Hey y'all- a post from a planted tank newbie here.
I'm working on converting an established 55 gallon fish-only tank to a moderate-heavily planted tank. Along the way, I'm learning so much it feels like college all over again. I swear I'm about ready to take the exams for organic chemistry.
In any case, here's the question- I installed a pressurized CO2 system, with a Milwaukee pH controller. My tank chemistry for testing CO2 when I started was at:
pH : 7.1
KH : 3-4 deg (hard to say, 3 drops made it kinda green, 4 made it yellow)
Anyhow, I consulted 'Chuck's Planted Aquarium Calculator', and that told me I had 7-10ppm of CO2, which is very clearly not enough. I set the controller for a pH target of about 6.6, and let it roll for a while. Actually, for a week and a half, because I went to Hawaii on vacation (couldn't pass it up). Before I left, and while I was gone (had someone watching it for me), I never got the pH below 6.9, and the CO2 never shut off, other than during lights out (I have the solenoid on the lights timer). I was running about 2-3 bubbles per second at that time, it's hard to count that fast.
Since I came back, I decided that I'd like a more neutral pH, so I added bicarbonate of soda slowly over the course of a few days to get a KH of around 10. In the process, the pH came up to about 7.4. I increased the bubble rate, to at least 4 per second (it's even harder to count now). At present, I've got the following stats:
pH : 7.2
KH : 10 deg
The question is this- how long does it take to 'carbonate' the tank? It seems like it should have come up a bit more than it has, the reactor tube is constantly full of bubbles, there's very few bubbles that escape to reach the water's top (and they're near microscopic by that time).
The tank isn't nearly as planted as it needs to be, as I knew I didn't want to buy a bunch of plants before I left for a week, but it does have a fair number of anacharis and cabomba plants that are doing well, along with a few stout grassy plants and a small sword which are infested with a very healthy black brush algae, so I'm going to toss them. I got the initial plants from PetsMart (frustratingly the only LFS in the area), meaning to learn with them then get a decent plant assortment later, keeping anything I didn't kill or maim, and whacking the stuff I didn't do well with. I did learn that I now need a clown loach, thanks to PetsMart's unadvertised special of '10,000 snails with every plant purchase!!'
Anyhow, any tips on how hard I ought to be throwing the gas to the tank? I see that most folks here have smaller than 55 gallons, and I see bubble rates listed of 1-2 per second. Thanks in advance for any advice.
I'm working on converting an established 55 gallon fish-only tank to a moderate-heavily planted tank. Along the way, I'm learning so much it feels like college all over again. I swear I'm about ready to take the exams for organic chemistry.
In any case, here's the question- I installed a pressurized CO2 system, with a Milwaukee pH controller. My tank chemistry for testing CO2 when I started was at:
pH : 7.1
KH : 3-4 deg (hard to say, 3 drops made it kinda green, 4 made it yellow)
Anyhow, I consulted 'Chuck's Planted Aquarium Calculator', and that told me I had 7-10ppm of CO2, which is very clearly not enough. I set the controller for a pH target of about 6.6, and let it roll for a while. Actually, for a week and a half, because I went to Hawaii on vacation (couldn't pass it up). Before I left, and while I was gone (had someone watching it for me), I never got the pH below 6.9, and the CO2 never shut off, other than during lights out (I have the solenoid on the lights timer). I was running about 2-3 bubbles per second at that time, it's hard to count that fast.
Since I came back, I decided that I'd like a more neutral pH, so I added bicarbonate of soda slowly over the course of a few days to get a KH of around 10. In the process, the pH came up to about 7.4. I increased the bubble rate, to at least 4 per second (it's even harder to count now). At present, I've got the following stats:
pH : 7.2
KH : 10 deg
The question is this- how long does it take to 'carbonate' the tank? It seems like it should have come up a bit more than it has, the reactor tube is constantly full of bubbles, there's very few bubbles that escape to reach the water's top (and they're near microscopic by that time).
The tank isn't nearly as planted as it needs to be, as I knew I didn't want to buy a bunch of plants before I left for a week, but it does have a fair number of anacharis and cabomba plants that are doing well, along with a few stout grassy plants and a small sword which are infested with a very healthy black brush algae, so I'm going to toss them. I got the initial plants from PetsMart (frustratingly the only LFS in the area), meaning to learn with them then get a decent plant assortment later, keeping anything I didn't kill or maim, and whacking the stuff I didn't do well with. I did learn that I now need a clown loach, thanks to PetsMart's unadvertised special of '10,000 snails with every plant purchase!!'
Anyhow, any tips on how hard I ought to be throwing the gas to the tank? I see that most folks here have smaller than 55 gallons, and I see bubble rates listed of 1-2 per second. Thanks in advance for any advice.
