Questions Piled Up

hurricanejedi

hurricanejedi

AC Members
Apr 4, 2005
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Raleigh, NC
www.flowerspride.com
So I've been waiting for Feb 1st to come around so the web site would be back up as my questions have been piling up.

1)I've tested my water for Kh and Gh. My KH is 4 and my GH is 5. Eventually I'm going to be adding co2 injection and from what I've heard that could make things unstable if you have soft water? Should I add some shells to my filter? I have an Eheim Canister and some small shells but I don't completely understand what an optimal level would be.

2)When my cycle is finished and I add a full bioload I've been recommended to add a salt treatment as I'm adding so many fish at once. If I do this how long is the salt in the water because eventually I'll be adding plants and shrimp which won't tolerate the salt as well.

3)I've been looking into making my co2 injection system. I found a product, Red Sea co2 Reactor 200, its supposed to have an integrated check valve, bubble counter, and diffuses the co2 into the water. Has anyone used it? So I would hook up my 2L bottle with the airline tube out the cap and hook it to this diffuser and that would be it? I mean that makes life simple but don't know if its good to do that way?
Red Sea CO2 Reactor 200

4)Should I get something to test my c02 levels?


As an update my cycle is coming along really well. I'm doing daily dosing of ammonia now. Yesterday it went from 3ppm to .5ppm and today I'm guessing it might be down to 0 from 3. I guess the second stage of the cycle has to get going now :) .
 
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3) Correct, you just hook it up to the airline. Although you could probably make the product yourself if you are interested in do it yourself projects. It probably wouldn't save you any money in the long run, but it's not a complicated piece of equipment. Check valves cost less than a dollar at walmart I believe, and a bubblecounter is not much more than a jar of water with your airhose running to the bottom and another piece of hose attached to the lid. Personally I would move the bubble counter out of the aquarium, possibly attaching them to the top or side of your 2L (so it takes up less space in the aquarium).

To be safe, I'll let a plant person answer the rest ;)
 
1. You'll need to monitor the CO2 levels, and probably will need to buffer the water some to prevent the pH from dipping too low. Frequent water changes would also work, but adding sea shells to the tank (or crushed coral) in small amounts is a bit easier if you don't do large water changes. If you do large water changes, you'll want to pre-treat the water as well so you don't cause a massive change in parameters with the change. There isn't a precise amount of shells to use--you'll have to experiment with what number creates a stable KH value. Since you'll be adding CO2, you'll have to make the changes when the CO2 goes in so you can deal with the reduction in KH from the additional acid.

2. No. Salt is a good medicine to treat specific ailments, but poor as a prophalactic unless you know you'll be dealing with one of the things salt willhelp with. Adding the fish and then monitoring to determine if any need treatment of any kind will be better.

3. No clue, sorry I can't help!

4. There's an equation you can use with the pH, and hardness to determine CO2 levels--it's listed in the planted forum in more than one thread.
 
Off topic but, OrionGirl, whenever i'm reading your replies and your avatar is in the corner of my eye it becomes a pile of dung. It's the shape and color and highlights and the fact that it is already abstract that when out of focus becomes dog poop. Is that intentional?
 
Thanks for the answers! Maybe I should just put the shells near my filter intake? That way I can take it out and modify the amount as needed (its a bit difficult to get inside my filter). How long will it take before I notice a change in the Kh?

The idea of doing the whole co2 injection system has been a little overwhelming. I'm understanding a lot of it but when I saw how simple it could be and really not that expensive I thought that this reactor might be a really good choice. I think I'm going to go with it.
 
Be cheaper and far simpler to just use a wash bottle and a ceramic or wood diffuser. It's $2 versus the $16 reactor.

A KH of 4 is fine. IMHO you don't need to buffer at all. Mine is 2 out of the tap and with buffer I'm at 4. What is your pH?

Don't bother with CO2 testers. They don't work at all. Even the ones you stick in your tank are useless. CO2 is monitored by testing the pH and KH -- and I forget the formula 'cause my software does it for me ;)

If you check in the Aquatic Plants forum there are tons of threads on CO2 and a DIY CO2 sticky.

Roan
 
hurricanejedi said:
2)When my cycle is finished and I add a full bioload I've been recommended to add a salt treatment as I'm adding so many fish at once. If I do this how long is the salt in the water because eventually I'll be adding plants and shrimp which won't tolerate the salt as well.
Click to expand...
Where'd you hear that and what was the reasoning for it?

Roan
 
I think the pH is 7.4 or 7.6 (I have it written down at home). That is a lot lower than right out of the tap which is >8. I still need to test my taps Kh and GH. I think some buffering might be happening because I heard Eco-Complete buffers a little? If I don't need to add anything and a Kh of 4 is fine then that makes my life simpler. I'm just really worried about a pH crash. How often should I test my pH and Kh? Is it necessary to test my Gh as often?
 
Roan Art said:
Where'd you hear that and what was the reasoning for it?

Roan
Click to expand...
Somewhere in another thread where I talked about my preffered stock list. The reasoning was the salt kills a lot of things and since I was adding so many fish at once without quarantine it might be easier than waiting to see if one of my new fish carried something.
 
I've always pre-emptively treated all my fish in QT with salt to knock out any parasites. They might not show any symptoms but it only takes one ich cyst in the gills on a fish that has developed resistance to ich to cause an infestation. I guess its do-able in the main tank when you first set it up just make sure when you add anything living (plants, shrimp ...) you QT them for at least 2 weeks in another tank before you add them into the main tank. I salt for about 14 days in my QT without any problems.
 
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