Wierd Thing Happened After Co2 Mix Increase

[AndyTaylor]

OK, Ph 6.5, KH 20 CO2 10ppm. Tank 170L (45Gal)
Buffered with 1 tsp bicarb ans doubled the strength of my CO2 mix. 7 grams of yeast, slightly more sugar than the mark on the canister would rather.
An hour later my tank is full of little white balls of what looked like cotton wool, but tiny. Could be lumps of some kind of salt? There was also a kind of jellylike fungus on the bottom of the bubble ladder.
Will test KH & PH now...

Any Ideas?



Ok . Now KH 40 PH 6.4 CO2 26ppm.
This is pretty much exactly what i want....unbelievable! Now how do i keep the co2 there? As i've just changed the mix is my co2 only building? Should i expect a PH crash?

And what in the name of all things aquatic are those little white balls of something?

 

[houndour]

hmmm, i dont know what these tiny balls are? Are you sure the mixture isn't going up the tube and into the tank?

The fungus like stuff at the bottom of the ladder is normal. Lots of people get it (including me). Sometimes its a pain cos it builds up a lot that the bubbles cant get up the ladder and shoot right to the surface rather than going up the ladder, so it just needs cleaning.

 

[AndyTaylor]

Well, whatever the white stuff was it's gone now. It's possible that the mixture went up the tube, alright.....i'll have to keep an eye on that! Glad to hear that the fungus is normal.

 

[littleimp]

Are these white things floating around or growing on things??

It might be precipitation. You have a very high KH, when you add large amounts of CO2 to calcium enriched water you get alkalinity precipitation. This is a very common occurence in saltwater tanks due to their high KH also. Good cure for this is a large water change to reduce your KH down to normal.

Why do you want your KH @ 40?? That's way to high. Or do you mean 4.0??

 

[AndyTaylor]

The white stuff was floating and your explanation makes perfect sense, littleimp... It was more like clumps of salt than anything else so precipitation would explain it.
My test kit is a 'add a drop at a time and observe the color change' type. I had to add 4 drops to get a color change, multiply by 10 as per instructions, gives me a KH of 40. Is this right? I'm getting more confused every day! My test kit says that KH 40 is optimal - soft water. My KH is 30 out of the tap. I'm aiming for co2 at 30ppm before i upgrade my lighting and i was trying to get my KH to 40 to buffer any PH crash.
I removed my bubble ladder and cleaned off the fungus. the co2 is dissolving as normal and my co2 is sitting at 26ppm since last night.
I'm seeing increased plant growth even with my low lighting and limited fertilising.

Is KH 40 too high? Help?

 

[littleimp]

Oh I see, is that a hagen test kit by any chance??

It's statiing the reading as mg/l most people state it as degrees. 40mg/l = 2.24 so your on the lowish side.
Could still be precipitation though as you had just added bicarb.

You times the mg/l reading by 0.056 to get the degrees.

 

[AndyTaylor]

Doh! That's exactly what it is. KH is 40ppm - PH is 6.5. This gives me co2 at 21ppm. If my KH was 60 i should have co2 at 32ppm which is what i need before i upgrade to t5 and 3.2WPG.
5ml bicarb doubled my KH from 20 to 40. another 5ml should get me to KH 60. Right? or will my KH double again?
I'm headed in the right direction because my plants have taken off. My babytears put on an inch overnight!

Thanks littleimp

 

[littleimp]

This calculatot shows you roughly what you need to be adding.

http/dataguru.org/misc/aquarium/CalKH.as...5&pHChange=0.39

 

[AndyTaylor]

That's the one i was using, ok...just with the wrong info! **** in, **** out ! Another 2.92 tsps to go