I have 2 tanks, a 110 gal. angel tank and a 90 gal. I've kept both as planted tanks. Due to travel, they get minimal routine maintenance. I've struggled with the 90 for over a year, with serious BBA problems and poor plant growth. The 110 fluorishes. Same water supply. Right now the 90 gal. has only fish and a Turface substrate.
That's it.
Given the BBA problem, I thought I'd slowly lower the pH setpoint until I saw fish distress, then back off by 0.1. The water KH is "blue at 2 drops, yellow at 3" in both tanks. Same as my well water. Although I use a water softener to remove iron, the water for both tanks is taken from before the softener.
Right now the pH in the 90 gal. is 5.6!!!!! Fish are swimming happily; no signs of distress. The pH/KH table doesn't go below 6.
The major difference in the tanks is that in the 110 I use an Ista-max in-tank CO2 diffuser with a pH controller. In the 90 I use a 2-story wet-dry with the CO2 feeding the wet-dry and the pH probe downstream of the "stack", pH is also controlled by a CO2 controller. I've checked the pH of the tank right near the overflow and it's essentially the same, 5.6. Right now it's a bare tank with Turface, no plants whatsoever. Happy fish. (???)
I've cross-checked the pH readings by testing the 90-gal. water with the 110 probe, and the controller in the 90 reads about 0.1 -0.2 low.
Before I landscape the 90 and add plants I need to understand what's going on. Below are photos of the 110 and the 90 after a 2 month absence. No water changes for the 110, 2 gal./day for the 90, no nutrients for either, other than fish food.
That's it.
Given the BBA problem, I thought I'd slowly lower the pH setpoint until I saw fish distress, then back off by 0.1. The water KH is "blue at 2 drops, yellow at 3" in both tanks. Same as my well water. Although I use a water softener to remove iron, the water for both tanks is taken from before the softener.
Right now the pH in the 90 gal. is 5.6!!!!! Fish are swimming happily; no signs of distress. The pH/KH table doesn't go below 6.
The major difference in the tanks is that in the 110 I use an Ista-max in-tank CO2 diffuser with a pH controller. In the 90 I use a 2-story wet-dry with the CO2 feeding the wet-dry and the pH probe downstream of the "stack", pH is also controlled by a CO2 controller. I've checked the pH of the tank right near the overflow and it's essentially the same, 5.6. Right now it's a bare tank with Turface, no plants whatsoever. Happy fish. (???)
I've cross-checked the pH readings by testing the 90-gal. water with the 110 probe, and the controller in the 90 reads about 0.1 -0.2 low.
Before I landscape the 90 and add plants I need to understand what's going on. Below are photos of the 110 and the 90 after a 2 month absence. No water changes for the 110, 2 gal./day for the 90, no nutrients for either, other than fish food.