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RE: Too much light & CO2
Ken Brook is having problems with a large Dupla setup down under....
> I have a relatively new 180 cm aquarium heavily planted (~190 US
> gallons), 70 cm deep
> .... basically a Dupla setup .. Dupla laterite base in 5mm gravel also
> with a bag of fluorite for luck,
> Dupla Fe fertilisation techniques (duplaplant tabs and duplaplant 24),
> Dupla CO2,
> 3 x Giesemann metal halide lights (5,200 Kelvin) now on 10 hours per day
> dropping from 12.
> An attempt at the "once in a lifetime" vision - after 6 years of
> procrastination about "doing it properly for once".
> Dupla kit and lights a small bank loan on its own !! anyway ....
What? No substrate heating???? No wonder you are having problems! Run right
out and re-mortgage the house and get yourself a set of Dupla cables! <MAJOR
GRIN>
> Certain plants are going utterly crazy e.g. Pygmy Chain Sword, Indian
... snip...
> But others are sitting very still or declining ... Amazon Swords
> Internode length on the Ambulia is also quite large compared to compact
> original plants.
The original plants were probably grown in a greenhouse, under real
daylight. Don't let this worry your overmuch. Although, you don't state the
wattage of the 3 metal halide lights you have.
> pH 6.9, dKH 5, dGH 8 , small amount of P, ammonia zero, nitrates close
> to zero,... CO2
> probably too high at 23-28 ppm ...(deducted from pH - KH maths & shown
> by Dupla Dauertest)
Unless you are measuring your Carbonate Hardness and your pH with something
more accurate and more precise than a Dupla test kit, don't count on the
tables to give you CO2 concentration with anything more than vague
confidence. Buy a REAL CO2 test kit.
> reducing bubble rate... filters have Ammogon and carbon currently.
This COULD be a problem - a properly maintained plant tank should have no
need of Ammogon (your plants will use any ammonia produced by the fish as
fertilizer) and the carbon will just adsorb some of those expensive Dupla
nutrients. Pull BOTH of these out of the filter. Instead of relying on
Carbon, try regular partial water changes.
James Purchase
Toronto