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Re: CO2 Measurements
On Mon, 29 Nov 1999, Ivo Busko wrote:
> There has been a number of posts lately about peat wreaking havoc with
> the pH/kH/CO2 relationship. I saw a *huge* effect when adding a small bag
> with about 200 ml of fine ground gardening sphagnum peat to my aquarium.
> With everything else kept the same, including kH and the CO2 bubbling rate,
> in less than two days the pH dropped from 6.4 - 6.6 to below 6.0 (the lower
> limit of my test kit). The pH had been stable for several months before, only
> occasionaly raising to the 6.8 - 7.0 range when the CO2 yeast is near
> exhaustion (tap water has pH = 7.4). So in this case in particular the
> introduction of peat in the water *did* break up the relationship.
Did you measure alkalinity as well as pH? The acids in the peat could
reduce the alkalinity without dissolving into the water. That would drop
the pH but would not invalidate the pH-KH-CO2 relationship.
Roger Miller