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what is your substrate? Most plant should be ok with lower pH. My tank pH is around 5.8~6, no issue with plant.
I would guess maybe because not enough fertelizer or need to change your light bulb
Hi,
My PH tester always shows in Yellow. Which means its always below 6.0
Is there any reason to this low PH levels. How can i correct it.
I don't want to add buffers as I believe that it will make the tank unstable later on.
My Tank is almost 1.5 year old, started off with a very basic setup .. ran into trouble with CO2 dozing
used tablets, electronic CO2 and finally CO2 cylinder.
In the process saw that the plants were detiorating so started to user Seachen Nitrogen and Pottasium
But the plants started to detiorate further and hence stopped Nitrogen and Pottasium dozing..
I am giving my tank specification and some history also below....
Is there any problem with my setup?
Thanks
Joel
My Tank specifications are :
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Tank Dimensions (LxWxH, specify units): 24 x 12 X 18 inches
Age of Tank : Since Oct 2006
Lighting Intensity(No of Watts) : 20w x 2
Number and type of Lighting (FL/PL/MH) : FL
Age of light bulbs : Since Oct 2006
No. of hours your lights are on : 5 hours light + 5 hours break + 5 hours light
CO2 :
1) Used CO2 Tablets - From Oct 2006 until Dec 2006 (discontinued when water foaming was seen)
2) Used Electronic CO2 - From Oct 2007 until Feb 2008 (discontinued when the electrodes were worn out)
3) Used Seachem Excel - From Feb 2008 until March 2008 (discontinued when the leaves started to turn brown with
also saw that the leaves were becoming thin and brittle)
4) Started using CO2 Cylinder - from April 2008
CO2 Injection Rate (bps) : ~2 bps
Type of CO2 (DIY/Cylinder) : Cylinder with Solenoid timed with lights
Method of Injection (e.g. Diffusor/Reactor) : diffusor
Type of Filter : Hanging - power 500 L/hr
Filter media : 2 - Black Bio Sponge
1 bag of bio rings
Fan: SUNON Cooling Fan
Age of setup : since 1 Oct 2007
Water change frequency : Every week
Amount changed : 35%
Water surface movement (None/gentle/turbulent) : Gentle
Circulation (None/gentle/turbulent) : Gentle
Tank Temperature : 30 degree celcius w/o fan turn on
27 degree with fan
Plants :
Hydrocotyle verticillata - 2 bunch
Hygrophyla difformis - 8 Nos (removed completely on 22 March 2008 because of over growth)
Lilaeopsis macloviana - 1 Nos
Microsorum pteropus - 5 bunch
Anubias barteri 'Nana' - 2 Nos
Cryptocoryne parva - 2 nos
Amazon Sword - 2 Nos
Aquascaping - 2 nos (size - approx 1 foot each)
Supplement: Seachem - Flourish (once a week)
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Last edited by Joeljohn; 23rd Apr 2008 at 18:01. Reason: Additional Info on tank history
what is your substrate? Most plant should be ok with lower pH. My tank pH is around 5.8~6, no issue with plant.
I would guess maybe because not enough fertelizer or need to change your light bulb
Issues may no longer be with co2 or lights since they should be sufficient. Lower PH at around 5-6 doesnt affect plants too much, my PH usually ends at 6.6 at end of week.
You didnt include substract, and seeing that you have several stem/rooted plants. Soil with nutrients usually last for about 1-2 years before there is a need to add base ferts or change.
Sorry .. that time when i purchased i was just a beginner and i did not pay much attention to brands...
Sorry..I don't remember what brand of fertilizer soil i purchased.
Its red in colour and shape is like small balls. It was some korean or japanese brand. purchased from yishun aquastar.
Say if i want to change now, then that means I will have to again start all over again with tank cycling etc...
Can you please suggest how can i improve the substrate without disturbing much of the biological balance.
Yes i also feel that the lights may be too old. i will get that changed.
Thanks
Joel
ive read you should be able to insert base fert as tablets to your soil but i have not done this before, e.g wondergrow root tablets from NA or jbl type should do.
secondly, do you have a drop checker by the way? it gives you an accurate colorchart of co2 optimum levels in your planted tank.
Thanks torque6 for your inputs...
So that means if i have the drop checker then i don't need to get the carbonate tester. Cause with Carbonate tester i need to then calculate with some formula and then check. So if i have this one shot tester for CO2.. that would be great !
Sorry... just asking cause i am ignorant.
Also another thing that I want to ask is, if we i use a powerhead for CO2 mixing, will it drive away the CO2 because of the turbulance that it creates in water. Is this advisable to do or is it better to use a external reactor ?
I am not familiar with carbonate tester. Do a search on the usefulness of a drop checker.
I use to have my diy co2 int reactor as well, i just block the outflow with a piece of course sponge so water gushes out instead of bubbles. There is no loss of co2 this way.
Wow.. Great idea torque6 .. thanks a lot...Originally Posted by torque6
yesterday i fixed my powerhead for CO2 injection.
Today i will go an put a sponge as you have said..
Now that i have my CO2 cylinder setup.. i find from forums that the PH can have fluctuations if we pump in CO2 without monitoring...
Now after all this money spent.. I see that I have actually called for more headache !!!!
Increase in CO2 will lower the PH, lower PH do not harm the plants.
However if you choose to increase the PH, you can try using some PH buffer stuffs (coral chips, seashells etc). Else you can dose KH to increase PH.
My PH is constant at 6.6 now, with dropchecker either darkblue from water top up and green majority of the time. I have new hg runners spreading nicely with minimium supervision with a solenoid. You cant compare this to my old diy co2 bubbling 24/7, driving PH down to 5 in less than 2 days after water change and leeching ammonia back into tank as yeast starts to die off. That my friend is the real headache.
CO2 tank is the way to go if you wanted planted tanks.
Last time when i saw mr chan at NA .. he said most of the planted aquarium the PH will be drop upto 5..
he say its normal....
don't know how the fishes may be feeling in that acidic water...
do they like it??
Depends on the species of fish you're talking about... many fishes commonly kept in the hobby like acid water. They tolerate varying levels, so to be safe you could check up on your particular species. pH of 5 to 6 should be ok for a lot of acid water tolerant species though.
The rational for me keeping PH slightly akaline is because of my nerite snails, i can see their shells slowing eroding dispite keeping PH at 6.6 with weekly dose of sechem equilibrium; calcium/mag.
Thanks all of you for your posts..
PH level in my tank is up from 5 to 6.4
this happened after i added some black crystal sand on top of the fertiliser soil
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