere that is a nice thing to do, then only dose micro through the week. I'll follow your suggestion and maybe update how plants react.
I was planning to get 150L resevoir, but for few cm, i'm not able to place it in the closet, i have to buy 120L ones, so around 40-42% WC capacity
Well in fact, since planting im doing 3 wc per week due to moving plants around, shed leaves, melting, cleaning substrate and son on. Probably this is why the tank is so clean and almost algae free
Well in fact, since planting im doing 3 wc per week due to moving plants around, shed leaves, melting, cleaning substrate and son on. Probably this is why the tank is so clean and almost algae free
New updates after few days since raising the intensity to 60% same photoperiod, I've increased a bit the co2
I have attached photos below.
As you can see, algae is growing on the older leaves of the ludwigia polycarpa, the new leaves are still clean.
- about the ludwigia polycarpa, as you can see, there is one pretty big, what do you think if a cut the stems in 2-3 pieces and replant? The stem has lots of lateral growth and aerial roots
- AR kleiens Papageienblatt is shedding his lower leaves, can we consider this still adaptation? The tops seems healthy.
- nymphea red lotus has algae growing on his leaves, do you suggest cut the leaf in question? If I can't remove algae with the toothbrush?
The plants seems healthy and going strong, Rotala ramosior Florida is growing very slow, ludwigia white is recovering.
I bought Arka myaqua 1900, it arrived yesterday, but I need to wait this weekend to install it. Still dosing Masterline golden 10ml daily
I’ll echo Tom Barr here, most issues arise from CO2 problems. If you were able to raise CO2, I would think correcting and maximizing CO2 should 100% be your first priority before assessing any other potential problem. When ever I have a problem, I’ll spend an entire day on verifying CO2.
Today will me my first water change, 100% RO, day. I could use 50% tap but with a ratio ca:mg of 10:1 and with analysis of 3 months old, I don't want to mess with parameters, the Ca: Mg change a lot during the year, from 80:9 in winter to 55:4 in summer.
I have MgSO4 and CaSO4 (I plan to buy CaCi2 in future and use 70% CaSO4 and 30% CaCi2, so both sulfur and chloride as I read that are both nice to mix). As suggested by @FrankZ, with fresh aqua soil I didn't buy any KH booster, the soil drop my water KH from 9 to 3-4, so even If I have added some KH, it would be an infinite chase numbers.
As I said, this is my first time using RO, few doubts before doing it.
1) for this first WC, I plan to remove only 65L (25% WC), I reconstitute the water with MgSO4 and CaSO4, both added in powder, at suggested dosage (calculated in IFC Calculator). Correct?
2) How long should I wait for the powder to dissolve?
3) before adding the ro water (remineralized) directly to the tank, should I check something? I expect a tds between 110 - 140
4) I don't have a DI unit, the water will not be 0 TDS, so I'll use Seachem Prime after every WC, how much TDS is acceptable? My tap water isn't that bad, so I'm expecting < 10 TDS
5) what about "pH crash with 0 KH" and CO2 injection?
About plant health updates:
As plant growth increase, I'm experiencing, again, stripes on rotala (I created a thread month ago called "black stripes on rotala") it started 3-4 days ago, I didn't changed ferts routine, it only appears on fast growing rotalas (rotala ramosior is not affected). I'm almost certain that it is a deficiency because my most healthy plant in the tank was rotala Singapore (vitro Cup plant that suffered 0 death from adaptation and started growing next day after planting with clean and white roots), now has this symptom.
I can't say for sure that it is mg deficiency but my bet Is on that because:
1) it affect old growths, so macro/mobile deficiency.
2) N is not possible, I have something between 10 - 20ppm AND fresh aqua soil. P AND K neither because the tank is GSA free and I don't have any holes on leaves
3)Iron? I dose daily Masterline golden and Masterline confirmed to me on IG that they use DTPA chelators. I dose ferts when my pH drop below 7, it should be available all the time during the photoperiod.
4) the other are micros so it should affect new growths.
5)Last mobile elements are Ca and Mg, I read that too much Ca limit the absorption of other nutrients (especially Mg), and considering that rotalas don't have any symptoms when the mass of the plants was lower, I bet on magnesium deficiency, considering that the "good" ratio is between 2:1 - 4:1, I'm more near 7:1 - 10:1
6) CO2 should be out of the equation, some post above I said that I've increased co2. After 1 day I decreased it again because amano was throwing himself out of the tank (he's fine). Both drop checkers are yellow mid photoperiod with a pH drop between 1.3 and 1.6 (my pH pen sucks)
I’m envious of the amount of time you have available to even think of all these parameters. My water changes go something like “how fast can I do this without the 2 year old breaking her arm trying to keep up with the almost 4 year old who thinks he’s a pterodactyl attacking the stegosaurus (read dog) trying to drink from the water change bucket.”
1) for this first WC, I plan to remove only 65L (25% WC), I reconstitute the water with MgSO4 and CaSO4, both added in powder, at suggested dosage (calculated in IFC Calculator). Correct?
2) How long should I wait for the powder to dissolve?
3) before adding the ro water (remineralized) directly to the tank, should I check something? I expect a tds between 110 - 140
4) I don't have a DI unit, the water will not be 0 TDS, so I'll use Seachem Prime after every WC, how much TDS is acceptable? My tap water isn't that bad, so I'm expecting < 10 TDS
5) what about "pH crash with 0 KH" and CO2 injection?
1) yes that is correct. Measure it out for the volume of new water you’re adding. I do 30 ppm CaSO4 and 7.5 ppm MgSO4. That’s not set it stone, it just works for me. FYI I don’t use CaCl or anything as a chloride, I haven’t seen a need for it or maybe I’m getting enough from the fish food.
2) I add it directly to my aquarium and let it dissolve there as I’m refilling it. I use my RO water supply for other uses that require it to be 0 everything.
3) you can check tds if you want but there is no need
4) you should not need to add prime. It won’t hurt adding but anything Prime treats will be removed from your prefilter and RO its self.
5) this is a myth
Another note - I did 25% changes 2 times (6 hours apart)wait a day, then 2 more 25% (6 hours apart) changes. Then I waited another day and did a full 50% change measured my alkalinity a couple hours after words. I can’t remember if I needed to more water changes to get my alkalinity down to 0 or not but I do not have aquasoil so it took longer. I probably went a little fast with the full conversion but I did not lose one fish, shrimp, or plant.
For your plants stuff, you’re making a major going to RO. I would take a “wait and see” approach for at least a month or two after you complete the RO switch. It maybe have been something your tap water was causing by it fluctuating so frequently.
Don't change anything you’re doing except the RO switch. You’ll make yourself crazy, trust me, I’m very good at driving myself nuts with stuff just like this.
Don't change anything you’re doing except the RO switch. You’ll make yourself crazy, trust me, I’m very good at driving my nuts with stuff just like this.
My water changes go something like “how fast can I do this without the 2 year old breaking her arm trying to keep up with the almost 4 year old who thinks he’s a pterodactyl attacking the stegosaurus (read dog) trying to drink from the water change bucket.”
I add it directly to my aquarium and let it dissolve there as I’m refilling it. I use my RO water supply for other uses that require it to be 0 everything.
That is what I do. I dump the powder Ca and Mg into a section of high flow in the tank and swirl it around with my substrate tool (metal spatula) as the RO/DI is pumped in. I add the NPK powders for the week after the tank is full. My situation is different because I use the RO/DI water for equipment calibration etc for work.
I dump the powder Ca and Mg into a section of high flow in the tank and swirl it around with my substrate tool (metal spatula) as the RO/DI is pumped in. I add the NPK powders for the week after the tank is full. My situation is different because I use the RO/DI water for equipment calibration etc for work.
So you have a particularly "strong" ro unit with pre heated water? I imagine that for short amount of time, the water become "extremely" hard and after "awhile" become soft?
In my case, the Myaqua 1900 should produce 1.3Litres x minutes around 1h and 20m to do a complete 50% WC
So you have a particularly "strong" ro unit with pre heated water? I imagine that for short amount of time, the water become "extremely" hard and after "awhile" become soft?
In my case, the Myaqua 1900 should produce 1.3Litres x minutes around 1h and 20m to do a complete 50% WC
I have a 30 gallon reservoir that I fill from the RO/DI unit. It takes around 6 hours to fill from empty. I have a bulk head fitting at the bottom of the reservoir that I attach a pump a pump to, to get the water from my basement up to my aquarium.
By reservoir I mean heavy duty trash barrel. It’s nothing fancy nor heated. I might add a small heater to the reservoir if the it gets to cold but my basement is somewhat heated so I’m not sure if I will need the heater.
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