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Re: [APD] Flourish iron & KH drop
I don't use a PH controller, nor do I use Flourish Iron, but I see in
your question why I decided emphatically not to use a PH controller.
The fallacy that leads us to want a PH controller is the belief that by
controlling PH we are controlling CO2. And, that simply isn't the
case. The PH controller is dumb as a stump! It will try to hold the
PH above a set point, and isn't even remotely interested in CO2
concentration. In my opinion, CO2 concentration should logically be
controlled by setting the needle valve on the regulator system to hold
the "bubble rate" at the constant value that it takes to keep the CO2
concentration where we want it. If we do that, losses of KH, or
increases in KH, or buffering will not reduce or increase CO2
concentration - which is the goal. Is my logic wrong?
Vaughn H.
On Wednesday, March 22, 2006, at 03:54 PM, Kevin Buckley wrote:
> I just started using Flourish iron &, after a while, I noticed that my
> plants had stopped pearling.
>
> I have injected CO2 & 330W of CF lighting in a 50g.
>
> I then noticed that, as I added a capful of Flourish iron, my pH
> dropped a little.
>
> I tested my KH & found that, over a period of several days, my KH had
> dropped from 160ppm to 50ppm.
>
> The reason the pearling had stopped was that my CO2 controller (set to
> pH = 7.3) was no longer injecting CO2!!
>
> I added a few teaspoons of Sodium Bicarbonate to raise the KH &
> everything returned to normal.
>
> I just did a quick test ...
>
> My tapwater has a KH of 180ppm. I added 5ml of Flourish iron to 2L of
> tapwater & waited 30m.
>
> The KH had dropped to 140ppm.
>
> Has anyone else had this problem?
>
> Regards, Kevin
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> Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
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>
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