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19-01-2009, 08:57 PM | #71 |
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I test for PH, GH, KH, NO2 & NH3/NH4 on a daily basis. It helps me judge when my can fauna arrive, my filter's status and if I need to do more water change. I personally feel that for 20 litres, it is imperative that testing must be done regularly as the worse can happen within a few hours. I usually test 15 mins before the end of my photo period, this gives an accurate result on the outcome of the plants' work for the day just before they go to bed.
Day 1 Readings PH – 6.0 GH – 10 KH – 2 NO2 – 0.25 NH3/NH4 – 8 Day 2 Readings PH – 6.2 GH – 10 KH – 3 NO2 – 0.25 NH3/NH4 – 8 As you can see, GH readings are super high because of the extra CO2 that I am pumping in, Ammonia readings are incredibly scary but its common just after two days. PH has risen by 0.2. 6 litres of water is changed everyday after the photo period to remove the day's extra nutrients. As I am writing this, its day 3 and a few more hours to the next testing. But what I am happy is that so far, there is no algae and hopefully it stays this way. The amount of algae will be a real test as to how effective the 500ml of activated carbon that I have in my filter is. 2ml of Seachem Stability is also added at each water change to help establish my biological filter. Glosso has shown growth after 3 days but all the growth have been leggy. I know that everyone has said that 3 x 9 watts will be enough but I keep thinking about bro blue33's insight that a 27 watts light set is different when compared to 3 x 9 watts lightsets although wattage is the same. So, I went back to petmart today and got another 9 watts, so its now 36 watts. Hopefully this will keep the glosso down and if its too much light, I can always remove the extra 9 watts. I will be purning all the extra leaves that have grown on top of the original ones that I planted and will replant them, making my lawn denser by artificial methods as some bros have wisely adviced me. Thanks to all for that! All in all, I am quite pleased with the growth after 3 days. |
19-01-2009, 08:58 PM | #72 |
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19-01-2009, 11:11 PM | #73 |
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Nice setup... Wat u planing to keep in yr tank?
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19-01-2009, 11:22 PM | #74 |
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I guess the ADA soil you use releases ammonia, to help establish the nitrogen cycle?
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20-01-2009, 12:48 AM | #75 |
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I do have a hint on what to keep, but nothing firm up yet until the scape is established and complete. Creating the perfect environment for my fauna is my goal for the moment.
The ammonia is more for the plants to take in for growth, but I guess it will also help establish the friendly bacteria in my filter, and I do have seachem stability for that too. |
20-01-2009, 07:26 PM | #76 |
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I think my first mistake on this scape has been the over dose of CO2. My GH for the last 3 days has been above 10 and my drop checker shows yellow. I am going to attempt to bring it down without a complete water change.
Eheim outlet is raise to the water surface to create surface agitation, this should dispense the extra CO2. |
20-01-2009, 08:37 PM | #77 |
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I have been "aerating" my tank for the last 3 hours and the drop checker still shows yellow.
Knowing from experience that CO2 escapes very quickly with intense surface agitation and from a very helpful response from a pro, I decided to do a quick KH and PH test and entered my results into a CO2 calculator found on practical fishkeeping magazine's website. pH 6.8 KH 2°/35.71 ppm CO2 level 9.51 ppm approximately So it looks like drop checker is slow or I have mixed the solution wrongly. Since I now know that my tank has only about 10 ppm of CO2, I am going to empty out the drop checker and fill it with my tank water and it should register green. My CO2 has been switched back on and its set at 1 bubble per 2 seconds. Will do another CO2 test again at the end of the photoperiod and get back to you guys. |
21-01-2009, 01:44 AM | #78 |
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Okay, I now know Aqua Soil is messing around with my PH so my drop checker is sort of cheating on me at the moment and a test using KH and PH won't really be accurate.
But, as I did a CO2 test a few hours ago after 18 hours of zero CO2 injection and 3 hours of surface agitation, at least I have something of a benchmark. This was the earlier test, pH 6.8 KH 2°/35.71 ppm CO2 level 9.51 ppm approximately 5 hours later at the end of my photoperiod and a bubble rate of 1 per second, this is the results. pH 6.2 KH 2°/35.71 ppm CO2 level 37.86 ppm approximately PH fell by 0.6 due to the CO2 so at least I can see a rise in the CO2 level. I dun know how accurate is the 37.86 ppm but at least there has been an increase and an average gauge of my CO2 levels. Here are my other test results for Day 4. PH – 6.2 GH - Did not test. KH – 2 NO2 – 0.8 NH3/NH4 – 6 What is very interesting and significant is that NH3/NH4 is going down and at the very same time, NO2 is going up. That can only mean one thing, Nitrosomonas bacteria has come alive and the nitrogen cycle has started!!! All thanks to the heavy dosing of Seachem Stability in the last 4 days and my wonderful Bio Rio. |
21-01-2009, 02:00 AM | #79 |
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wow nice tank keep must have been a lot of work.keep updating us on the progress
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21-01-2009, 02:12 AM | #80 |
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