pH crash?

If that's 2X65 watts CF you can grow a lot of nice low/med. light plants with that lighting.
CO2 would aid in the growth of the plants but I would suggest getting some more plants as well.
Some Anubia and/or Java Fern would look great attached to the wood. Some stem plants such as Ludwigia repens and some more Cryptocoryne.
I found, when starting out with DIY/CO2, in my 55s that it took two reactors daisy- chained together to get anywhere near the concentration of CO2 that I wanted into the water table. I was injecting it, at that time, through an HOB filter similar to yours. That is not the best way to go, however it does work if you get a decent bubble rate and muffle the water coming out of the filter at the return to minimize surface disturbance.

As to your original question regarding a pH crash. I am finding after years of being cautious about injecting with low kH buffer, that there are two schools of thought on this issue. I don't know what your water's kH is but with DIY CO2 you will not be getting the kind of concentrations of gas that would threaten your fish, IMO.
This may be academic however, because as I read and search for information I'm coming to the conclusion that the kH/CO2 issue is not nearly as critical as I've believed it to be in the past.

Len
 
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Thanks Len. I picked up 6 more bunches of plants today. Some more moneywart and and a couple of water wisteria. When I setup the CO2 I'm going to diffuse it with glass diffuser that has a ceramic diffusing disk on it. Would I be better off placing the diffuser on the HOB filter or placing it in the aquarium itself?

SKEL
 
I would try it directly under the intake of the filter so that much of the mist will go up into and through the filter. Some of the mist probably won't, but much should.
You want to get that mist exposed to the water for as long as possible so that it is absorbed.
Don't forget to put a piece of filter sponge across the return ramp of the filter to deaden the surface disturbance. Keeping the water level high will also help.
Be sure and keep an eye on that ceramic wafer for accumulated gunk from the reactor.
DIY can load them up. If this occurs it limits the effectiveness of the disk and also can create back pressure in the reactor, which can cause problems.

Len
 
That makes sense. Running the CO2 rich water through the intake and past the impeller would lengthen H20 contact time considerably. Thanks for all your help!!

SKEL
 
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