Water change before, during, or after photoperiod

[Joel Armstrong]

Hi,

I am curious about people's preferred time to perform a water change.

Before, during, or after the photoperiod?

Or perhaps it doesn't matter?

If a water change is done during the photoperiod, would CO2 saturation catch up quick enough to not cause any issues?

Would love to hear people's thoughts.

Thanks

 

[Joel Armstrong]

Joel, so your degassed water is 7.43? That's pretty high. What is the GH /KH that you're running? I'm assuming that is your Australian tap water?

I have bought an RO system, I haven't had the chance to set it up due to work and family commitments.

I'd love some help fine tuning my system though.

Thank you

 

[Art]

We are here to help and fine tuning is the name of the game. Have you measured your tap out of the sink? Is it degassed at the same pH as your tank? I'm just trying to see if there's anything in your tank that may be buffering your pH.

 

[BigWave]

Hair algae often shows its ugly face when CO2 fluctuates and can not be kept stable. A simple water change should not contribute to that. Joel, how are you injecting the CO2, I forgot? I've also seen that if the tank isnt consuming Fe and it builds up this also triggers hair algae.
Now if for say you do a water change and the plants are out of water for longer periods of time that could possibly trigger something. Dont know for sure though.

 

[Joel Armstrong]

We are here to help and fine tuning is the name of the game. Have you measured your tap out of the sink? Is it degassed at the same pH as your tank? I'm just trying to see if there's anything in your tank that may be buffering your pH.

Hi Art,

A couple months ago now, I tested the tap water.. straight out of tap, I was getting pH 7.75 - 7.80.. I aged the tap water for 3 days and got a reading of pH 7.78.. Using a salifert test, KH of tap indicated 3dKH (local water report indicated 2.81dKH)

At the same time of testing, a sample of tank water indicated 2dKH, and aging the same sample of tank water for 3 days, pH indicated 7.43

More recently, tank water indicates 3dKH. I'm guessing the soil has lost its buffering capacity perhaps? (12 month old ADA Version II)

I haven't repeated the testing of the tap water and tank water again recently. Perhaps I should though. Is it likely a sample of degassed tank water has now changed, since the soil is older??

Many thanks for your responses and any advice

 

[Joel Armstrong]

Hair algae often shows its ugly face when CO2 fluctuates and can not be kept stable. A simple water change should not contribute to that. Joel, how are you injecting the CO2, I forgot? I've also seen that if the tank isnt consuming Fe and it builds up this also triggers hair algae.
Now if for say you do a water change and the plants are out of water for longer periods of time that could possibly trigger something. Dont know for sure though.

Hey Steve,

I guess my way of thinking was because I was started doing large water changes while lights were on, I may have induced fluctuations in CO2?. A water change takes me a about 2 hours.
I was always doing my water changes prior to CO2 turning on, and I guess the appearance of some small amounts of hair algae led me to believe it was because I did a few water changes while lights were on

After my initial post, I found a dead fish in the tank, perhaps the ammonia triggered the hair algae?

Also, I started using burr aqua micros, and was adding a triple dose when doing these large water changes
I'd read that Gregg added a triple dose at water change time, and I thought to give it a go. So perhaps too much iron maybe?

So, there's a couple things that were going on here I guess, hey?

Anyway, it's not a real bad case of hair algae, not all plants have been affected, and I'm getting on top of it.... but in the 12 months I've had the tank running, the only visible algae I could ever see was GDA on the glass, up until recent events anyway.

By the way, I'm using a reactor for CO2

Cheers man

 

[GreggZ]

After my initial post, I found a dead fish in the tank, perhaps the ammonia triggered the hair algae?

Also, I started using burr aqua micros, and was adding a triple dose when doing these large water changes
I'd read that Gregg added a triple dose at water change time, and I thought to give it a go. So perhaps too much iron maybe?

I highly doubt it has anything to do with micros. Remember that in the scheme of things folks are dosing WAY less iron than was recommended not that many years ago. At one time standard EI as 5 ppm Fe weekly. Then it got dropped to 2 ppm. Now the more normal range is 0.4 to 0.6 Fe weekly.

And you may have answered your own question. A dead fish in the tank is a great way to trigger algae.

 

[Art]

A dead fish in the tank is a great way to trigger algae.

Those pesky ammonia spikes will get you every time.