Working on getting my CO2 dialed in. The KH is pretty steady at around 4 dKH . This is what the pH drop looks like when I run an air stone opposite the CO2 injection period.
Below is what things look like when I run the CO2 continuously and with the air stone again running outside the photoperiod. The pH only rises to around 7.2 at night:
The tank is a 15G AIO so there is a lot of surface agitation when not running the air stone due to the built-in sump and turbulence at the surface from the return nozzle. As a side note I've seen a pretty consistent correlation of the time it takes to push the pH down to 6.8 and the degree to which I've positioned the return nozzle to create surface turbulence.
I have no livestock yet but am interested in adding a few nano fish, of which some might be better suited to a pH under 8. Do I need to worry about that nighttime pH spike? For instance, Boraras brigittae are noted at one source to prefer a pH range of 4.5-7.5. Would that make them unsuitable for me given my pH wants to rise to a little over 8 without CO2 injection? And would running CO2 continuously to keep the pH down in the mid to low sevens change that? I'm pretty sure that the air stone and the nature of the AIO will keep the O2 levels high so my main concern about running the CO2 24x7 is just wasting it. Any thoughts? Am I overthinking this? Or should I pick livestock that's more suited to my "native" pH of 8+?
Below is what things look like when I run the CO2 continuously and with the air stone again running outside the photoperiod. The pH only rises to around 7.2 at night:
The tank is a 15G AIO so there is a lot of surface agitation when not running the air stone due to the built-in sump and turbulence at the surface from the return nozzle. As a side note I've seen a pretty consistent correlation of the time it takes to push the pH down to 6.8 and the degree to which I've positioned the return nozzle to create surface turbulence.
I have no livestock yet but am interested in adding a few nano fish, of which some might be better suited to a pH under 8. Do I need to worry about that nighttime pH spike? For instance, Boraras brigittae are noted at one source to prefer a pH range of 4.5-7.5. Would that make them unsuitable for me given my pH wants to rise to a little over 8 without CO2 injection? And would running CO2 continuously to keep the pH down in the mid to low sevens change that? I'm pretty sure that the air stone and the nature of the AIO will keep the O2 levels high so my main concern about running the CO2 24x7 is just wasting it. Any thoughts? Am I overthinking this? Or should I pick livestock that's more suited to my "native" pH of 8+?
