Re: [APD] Flourish iron & KH drop

["Kevin Buckley" <kevin at buckley70_freeserve.co.uk>]

That's what I wondered ...

Actually I hope so.

If it is the Flourish iron it would be good to discuss how to counteract the problem as I'd really like to continue to use it as Seachem seem to make quite good products.

A little while ago I also "upgraded" my gravel by adding a 7kg bag of Flourite (when I originally set-up the tank I knew nothing about aquatic gardening!).

My MTS's have now "ploughed it in" & it seems to be a better substrate for the plants.

It looks better also.

BTW - Someone mentioned that it would be better not to use a controller & run the CO2 "open-loop" (with a solenoid connected to the lights timer).

I can see why some people might want to do that.

I used to do that & the only real problem I ever had was if the filter started to get clogged.  At that point, the water flow would start to slow & the CO2 concentration would rise.  As long as you keep an eye on it, it's no problem.

& perhaps no worse than the problems associated with using pH as a proxy for CO2 concentration (given the unseen changes that can occur to the levels of KH).

However, once I upgraded my lights to 6 x CF (55W each) I was forced to "close the loop" & reconnect the solenoid valve.

The reason is that, with the lights on, the demand for CO2 rises massively (& delivers really great plant development).  If I set the bubble rate high enough to satisfy the actual CO2 demand by the plants then, if plant growth became limited by lack of some other nutrient, they would stop using the CO2 & the increased concentration would certainly be fatal to the fish.

Using the controller solves that problem.

& for the record, I have the controller connected to a timer!

It comes on about an hour before the lights - to get the CO2 concentration in the water column up, & goes off around the same time as the lights.

Kevin


*******************

Maybe we will hear from Dr. Morin.
 
sh
 
----- Original Message ----
From: Kevin_Buckley at uk.neceur.com
To: aquatic-plants at actwin_com
Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2006 4:38:27 PM
Subject: Re: [APD] Flourish iron & KH drop


It's not organic acids.  As I said in the original post, I added 5ml of 
Flourish iron to 2L of tapwater & in 30 minutes the KH dropped from 10 
degrees to 7.5 degrees.  Nothing else added!

Anyway, I know the rate at which the KH drops in my 50g - I've been 
running it (& monitoring it) continuously since 1997.  It's definitely the 
Flourish iron which I've just started using.

At the moment I use Sodium Bicarbonate if I (rarely) have to adjust KH.  I 
don't want to add anything with Calcium in it because my GH is naturally 
very high.

I'd like to try using Potassium Bicarbonate (because I don't really want 
to add Sodium) but I can't find a supplier in the UK.

Regards, Kevin

>I'm suspecting that organic acids that form in the tank between water 
changes are taking >down the KH, and that it doesn't necessarily have a 
direct connection to the Flourish Iron.
> 
>If I wanted to increase KH, I'd add calcium carbonate or baking soda, 
which I do with each >water change just because my tapwater has virtually 
no carbonates.
> 
>sh
> 
>----- Original Message ----
>
>>Kevin Buckley wrote:
>>
>>This seems to have prompted responses concerning the value of pH 
>>controllers in CO2 systems!!
>>
>>Regardless of that, it would seem to be undesirable to have a rapidly 
>>reducing KH (from 9deg --> ~2deg in just under 2 weeks).
>>
>>Do those of you who use Flourish Iron compensate for this by some other 
>>means?
>>
>>Regards, Kevin
>>
>>>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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