29 Gallon 2 wpg Tank

rrkss

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Well, I just finished fixing a bio-filter crash in this tank and getting everything intact. Tommorow I am going to restart the CO2 injection process and get to a dosing regime Tom gave me but I just want to make sure that I am doing things right this time to eradicate BBA once and for all.

CO2 will come from 2 DIY Hagen CO2 systems with the Hagen Ladder to diffuse CO2 into the water. I used to use 1 Hagen Ladder unit but bought another one to try and give CO2 a boost. 2 Ladders are rated up to 40 gallons so I assume things will be fine.

Plants are: 1 giant val, 1 bannana plant, 6 stalks of ludwigia repens, 1 amazon swordplant, about 25 stalks of anacharis.

Substrate is plain old gravel but I have Flourish Tabs by Amazon Swordplant since I read that it is a root feeder.

Lighting: 1 4200K 20W bulb, 1 6700K 20W bulb, 1 18000K 20w bulb.

Fertilizer Dosage: 1/2 Teaspoon of Seachem Equilibrium weeklly after a 50% waterchange. 1/4 Teaspoon of KNO3, 1/16 Teaspoon of KH2PO4, 5 mL of Flourish 3x a week (Tom are you sure its 5 mL because according to the bottle that is rated for a 60 gallon tank).

Let me know if anything needs to be changed or updated with this plan. Thanks

RRKSS
 

Tom Barr

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Re: 29 Gallon 2 wpg Tank

I'd suggest dosing 2x a week those same amounts.
DIY is going to be your Achillies heel.

I'd switch from that Ladder to the DIY Venturi reactor I have on this site, those are really effective for DIY CO2 folks, same with a powerhead feed CO2 mist etc.
Even placing the limewood air stones under the filter outflow will work better than that ladder.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 

rrkss

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Re: 29 Gallon 2 wpg Tank

I'll look into buying a powerhead to get a DIY Venturi Reactor going for the two units. I will be changing the yeast brew on each reactor biweekly. Pretty much changing one brew a week to try and keep CO2 levels as stable as possible. Since CO2 is not needed at night and DIY CO2 can't be turned off should I run an airstone at night to gas out the CO2 and put the powerhead on the same timer as the lights?
 

rrkss

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Re: 29 Gallon 2 wpg Tank

Nevermind I read up more on the DIY Venturi design. Seems like a good way to turn DIY Co2 on and off just by plugging the powerhead into the timer. One question are these viewtainers predrilled so that I could just put the powerhead outlet into a hole or do I have to drill everything myself? The small holes for the CO2 tubing is not a problem for me because I can just use a nail to punch the holes into the container but drilling large holes is a problem since I don't own a drill. What is the lighter used for in your DIY Venturi pictures?
 

Tom Barr

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Re: 29 Gallon 2 wpg Tank

You do not need adrill, just any piece of metal that can be heated and will fit around the out flow nozzle of the powerhead, even the flame itself can be used if you are careful and you simply m,elt a hole and bend it back while it's still flexible.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 

rrkss

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Re: 29 Gallon 2 wpg Tank

Well I'm going to try building this thing. I got a Hagen Aquaclear Powerhead with a venturi airator. Since I can't get the viewtainers locally, I am going to cut up an old aquafina waterbottle (with the label removed) and use that instead. I'll loop the venturi line into the bottle as you showed and run the two co2 feeds into the bottle + the burb line. and see if this diffuses the CO2 into the water as planned. I'd much prefer a setup like this since it gives me much better control of how and when CO2 gets into the water instead of the ladder system which is 24/7. If this does not work, i'll order a viewtainer and use that.
 

rrkss

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Re: 29 Gallon 2 wpg Tank

Tom I must say that this venturi system is working impressive. My tank's pH fell from 7.4 to around 6.7 within 3 hours after it switched on. I am running my 2 DIY CO2 units into the inverted waterbottle where it gets swirled up by the powerhead. My kH is 4 so that puts me around 24 ppm CO2 in my tank. With my 2 wpg and fertilizer regime given, do you think that this will work? Should BBA be a thing of the past?
 

Tom Barr

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Re: 29 Gallon 2 wpg Tank

Yes, BBA should go away as long as you stay on top of things, prune etc.
You can go in a remove all the bba now.
If you feel too much leaf loss is not a good thing, try doing trims once a week and wait till some new growth has emerged.

In general, I like to attack algae with no mercy.
Death from above:)


Regards,
Tom Barr
 

rrkss

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Re: 29 Gallon 2 wpg Tank

Ok I will do that. I will Prune away all the BBA from my plants and scrape any away from any inanimate objects. I have a pourous clay pot covered in BBA. Bleach is not an option as it is painted (any way of removing BBA from it)? I can't scrub the thing as it will ruin it. Is my CO2 high enough?
 

VaughnH

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Re: 29 Gallon 2 wpg Tank

You can try one more test for CO2: take a water sample from the tank, let it sit out in the open overnight, then measure its PH. If the tank water PH is 1.0 lower, the amount of CO2 is 30-40 ppm. If it is .7 lower, the amount of CO2 is 15 to 20 ppm, and if it is 1.3 lower, it is 60-80 ppm. So, you have to be as accurate as you can get for both PH measurements.
 

rrkss

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Re: 29 Gallon 2 wpg Tank

Well I took a glass of water out of the tank and ran an airstone in it for 5 minutes to rapidly degass it of CO2. The pH of the tank was at 6.4 and the pH after the degassing was at 7.2 so that was a 0.8 change. The kH tested at 4 degrees.
 

quenton

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Re: 29 Gallon 2 wpg Tank

rrkss said:
Well I took a glass of water out of the tank and ran an airstone in it for 5 minutes to rapidly degass it of CO2. The pH of the tank was at 6.4 and the pH after the degassing was at 7.2 so that was a 0.8 change. The kH tested at 4 degrees.

Keep that water! -- test it again tomorrow -- I'll bet its higher still.
 

rrkss

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Re: 29 Gallon 2 wpg Tank

Will do that. Is there a simple formula to get a more exact reading of CO2 levels with the pH - pH method or to I have to do the the math myself. Such as looking up the kA value for H2CO3 and then by using the changes in H3O+ work out the concentration of CO2 in the water?
 

VaughnH

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Re: 29 Gallon 2 wpg Tank

The equation for ppm of CO2 using the PH-PH method is:
ppmCO2=degassed ppm CO2*10exp(degassed PH-PH)
My kitchen table testing leads me to believe that my degassed ppm of CO2 is about 4 ppm, but others think it is more like 3 ppm.
 

rrkss

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Re: 29 Gallon 2 wpg Tank

That puts my tank around 31 ppm of CO2 which I guess is high enough.
 

VaughnH

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Re: 29 Gallon 2 wpg Tank

If I really wanted better accuracy using that formula I would carefully calibrate my PH meter, then make a sample using RO water with a bit of bicarbonate of soda to get some KH, let it sit on the counter in the open in a wide mouth glass for 2 hours, 3 hours, 4 hours, etc., then measure PH and KH, using twice the sample size for KH. I would calculate ppm CO2 for each of those times, plot that against time. From that I would determine how long it takes for atmospheric CO2 to stabilize in the water. Then I would use a time of about twice that long for each time I test my CO2, and I would use the stabilized value of ppm CO2 from those plotted test results for the equation. Someone with plenty of time, a good PH meter, and patience could do us all a favor by doing this experiment and telling us the results. Volunteers? Remember, a new Nobel prize gets awarded every year for outstanding research in the.....aquatic plants field(?)