yet another co2 question

[RYO]

Im planing on using a co2 system on my planted 120. My prob is the water here is very very soft, kh +gh are less than 2*dh and ph is between 6.2 and 6.4.
With the intoduction of co2 i understand the ph could drop during the night.
would the intoduction af an airstone run at night help in anyway and if not is there anyway to prevent the ph drop.

 

[smithrc]

you'll need to buffer the water to avoid the PH dropping even more...

 

[RYO]

Was hoping the use of an airstone at night would agitate the water so the co2 wouldnt be so prevalent.(or have i got that wrong )
what sort of things are you talking about when you say buffer the water, im not keen on adding this ph up stuff , everyone advises to give it a miss.

 

[Silly me]

I'm with smithrc on this one.. also he didnt ask you to change the PH just the buffer level..

there is a lot of question about gravel that will increase the hardness of your water, and you might just be the first person that might need it.. I have a little stream running close to my house and the gravel/sand from the river makes my plants grow extreamly well but is also increase my PH from 7.4 to 8.2.. look for something similar, most people wouldnt recomend it but if you dont have sensitive fish you could give it a try or test some in a bucket..

 

[smithrc]

all adding an airstone will do is remove the CO2 and compound the problem makeing the PH level swing Wildly.

Bicarbonate of soda will increase the hardness of the water (buffering) - allowing it to accept more CO2 with out effecting the PH.

I'm not sure on amounts though as our water is well buffered from the tap.

 

[kenneth_kpe]

yup i agree with smith on using the airstone, it would only make the ph swing during the night, thats what they told me before, a good thing to do would be to raise the kh just like what smith said is what i did with my tank, i used baking soda, just a little bit, i kinda forgot the initial dosage because i only touch up on my kh every water change with baking soda..

by raising the kh of your water, you decrease the ph swing of your tank. You can see a proof by looking at those PH,KH, c02 charts hope this helps, somebody correct me if im wrong

 

[RYO]

The way i read was use the airstone at night, this gets rid of the co2 as the plants dont use it up during darkness. During the day the plants should use up the co2 so you shouldn't get such a ph swing.
With using Bicarbonate of soda ,what sort of kh reading im i lookin for and is it safe with loaches and corys

 

[smithrc]

our KH is 8 and allows around 30ppm CO2 at a PH of 7.0