Planted FW tanks, substrate, pH and CO2 questions ..

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by Cugio

Hey Tony, I have the same Red Sea co2 reactor and it does a very good job. But you have to keep it clean which means washinging it out every 3 weeks. Since you haven't done a water change for a while, i'm sure it's efficiency has been minimized.

Actually I do keep the reactor reasonably clean. It's more a question of being forced into it - I have these little snails (ramshorn maybe? But tiny) that get in there and jam it up otherwise, so I have to take it apart completely to get those things out of there.

When I reset the CO2 initiative, I soaked it in a mild muriatic acid solution because it was covered in algae. Hair algae is the bane of this tank's existence and scraping it off wasn't cutting it (well, poor choice of words, it was ONLY cutting it, only for it to come back quickly). After its little bath there it was spotless and shiny and remains so still luckily.

Actually, a lot of plant people are moving over to sumps. You do have to crank up the co2 a bit but it should still be measureable (unlike your circumstance). Tom Barr (estimative index - plant guru) has a thread on his site going about his own tank with sump. It's been doing very well and he has no problems optimizing the co2 levels.

This is good to know, thanks. It's funny but I totally took this FW tank and applied a reef tank mentality towards it. It's been reasonably fun except when I had itty bitty fish keep going over the overflow. Between adding mesh to the overflow and not getting too small a fish it's gotten better.

I would keep that Tunze turned on, just don't point it towards the water surface. You just want enough surface agitation to move a few circles around. With your overflow, there is no need to worry about any scum build up.

Yes this is a nice benefit to this approach.

How is your drip plate setup? Is the water tumbling into a filter pad and then dispersed via a drip plate?

Exactly as you describe - filter floss and drip plate.

Try cleaning the reactor first. You can completely dissassemble the clear plastic part. the bottom round circle needs to be pulled off with pliers. You need to take the impeller out and give the motor a good rinse too. Then dial your co2 to 2 bubbles per minute. I like to put vegetable oil into my bubble counter verus using water. Refill your co2 drop checker/indicator and check with again in 24 hours.

2 bubbles per minute? I don't think I can dial back my regulator and needle valve that much.

Water flow and movement is very important. The more circulation the faster the co2 can spread. It sounds like you don't have a drop checker and are measuring with a test kit?

Er .. no, I'll say no since I have no idea what a drop checker is. For testing pH I've used both a pH test kit and a pH meter. Had the pH meter from the days of running a calcium reactor on the reef tank, same reason I have the 20lb cylinder actually.

What is a drop checker, can you post a link by any chance? (I'll google for it too in the meantime but please and thank you anyhow )