An Old CO2 Idea is a Good New Idea

Professor Myers

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Aug 24, 2006
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I like the glassware as well...

But I'm sure it doesn't always meld with the display ? Sometimes I just like witnessing Life or Scientific phenomenon. I liken the ADA drop checker to a fine pocket watch. It performs a valuable service, and does it's job reliably, and somehow that's very reassuring, and easy enough to admire.

RE: Canopies, I have just never liked covers or canopies (The Katz might enjoy them thoroughly, but I have a dark & twisted sense of humor). :p I like open topped Aquaria, and particulary enjoy plants protruding or climbing out. So Placing a probe in the corner is a non issue here.

I keep multiple tanks and enjoy the variety in the methods we use to achieve a common goal. Having them close at hand CAN be a real eye opener at times. Sometimes we persist in daily inefficiencies, and struggle with futilities when the obvious is right there under our nose. Keeping them within view of each other often fascilitates Occam's Razor ! ;)

Irregardles of a digital or organic method of divination both devices define Co2 administration to an (clears throat) "EFFECTIVE" level. :D Thanks, Prof M
 

VaughnH

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Tom Barr;11974 said:
I have a very simple and effect pH probe design for this.
A trip to Tap plastics and a drill will do the rest.

Regards,
Tom Barr
I have a drill, and Tap Plastics is about 3 miles away.

By the way, the KH of the reference solution for this version should be 13, so the pH is 7 at 40 ppm of CO2 in the water. That is where the probe is the most accurate if it is calibrated with pH 7 water. It would be a lot easier to make 13 dKH water than it is to make 5 dKH water. And, of course, there should be no reason to ever replace that reference water, except as a result of calibration. This should be a real winner!!
 

Patrice

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Jan 6, 2006
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I have tried to answer my previous question. tell me if i'me on track:

to make it easier, I'll work with a Sodium Bicarbonate 0.1%

according to that web site
 

Patrice

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Jan 6, 2006
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I have tried to answer my previous question. tell me if i'me on track:

to make it easier, I'll work with a Sodium carbonate 0.1%

0.1% is a 1000 ppm solution (is this exact?)

if yes, I would have to mix it with enough water and make that solution 71.4ppm (4dKH)
to do this, I would have to pour that 1L of 0.1% sodium carbonate to 13L of distiled water and I would have my KH4 solution.

I am wrong somewhere?
 

Frolicsome_Flora

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Jan 12, 2007
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Hoppy - Over a few different threads the recipie for the reference solution has varied a bit, and Im a little confused as a result. I remember seeing that to get the 40dKH solution you needed 6grams per 5lt DI, and not 4.99grams.

Would you mind clarifying it for me?

Incedentally, Ive tried using a narrow range PH reagant in my drop checker, to try and increase the accuracy of being able to read it (I struggle with seeing small changes in colour). Seems to help quite a bit as the changes in colour are more pronounced than the seemingly wider ranging reagents that we tend to get with the checkers themselves.
 

Patrice

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Jan 6, 2006
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Ho, I have made the math thinking that this 0.1% was a liquid solution but thats rite, it must be dry. I'll have to do the calculation again.
 

VaughnH

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Frolicsome_Flora;13987 said:
Hoppy - Over a few different threads the recipie for the reference solution has varied a bit, and Im a little confused as a result. I remember seeing that to get the 40dKH solution you needed 6grams per 5lt DI, and not 4.99grams.

Would you mind clarifying it for me

Incedentally, Ive tried using a narrow range PH reagant in my drop checker, to try and increase the accuracy of being able to read it (I struggle with seeing small changes in colour). Seems to help quite a bit as the changes in colour are more pronounced than the seemingly wider ranging reagents that we tend to get with the checkers themselves.

I am not a chemist, far from it. But, my last try at making 4 dKH solution was with 6 grams of NaHCO3 in 1 liter of distilled water = 200 dKH. Then 10 mL of that with 490 mL of distilled water to get 4 dKH. My KH test verified that I had 4 dKH water. I don't really understand why 6 grams works, but that was the last number posted anywhere as the "right" one.

What is the narrow range reagent you used? As far as I could determine, all "low range" pH test kits use bromothymol blue as the indicator dye, so all should give the same result. The little plastic bottle of indicator reagent I got with my ADA style copy cat glass indicator from ebay doesn't work very well, but only because it becomes opaque for me before the color becomes intense. What test kit did you use the pH reagent from?
 

VaughnH

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Patrice;13989 said:
Ho, I have made the math thinking that this 0.1% was a liquid solution but thats rite, it must be dry. I'll have to do the calculation again.

Now, I am confused. A 0.1% solution of something has to be a liquid solution. It can't be a dry one, because dry ingredients can't go into solution with each other. The question I have is what does the "0.1%" mean? Is it a mass percentage, like mg per kilogram? Or, is it referring to moles per unit volume, or something else? Chemistry has its own language and you need to understand it to understand what chemists are talking about. I'm not a chemist.
 

intermediate_noob

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Jul 27, 2007
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Tom Barr;11974 said:
I have a very simple and effect pH probe design for this.
A trip to Tap plastics and a drill will do the rest.

Regards,
Tom Barr

Tom, have you built one of these and posted a picture anywhere? I would love to set something like this up, but cannot seem to find what you had in mind. Thanks!

- Chris
 

Tom Barr

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Jan 23, 2005
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Look up a DO probe.
Same type of thing, just add 4 KH solutoin in place of KCL and a pH probe.

Regards,
tom Barr