A question about substrate depth
- Thread starter scottracy
- Start date
You can add fish and fertilize any time you'd like, but I would give the plants time to acclimate themselves before adding fish, especially considering the new CO2 system you're going to install.
Getting the pH right and level with plants only is the way I would do it.
I've always had better results, when setting up a new environment, by allowing the plants time to set themselves up before fertilizing. When I've added nutrients sooner I've had algae issues. IMO, they don't need extra nutrients for even longer than a week. They usually come loaded.
If you plant well stored plants in a new tank they don't immediately take off and don't use extra nutrients.......but we all know what does.
Let us know which way you go and the results.
Len
Getting the pH right and level with plants only is the way I would do it.
I've always had better results, when setting up a new environment, by allowing the plants time to set themselves up before fertilizing. When I've added nutrients sooner I've had algae issues. IMO, they don't need extra nutrients for even longer than a week. They usually come loaded.
If you plant well stored plants in a new tank they don't immediately take off and don't use extra nutrients.......but we all know what does.
Let us know which way you go and the results.
Len
The work I plan on doing is on my existing 55g. Its easy to wait on dosing ferts. On the other hand, I dont have a good place to put the current inhabitants for a week after the upgrade to allow new plants time to acclimate. The only other tank I have is a 10g Q tank. I am open to suggestions. Thanks as always!
Scott
Scott
Since you already have the fish in the tank, you need to start very slowly with your injection.
Start in the morning at lights on. If you don't have a bubble counter or a reactor that you can count bubbles in, just take the end of the airline and stick it into the water and set the needle valve at one bubble every two seconds coming out of the end of the line. Then insert it into your reactor and wait 2hrs and test you pH to find CO2ppm.
You can then start to adjust your needle valve, in very small increments, to increase flow and thereby lower pH to the desired level. I would test every two hours or so, so that by lights out time you are no higher than 20ppm/CO2.
This will give you a cushion to keep the fish safe during lights out and you'll be able to see how much of a point drop your particular tank will get during the night. Then you can fine tune your flow from there.
I'm just very cautious with the fish in this regard. This is how I've started every one of my tanks, regardless of size, when first injecting and it's worked out well for the fish.
Now I rarely have to touch the needle valves at all. They stay rock steady for me.
Len
Start in the morning at lights on. If you don't have a bubble counter or a reactor that you can count bubbles in, just take the end of the airline and stick it into the water and set the needle valve at one bubble every two seconds coming out of the end of the line. Then insert it into your reactor and wait 2hrs and test you pH to find CO2ppm.
You can then start to adjust your needle valve, in very small increments, to increase flow and thereby lower pH to the desired level. I would test every two hours or so, so that by lights out time you are no higher than 20ppm/CO2.
This will give you a cushion to keep the fish safe during lights out and you'll be able to see how much of a point drop your particular tank will get during the night. Then you can fine tune your flow from there.
I'm just very cautious with the fish in this regard. This is how I've started every one of my tanks, regardless of size, when first injecting and it's worked out well for the fish.
Now I rarely have to touch the needle valves at all. They stay rock steady for me.
Len
