Co2 And Ph

Waterloo Kid

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Feb 21, 2003
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Cardiff, Wales, UK
Right then, I've just bought a second hand JBL Profi 2 kit from a fellow board member and I'm just waiting for it to arrive. In the meantime I've been testing my pH in the mornings and in the evenings to see what sort of CO2 uptake I've got to deal with. Well, I am rather suprised!
At lights on my pH is pretty much 7.0. After 12 hours of 1.9wpg (2x39W T8 and 2x54W T5 bulbs) my pH is up to over 8.0. I'm guessing that this is due to my super soft water with a KH of 2-3 Anyway, that means that I start off with next to nothing and end up with nothing! Roll on pressurised CO" I say!

One strange thing that I've noticed is that my plants keep pearling like crazy all day. There's no drop off throughout the day. If anything the pearling increases. Can plants store CO2 for later use?

WK
 
I take it you're using yeast CO2 at the moment?

That pH shift sounds a lot to me, mine tends to go from 6.4 to 6.6/8 by lights off. Guess it could be due to the effectiveness of the yeast during the day? Not sure. Oh and the lower KH of the water doesn't affect anything, the KH/pH/CO2 relationship is fixed in concrete, so whether the tank has 2dKH or 15dKH its the same. A higher KH doesn't affect the CO2 it just affects the pH.

The pearling thing sounds normal, the plants will need time to get things working first thing in the morning, and will be running at max by lights out.

Sam
 
No CO2 right now. Until recently I was only at about 0.8 wpg so didn't need any.
Looking at the charts for CO2/KH/pH and assuming a fixed usage of CO2 during the day you can see that for lower KH values the pH change wil be greater. Of course this assumes a constant CO2 usage!

Anyway, roll on next week when I get the CO2 system up and running.

WK
 

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