Tom - if KH moves, I'm screwed. Mine's usually around 4.
But KH is always going to move unless I reconstitute RO water, which I'm not inclined to do at the moment.
There are a couple of issues here - first is CO2 stability. I feel like the instability comes from turning it off at night and on again in the morning. I used to keep my CO2 on 24 hours with pH controller and things felt more stable and I was able to grow Tonina, Lud Pantanal, and Nesea and other touchy plants better when CO2 was constant day and night. Sure, probe could crap out. But I feel strongly that the day/night on/off cycle is throwing off the stability I used to see. That mythical 'plateau' style CO2 concentration has been a little difficult to achieve. My pH is not at 6.1 or 6.2 (where i want it) when the lights come on even though I have the CO2 turning on a couple hours before. This could be reactor inadequacy too. Instead of driving the CO2 super hard during the day and stressing out the fish and never quite getting to the CO2 levels I want and then completely slacking off at night, wouldn't it be better to have the CO2 stable 24/7, even at a slightly lower level?
The second issue is that of using pH probes. I don't understand the resistance to using probes. Sure, they are prone to glitches. No argument there. And they need regular calibration. But at least they give me some sense of what I'm doing. Somewhere to draw the line. I don't understand how one could dose gobs of CO2 into a system without any metrics. Short of having a CO2 probe (which I'd be willing to buy if I could find a good one), a pH probe appears to be the second best solution. No?
For what it's worth, new Rotala leaves are growing in fine. Algae are turning grey and dying off. For the first time in a year, no GDA or BGA.
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Tom - if KH moves, I'm screwed. Mine's usually around 4.
But KH is always going to move unless I reconstitute RO water, which I'm not inclined to do at the moment.
There are a couple of issues here - first is CO2 stability. I feel like the instability comes from turning it off at night and on again in the morning. I used to keep my CO2 on 24 hours with pH controller and things felt more stable and I was able to grow Tonina, Lud Pantanal, and Nesea and other touchy plants better when CO2 was constant day and night. Sure, probe could crap out. But I feel strongly that the day/night on/off cycle is throwing off the stability I used to see. That mythical 'plateau' style CO2 concentration has been a little difficult to achieve. My pH is not at 6.1 or 6.2 (where i want it) when the lights come on even though I have the CO2 turning on a couple hours before. This could be reactor inadequacy too. Instead of driving the CO2 super hard during the day and stressing out the fish and never quite getting to the CO2 levels I want and then completely slacking off at night, wouldn't it be better to have the CO2 stable 24/7, even at a slightly lower level?
The second issue is that of using pH probes. I don't understand the resistance to using probes. Sure, they are prone to glitches. No argument there. And they need regular calibration. But at least they give me some sense of what I'm doing. Somewhere to draw the line. I don't understand how one could dose gobs of CO2 into a system without any metrics. Short of having a CO2 probe (which I'd be willing to buy if I could find a good one), a pH probe appears to be the second best solution. No?
For what it's worth, new Rotala leaves are growing in fine. Algae are turning grey and dying off. For the first time in a year, no GDA or BGA.
