Re: O2 at night

[Thomas Barr <tcbiii at earthlink_net>]

> 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.

So you think a rise of .5 to 1.0pH unit over several hours is going to make
a difference in the fish?
I don't think it is going to make a difference with the pH alone. The TDS,
the GH, the KH etc all the same, changing the salt's levels up and down
might cause concern but the pH from gassing of CO2 in/out is not.

I don't buy that notion.

But an idea you can consider is placing the DIY brew bottles on the lighting
ballast, they warm up during the day and increase production and then turn
off at night lowering production.

But CO2 is not the issue here, O2 is. The plants can supply all of that if
you tend to their needs.
 
> I have no problem with not installing O2 at night - just curious.  I do have
> a problem messing with my pH.

Well check the pH as a bottle of DIY ages till you recharge it.
Often they crank the first day, then taper and often have too little CO2
near the end of the recharge.
Your trying to hit a moving target. But most bottles do well for about 10
days.
Gas tanks are worth the expense and are extremely stable/easy and cheap if
you have more than a couple of plant tanks. Sure save a good deal of
headache and time.
 
> "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.

Yucky. That's no good. A number of folks in that boat(not me, I have no
funds to put anywhere). Amano's water is pretty good.
But I had no problems with PO4, high KH, GH etc. My own experiences weigh
more since I know/knew the other water parameters and was able to measure
them. Amano did not seem much on the nutrients/water parameters when he came
here. I learned that the hardness did not make a hill of beans difference,
neither does turning the /cO2 off at night. You gain nothing for the fish
either way.

Folks will cry about this pH issue till they are blue but I've seen no
evidence of this in anyway due to CO2 being turned off at night.
pH swings can effect fish etc(example would be adding a lot of acid or
buffer too fast to a tank etc which might do the harm and evidence like that
is often cited, not additions of CO2 gas then outgassing to raise the pH,
........that's a different experiment). Poor tank conditions can effect pH
from not doing water changes etc, but CO2 off gassing in a planted tank is
not the same thing here.

I do 50% weekly water change every week. I don't adjust the pH of the tap
water, it comes in at 7.7 or higher. The tank's sit at 6.2-6.3 here.
No fish issues. They seem to enjoy it.

That's fairly fast large change. Water changes bad for fish? I think lack of
them are bad. People worry too much about pH other than it's relevance to
plant's needs in planted tanks.

Regards, 
Tom Barr





 




 
  



 
> 
> Thanks for your input, Sharon.

> From: Aquatic-Plants-Owner at actwin_com (Aquatic Plants Digest)
> Reply-To: Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
> Date: Sat, 25 Jan 2003 05:33:14 -0500
> To: Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
> Subject: Aquatic Plants Digest V6 #30
> 
> 
> 
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