[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: 20 gallon

> Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2001 17:03:02 -0500
> From: "AM" <amumma at tampabay_rr.com>
> Subject: Hard water and softening pillows
> 
>> If you leave it alone all you'll need to adjust is your pH. Use CO2 to do
>> this. It's that simple. Simple is good.
>> My GH is 24. KH is about 8. You'll need to use CO2 to drop your pH down to
>> 7.2 or so.
>> But if you want to climb Mt Everest to get across the street that's fine by
>> me:) I won't try to sell you a RO unit or a softener. Learning how to use
>> CO2 is about 75% of this hobby and can trace most of folk's problem to this
>> one thing.
>> Regards,
>> Tom Barr
> 
> So how much CO2 should I be injecting via DIY Coke bottles?  By the scale
> available on the Krib, my CO2 levels are roughly 20-22ppm right now, which
> seem to be in the acceptable range.  Right now I have one bottle going, but
> I have it set up so I can add another bottle rather easily.  Should I add
> this second bottle?  Should I invest in a CO2 test to get more accurate
> measurements or just go by the chart on the Krib?  From what it seemed my
> parameters are off the chart abit.  in order to adjust the PH to 7.2 from
> 7.6 should I increase the CO2 or lower it?

Stick with a decent pH and KH kit and the table. For a 20 gallon tank it
should be fine with one bottle. If your sitting at close to 20ppm of CO2
based on that- your in great shape. Now the trick is to keep it there from
now on. You'll need to keep up on your bottle changes otherwise the tank
will go south on you and the pH will go up and algae will appear. With the
amount of light you have it would be wise to have a good amount of algae
cleaners like Otto's, shrimps, snails, SAE's etc in case you forget. It
happens:) I did this for 10 years or so, so I know very well the reasons and
problems with this. That's how I know how to fix algae issues very well.
I've had many many bouts and it mostly revolves around CO2 issues.
Folks with gas tank CO2 seldom have these problems and if they do it's
because they have a bad reactor set up. Yeast folks tend not to have have
enough CO2 but never kill their fish with it either.
If you wish to lower your pH from 7.6 down to 7.2 then you will need a bit
more CO2, not a whole bottle but perhaps at 1/2 to 1/3 the bottle/yeast
amount. You will need to watch things and see what the different experiments
of yeast and bottle sizes give you to drop it to the good range for you.
> 
> BTW, thank you for  all the help, you and all the list have provided.  I
> can't seem to read enough these days to answer all my questions, and after I
> find one answer another question seems to come from it, never-ending and
> steep learning curve for now.

Just worry about CO2 for now. That is the biggest thing for folks starting
in this hobby. Probably always will be.
If that's taken care of (CO2 and lighting) the rest is not to hard to handle
and figure out. Lighting is pretty simple and consistent, CO2....not so
much.
Regards, 
Tom Barr