Ok then the above makes perfect sense. But I'm not making my suggestion due to his KH test but based on the fact his color changes from blue to yellow in 20min and the rapid change from yellow to blue? Unless he has Co2 blowing in directly into his DC which would explain the rapid color change to yellow, but I did not get that based on his description. How would you explain the change from yellow to blue in 5 min? Maybe his Bromothymol Blue is Bro something else?

I have been using DC's for a while and my experience under Mazzei injection has never yielded such rapid results and my PH pulldown is very efficient. My change from greenish yellow to blue also does not have such rapid a change either.

ccLansman:
How Many drop of Bromothymol Blue do you add to your DC and When was the last time you changed it?





Why you let your Co2 drop to levels to allow BBA to grow or have varying Co2 ranges depending on what plant growth you want is a little perplexing to me But you have more experience than ccLans with using Co2 and therefore have a better sense of whats going on with your Co2. He cannot afford to settle IMO in his early stages with Co2 so he needs to get it as accurate as he can at this point.



I 100%disagree with you on this because it will have an impact on transition time. DC's should be refreshed a max of 3 weeks if one is after fairly accurate range.



Well I have never had a issue with using Matrix Carbon which I' have been using for months and I use about 14oz. Per Seachem Matrix Carbon is not like the regular carbon, so if this were the case then I would have to say I would experince this as well and I do not.

I also have to add Ca/Mg to RO/DI water but like I said I do not experience such issues. Based on my experience with plant health/growth I would recommend Carbon, Matrix or other.... highly.

the DC solution is about three days old. I add two drops per the bottles call, and 1ml of 4DKH

That mix is good ( I use 1.5ml KH standard with 2drps BroBlue)

Since this has been put out there and say the DC is up to speed, lets see if other factors are possibly causing an issue.

How high of the substrate is it mounted? Is it possible the Co2 enriched water heads directly to the DC from the return, maybe a powerhead blowing the water in that direction?

Not on purpose...duh!! Believe you me....if I could avoid bba altogether I would!! (what a terrible pain it is) It's diy co2, and I don't always catch it in time, when production slows. Plus production starts off high, and then gradually lessens, giving me a chance to observe the effect on my plants/algae more so than if I had constant co2 levels and never saw what happens at varying levels.


Could just be a coincidence. Even if not, it's probably such a specific set of circumstances that all contributed to whatever this issue is, that I've been unable to determine, that it's not an observation that can be generalized to everyone who uses carbon. I just won't be trying it again personally, in my tanks.

Probably so, I never really measured or took notice of transition time. With diy, it takes a while to change anyway just because the injection is not consistent. I know it has no trouble changing color within a few hours. Not sure, though, how long in between, like if it took 1 hour at first and now it takes 4, I have no idea. If I was having issues, I would change it. Just too lazy to mix up 4KH water right now. But if in doubt, change it out.

I agree that it isn't possible for a drop checker to change color that fast unless the tank water has many times more CO2 in it than the drop checker when it is yellow. That suggests that the 4 dKH is more like .4 dKH.

When I am late changing my drop checker solution the color seems to just vary slightly from green, no matter what else happens. And, much worse, the dye weakens so the color is very faint, making it hard to even know if it has changed.
I also disagree. DC solution contains a dye, so for that reason alone it needs to be changed often. Dyes do fade with time.

well i know my solution is not .4 dkh for sure since the serena kits confirms 4. Im running the inline reactor, i guess the ppm of co2 could be 50+ but if that were the case the fish would be dead or activly sucking air at the top which they are not and i would have at least a few plants pearling.

the checker is near the top of the tank, about 2-3 inches below the water level, the spray bar is blowing in the general direction but its on the other side of the tank, cant see it shooting co2 directly into the thing.

The lowest you can get it the better.



My thoughts as well but I had to put it out there.

I suggest again to purchase the known good KH standard and if you have a PH test kit use the Bromothymol Blue included in kit to eliminate the Red Sea's Bro whatever suspicions.

well i just purchased some 4 dkh and a new drop checker. Also here are two pics of my plants, one is of an old anubis leaf another is a brand new one they dont look right to me but ill let you guys be the judges.

New leaf looks really nice to me. But those algae-covered ones in the foreground tell me that new one will be covered itself soon. I'd remove those or at least do a bleach dip.

Removing such slow growing leaves like anubias can be tough to do. I removed a lot from some BBA-affected anubias myself about three weeks ago. A few plants were mere leafless rhizomes afterwards! But in only a couple adays I had loads of new roots coming and now a new leaf is being added about every week.

great thanks for the heads up, it looked a little yellow is why i asked. I am planning on doing a bleach dip today as im going to rescape and pick a final look, also building a diy spray bar across the back fo the tank and hooking up my second filter.