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[Sols]

Hi fellow plant lovers. I started my pt like 2mths ago. Its a 2 x 1.5 x 1ft tank. Ihave 1x 36w@6500k 1x 15w@7000k both on for 10hrs a day. I have a temperature around 27-29c. I have riccia as the lawn and tiawan moss on driftwood. My riccia has grown quite nicely but they do not bubble. The moss also stop growing. I did the ssera kH and pH test and found that the pH is at 8.0 whereas the kH is over the moon. At 10dkh, it stopped reacting. You guys gotta help me.
1)whats the acceptable regions for pH and kH?
2)How to lower the kH and pH if neccessary?
3)How come my riccia does not bubble? Anyway to let it bubble?

Thanks in advance guys.

[Sols]

Hi fellow plant lovers. I started my pt like 2mths ago. Its a 2 x 1.5 x 1ft tank. Ihave 1x 36w@6500k 1x 15w@7000k both on for 10hrs a day. I have a temperature around 27-29c. I have riccia as the lawn and tiawan moss on driftwood. My riccia has grown quite nicely but they do not bubble. The moss also stop growing. I did the ssera kH and pH test and found that the pH is at 8.0 whereas the kH is over the moon. At 10dkh, it stopped reacting. You guys gotta help me.
1)whats the acceptable regions for pH and kH?
2)How to lower the kH and pH if neccessary?
3)How come my riccia does not bubble? Anyway to let it bubble?

Thanks in advance guys.

[Sols]

Hi fellow plant lovers. I started my pt like 2mths ago. Its a 2 x 1.5 x 1ft tank. Ihave 1x 36w@6500k 1x 15w@7000k both on for 10hrs a day. I have a temperature around 27-29c. I have riccia as the lawn and tiawan moss on driftwood. My riccia has grown quite nicely but they do not bubble. The moss also stop growing. I did the ssera kH and pH test and found that the pH is at 8.0 whereas the kH is over the moon. At 10dkh, it stopped reacting. You guys gotta help me.
1)whats the acceptable regions for pH and kH?
2)How to lower the kH and pH if neccessary?
3)How come my riccia does not bubble? Anyway to let it bubble?

Thanks in advance guys.

[Sols]

Hi fellow plant lovers. I started my pt like 2mths ago. Its a 2 x 1.5 x 1ft tank. Ihave 1x 36w@6500k 1x 15w@7000k both on for 10hrs a day. I have a temperature around 27-29c. I have riccia as the lawn and tiawan moss on driftwood. My riccia has grown quite nicely but they do not bubble. The moss also stop growing. I did the ssera kH and pH test and found that the pH is at 8.0 whereas the kH is over the moon. At 10dkh, it stopped reacting. You guys gotta help me.
1)whats the acceptable regions for pH and kH?
2)How to lower the kH and pH if neccessary?
3)How come my riccia does not bubble? Anyway to let it bubble?

Thanks in advance guys.

[budak]

Do you have CO2 injection? do a search for the "pH/kH table" on the forum. kh levels should be 3-5 to keep pH from fluctuating too much. ph best 6.5-7.

Did you use any shells, corals, limestone.... other calcifying material in your tank or filter? These will raise kH and pH. For the riccianot bubbling, it could be too high pH, not enuf co2 or not enuf light.

[Sols]

I'm using DIY CO2 now. My filter only have ceramic rings lor. So any idea??[]

[PeterGwee]

Your KH seems to be on the high side. Check your gravel with vinegar for stuff like limestone or something alkaline which might be the cause why your KH is so high. Is your pH 8.0 taken before CO2 injection? If it is during CO2 injection, most likely there is too much loss in CO2 or not enough CO2 generated by the DIY unit. What type of filter are you using? Give us more details to determine your problem. []

" Singapore's tap water pH is 8.0 in some region...cannot believe in the first place..do not be shocked [] "

[Sols]

My pH taken is before CO2 injection. I'm using a canister filter prime 10. Flow rate at 300l/h. how to check the gravel?? i bought everything from Mr Chan at NA. so i presume everything should be fine.

[PeterGwee]

SOL singapore tap water pH can be as high as 8.0 as some of us have tested it with a pH test pen (felt more accurate with calibration of course). However, I was kind of puzzle with your high KH as my tap water KH is zero and some of the forumers here at most 2. Check your gravel by grabbing a handful and throwing it into a solution of vinegar. If it fizzles, then the problem is your gravel as it contains lime or some alkaline stuff which makes your KH high. Don't panic unless your KH keep rising over the next few days as you inject CO2. In order to safely reduce KH level, try water changes daily. About 20-50% depending on how drastic the KH rises.

If your KH is stable...and presuming your CO2 injection is 24hours a day, then your pH before lights "on" on the second day of CO2 injection should be at its lowest (plants and fish take in oxygen at night and give out CO2 + CO2 you inject = high CO2 concentration = lowest pH) and at its highest before lights off (plants take in CO2 with light during the day = drop in CO2 concentration = higher pH) (Note this does not work on the initial start of CO2 injection..hard to explain but make sure you do this measurement on the second day hor)

Finally, if you have fishes inside your tank and they are behaving abnormally like breathing heavily at the surface then quickly stop CO2 injection and put an airpump in instead. <-- CO2 overdose.

Read this to gain more knowledge on CO2 injection --> http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_co2chart.htm []

[PeterGwee]

Oh..just to add..you bought the riccia from Chan..is it the sinking type of riccia? If it is..then your riccia won't bubble as some ppl here said before...I don't have experience with riccia though. As for Moss, they need low temperatures (Best temperature 25 degrees..impossible to get without chiller or air-con although some say they can survive at 28 degrees)

[bclee]

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On 10/13/2002 11:41:40 AM
... At 10dkh, it stopped reacting...
----------------

Hi Sols, what do you mean by "it stopped reacting"?
You mean your test kit change colour from blue to yellow after 10 drops?

Just a few questions:
1. Are you adding any fertilisers to your tank?
2. Do you add baking soda or any KH up products?

My suggestions: Continue to do your water change weekly and monitor if your KH is stable or climbing. If you are not adding any fertilisers, do so. Your lights seemed sufficient for the plants to grow but not sure if it's enough for your riccia to bubble.

BC

[Sols]

1. Are you adding any fertilisers to your tank?
2. Do you add baking soda or any KH up products?

Bro BC,
I don't add any additional fert in teh tank, just the initia base fert. Well i did use the KH up once. Then i stopped cos i found the KH too high.
What i meant by stopped reacting is when i added the solution in, it changed blue then it remained there till i was at the tenth drop. don't know why. according to bro peter, i bought the riccia from Chan, but i witnessed his riccia bubble and i asked to have some of thise bubbling riccia. but till now i only see it growing bushier but not bubbling. Quite disappoionted.

[bclee]

I can't really comment on riccia, 'cos no experience in them. All that I know is that riccia and mosses rely almost wholly on the nutrients in the water. You gotta add something to your water.

Test the tap water or a mixture of tap water and aquarium water with your KH test kit. It'll will tell you if your kit is reading correctly. If it is, something in your tank is hardening your water.

What kind of gravel you are using? You have any rocks or shells in the tank?

BC

[vinz]

Plants bubble when they produce so much oxygen that the water is saturated with it and additional oxygen remains as a gas. Oxygen is a by product of photosynthesis, so what you want to do is to optimise photosynthesis. To do that you need to provide the plants with enough 'ingredients'. Namely, nutrients (i.e. accessible fert), CO2 and light.

[Sols]

So do u suggest i add in liquid fert? If yes, any suggestions on which type or what brand to use?

Thanks

[PeterGwee]

Base fertilizer for your riccia and moss are useless coz they are rootless.. Add liquid fertilizer but add half the recommended dosage for a start. There are wide variety of choices. If you are those willing to spend or rich type [] ..go for dennerle E15 and V30 or ADA stuff. But if you are low on budget..go for JBL, PMDD..and many etc. (Lookup in this forum on fertilizers..should find out what others are using)

Whereas why no bubbling, might be too many fishes in the tank consuming O2??? No fishes? Then might be the problem of no fertilizer? Still another cause..is your high KH..with DIY CO2..dunno whether it is able to overcome the buffer in order to bring down the pH and hence CO2 gradually reach saturation point. IMPORTANT..do more reading up on pH/KH/CO2 relationship..although I don't think it holds after reading that phosphate or other buffering source other than bi-carbonate will throw the relationship out of the window. Good luck and hope you see bubbles. Quite rare not to see riccia not bubbling...even my red plants bubble!!!

[hwchoy]

I notice my plants (hairgrass) tend to bubble A LOT (like beer) in the front of the tank, while the middle to back tend to bubble a lot less. Any ideas why? Lights are very well distributed.

[PeterGwee]

Maybe because of uneven CO2 distribution perharps..... Or maybe some XXXXX files again.. []

[tawauboy]

Choy,
what will happen if you give your hairgrass a haircut?
all will bubble a lot?
maybe to packed??

[hwchoy]

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On 10/15/2002 1:01:04 AM

Choy,
what will happen if you give your hairgrass a haircut?
all will bubble a lot?
maybe to packed??
----------------

no difference leh. whether cut or not they still bubble a lot, but more in front than behind. Actually I suspect the rainbar is jetting at the rear glass so causing more water movements to take away the oxygen concentration?