Re: [APD] Mearuring Ph and CO2

["Liz Wilhite" <satirica at gmail_com>]

On 12/6/06, Vaughn Hopkins <hoppycalif at yahoo_com> wrote:
>
>
> I'm not wedded to the idea that ample CO2 will inhibit BBA growth
> from starting, but until I see a good argument that it doesn't, and
> the good arguments that it does get refuted, I will continue to make
> this argument.


Which brings to mind an old saying that when your only tool is a hammer,
everything looks like a nail.  Seems that whenever we get a new tool we seem
to forget all about the old tools and the population of nails increases
exponentially. :)

I recently found that I am not the only person to see a correlation between
dosing CSM+B and having a BBA outbreak.  When I read one person's comment,
made in passing, and asked about it he replied that not only did it happen
to him but everyone he knew with a planted tank who had the same water
supply that he has and started dosing CSM+B.  People in the same city on a
different water supply didn't have that problem.  Other people online have
reported the same correlation, and have universally gotten the same
response:  the problem is CO2. Writing that your problem was solved by a
different approach is heresy, because the current religion casts CO2 in the
role of The Omnipotent. I can't speak for anyone else, but increasing CO2 to
the point of fish keeling over did nothing at all for my tank except lower
the fish load.  Stopping CSM+B dosing stopped BBA growth.  My general
thoughts on the matter are if you have BBA first check your CO2 levels.  If
that doesn't work stop adding micros and see what happens.

What I thought made Bill and Scott's posts hilarious is that not a year ago
I was reading that the only people with BBA are people who used pH
controllers, and that people should just add CO2 and watch their plants.
Now we need not only simple pH controllers but probe condoms as well.  I'm
all for probe condoms, even though a 15 minutes response time to changes in
CO2 is not really necessary.  The beauty of drop checkers for technogeeks,
and I are one, is that you can use it for a week and not ever need it again
if all you use it for is simply to calibrate your pH meter for a setting
that shuts off the CO2 at the right levels.  That lets me see the pretty ADA
glass beetle knockoff in my tank give off pretty streams of bubbles, instead
of using no pH controller and an inline reactor that gives 100% CO2
efficiency, which is neither pretty nor technogeeky despite the fact you can
grow great plants that way.

That cheeky Bill and his plant watching!

-- 
Liz
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