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Re: O2 at night



Tom Barr's response:

"You ate a double myth burger:-) First,  DIY CO2 is _EASY_ to turn on/off.
There are at least 2 simple ways to do it."

"Adding CO2 is not about maintaining a controlled pH, it's about supplying
enough CO2 for the plants when and only when the lights are on. That's why
we add CO2, pH is a parameter to measure the CO2 with the buffer, the
KH(HCO3). Folks seem to think pH control is what it is about, it is not,
it's about getting a good CO2 level in the tank when the plants need to CO2.
ph is simply a measurement."

My response - Yes, its dead easy to turn off / divert the CO2.  As a retired 
Nuc. E. and cattle rancher, I expect I could come up with an adequate system. 
Actually, I am using CO2 both for fertilizer and for pH control.  Tom, you 
suggested I increase my CO2 to pull my pH down to 7.2 using Chuck Gadd's (or 
was it KRIB?) calculator.  My well water pH at the tap is 8.1 after 
off-gassing saturated CO2.  I had been running sufficient CO2 to get the pH 
down to 7.4 - 7.5.  I began using a Rena micro bubbler rather than putting 
the airline into the filter intake (which worked as well as other system with 
which I experimented).  These are cheap, work great (slight chirp) and I have 
the pH down to 7.2 in all 6 tanks.  As far a pH swings goes, initially there 
were high swings (7.5 to 7.8 or 7.9) from house temperature variations. ( 
Large log home / open design / far northwoods / wood stove heat / house cools 
at night.)  I now have all CO2 bottles in heated water containers = constant 
pH and higher CO2 production.  If I were to redirect the CO2 at night, I 
expect I'd be up to a pH of 8.1 in quick order.  I can run that experiment in 
a plant nursery tank with no fish.  Most of the rainbowfish are hardy except 
G. wanamensis; M. kamaka probably marginal and they were hard to come by. 

I have no problem with not installing O2 at night - just curious.  I do have 
a problem messing with my pH. 

"Amano seems to do quite well as do I with all the fish plants we grow. We
both turn it off at night. Just look at Amano's sick fish and plants:-)"

I'm sure Amano isn't trying to deal with water with characteristics of pH 8.1 
and KH of 16, GH of 20; 6 tanks insufficiently close to share systems with 
cheap HOB Whisper filters w/ DIY CO2 systems nor a  typical GOCO fixed 
retirement. He was also probably smart enough to not put significant savings 
into mutual funds. 

Thanks for your input, Sharon.



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