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Tap water mystery
Thanks to all for their input on the above.
Given all that has been said it would appear that the co2 readings are
false and are most likely from disolved organinic or humic acids in the
water.
After reading the posts reguarding this thread I think the additional
information bears this out: we live next to a shallow, spring fed, 15
acre lake and our well, even though it goes down 100 feet, hits a
powerful aquifier at about 40 feet which usually means it's mostly
likely source is surface water (loaded with organic matter), from the
suroundng hills, or even, to some degree, the lake itself, whose bottom
is loaded with organic debris. The water also has about 13.2 ppm
nitrate, possibly indicating some biological activity going on down
there.
This being the case, there is another thing I don't fully understand.
The water in the 55 gal heavily planted discus tank seams to be, to some
extent, devoid of the high concentration of acids found in the tap
water. The ph, with no co2 injection and the same Kh as the tap, is
greater than 7 (sorry for the approximation, I'm writing from work and
from memory, the data is home). The tank is on an automatic water
changing system that replaces about 10 gal per day. The ph with the co2
on(1 bubble per 3 seconds) is usually around 6.6 but drops down to 6.2
after the water change and then rather quickly, over several hours, goes
back to 6.6.
Does the ecology of the tank somehow use up or change the character of
whatever acids are in the tap water? And does the above additional
information help point to which acids I'm dealing with? Also even
though most of the plants are doing good, some like Rotala and E.
hormanii are prolific, some others are not doing well at all, such as
the ferns both java and bolbitis (sp.?) Could the acids be adversly
affecting some plants and helping others? Or is it more likely due to
the high 85 temp?
Ed Hengel