Best place to add a Drop checker?

Tom Barr

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Solcielo lawrencia;117253 said:
Stainless steel will contain iron so there is a magnetic attraction. The power of the magnet may not be strong enough if it isn't close enough to the steel. In any case, anything that can rust will eventually rust unless you coat it with some kind of clearcoat. Another issue is that the CO2 must outgas into the drop checker cavity. This can be a slow process so a device that can also agitate the aquarium water as well as the dkH solution will increase the speed of the drop checker reading.

1.

One better, if you run a small dosing pump with the exposed solution over a thin layer of KH ref solutions and then run the dosing effluent into a small pH photometer, now you have a relatively decent design.
It would be a simple hang on design.

My patent pending though:)

This is how we run many samples through lab spects in research, the automated pump spits in the new, and sucks out the old.
Making the chamber that is exposed to gas interface with the treatment(the aquarium in this case) and using the pH color indicator with the reference KH solution would be all that is needed.
This could be set to run and data log say each 15 min, or each hour or at 2-4 hour intervals etc.

Or just hit a button, then wait a few minutes, then hit "read sample".

Could set one up for about 150$.

Two better:
Another simple way would be to forgo the indicator altogether. Use the dosing pump and long thin layer of KH ref solution inside the tank in the gas chamber, then simply measure pH with a pH probe or pH pen that's reasonably accurate.
I'll likely make one of these since I have a spare dosing pump sitting here.
 

Tom Barr

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Solcielo lawrencia;117253 said:
Stainless steel will contain iron so there is a magnetic attraction. The power of the magnet may not be strong enough if it isn't close enough to the steel. In any case, anything that can rust will eventually rust unless you coat it with some kind of clearcoat. Another issue is that the CO2 must outgas into the drop checker cavity. This can be a slow process so a device that can also agitate the aquarium water as well as the dkH solution will increase the speed of the drop checker reading.

1.

One better, if you run a small dosing pump with the exposed solution over a thin layer of KH ref solutions and then run the dosing effluent into a small pH photometer, now you have a relatively decent design.
It would be a simple hang on design.

My patent pending though:)

This is how we run many samples through lab spects in research, the automated pump spits in the new, and sucks out the old.
Making the chamber that is exposed to gas interface with the treatment(the aquarium in this case) and using the pH color indicator with the reference KH solution would be all that is needed.
This could be set to run and data log say each 15 min, or each hour or at 2-4 hour intervals etc.

Or just hit a button, then wait a few minutes, then hit "read sample".

Could set one up for about 150$.

Two better:
Another simple way would be to forgo the indicator altogether. Use the dosing pump and long thin layer of KH ref solution inside the tank in the gas chamber, then simply measure pH with a pH probe or pH pen that's reasonably accurate.
I'll likely make one of these since I have a spare dosing pump sitting here.
 

reef12

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Tom Barr;117258 said:
Well, this ASSUMES the degassed water is in fact, degassed. Some of the estimations using pure RO and baking soda suggested many canister filtered aquariums still had a good 10 to 15ppm left over.

So if you think you have 2-3 ppm, when you have say 15 ppm, then you add another 30-40ppm.............what could go wrong?

A lot.

Say your measure of pH is rather poor, or the pH probe has not been calibrated, or you think it is.........again, another source of errors.
So things need to be looked at carefully and checked to make sure the readings are correct.
Not quite as simple as we'd like.



Have a Ph meter and new Probe Pinpoint as used on salt water many years back.

So if I have readings of 4 Kh and a Gh of 6 would that 30 ppm on the drop checker be right?

Which is what I have.

Jeff
 

Tom Barr

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reef12;117271 said:
Have a Ph meter and new Probe Pinpoint as used on salt water many years back.

So if I have readings of 4 Kh and a Gh of 6 would that 30 ppm on the drop checker be right?

Which is what I have.

Jeff

GH? Or pH?

I would do this, I just suggested this same thing to the UG grower in another thread.

The CO2 pH/Kh chart says:

At a KH of 4 degrees:

pH of 6.6: 30 ppm, at a pH of 6.5: CO2 of 38 ppm.

Now this is MOST CO2 you can have, it might be LESS however.
Depends on the KH being 100% carbonate alkalinity.
Most Alk test kits measure carbonate, they do not measure say borate(marine systems have this) or hydroxide(by products of polyphophates for corrosion control etc and alk stabilizers in tap water etc)

So you are safe targeting that range to start with, then adjust say 0.05 to 0.10 pH units and then watch for 2-5 days closely.
Then adjust further if the algae still grows, the plants do not etc.

Water changes, good dosing, good light and flow in the tank, good general care and cleaning need done while you do this.
Once the plants grow well, no algae new growth, and fish are still fine, that's your target.

Done with a pH meter, this is about the best method I can offer.

Requires close careful observation and you need to keep up on the other stuff, other wise you have dependence on the those issues of general aquarium care, not CO2.
 

Tom Barr

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reef12;117271 said:
Have a Ph meter and new Probe Pinpoint as used on salt water many years back.

So if I have readings of 4 Kh and a Gh of 6 would that 30 ppm on the drop checker be right?

Which is what I have.

Jeff

GH? Or pH?

I would do this, I just suggested this same thing to the UG grower in another thread.

The CO2 pH/Kh chart says:

At a KH of 4 degrees:

pH of 6.6: 30 ppm, at a pH of 6.5: CO2 of 38 ppm.

Now this is MOST CO2 you can have, it might be LESS however.
Depends on the KH being 100% carbonate alkalinity.
Most Alk test kits measure carbonate, they do not measure say borate(marine systems have this) or hydroxide(by products of polyphophates for corrosion control etc and alk stabilizers in tap water etc)

So you are safe targeting that range to start with, then adjust say 0.05 to 0.10 pH units and then watch for 2-5 days closely.
Then adjust further if the algae still grows, the plants do not etc.

Water changes, good dosing, good light and flow in the tank, good general care and cleaning need done while you do this.
Once the plants grow well, no algae new growth, and fish are still fine, that's your target.

Done with a pH meter, this is about the best method I can offer.

Requires close careful observation and you need to keep up on the other stuff, other wise you have dependence on the those issues of general aquarium care, not CO2.
 

reef12

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Apr 29, 2013
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Tom Barr;117287 said:
GH? Or pH?

I would do this, I just suggested this same thing to the UG grower in another thread.

The CO2 pH/Kh chart says:

At a KH of 4 degrees:

pH of 6.6: 30 ppm, at a pH of 6.5: CO2 of 38 ppm.

Now this is MOST CO2 you can have, it might be LESS however.
Depends on the KH being 100% carbonate alkalinity.
Most Alk test kits measure carbonate, they do not measure say borate(marine systems have this) or hydroxide(by products of polyphophates for corrosion control etc and alk stabilizers in tap water etc)

So you are safe targeting that range to start with, then adjust say 0.05 to 0.10 pH units and then watch for 2-5 days closely.
Then adjust further if the algae still grows, the plants do not etc.

Water changes, good dosing, good light and flow in the tank, good general care and cleaning need done while you do this.
Once the plants grow well, no algae new growth, and fish are still fine, that's your target.

Done with a pH meter, this is about the best method I can offer.

Requires close careful observation and you need to keep up on the other stuff, other wise you have dependence on the those issues of general aquarium care, not CO2.

That is Gh from an API test kit for both Tom.

Water in Oklahoma is hard, as runs thru limestone here, from where our water supply is.

I know that Salifert and LaMotte make the best { Saltwater days} test kits. but well using this one now.

Will Calibrate the Ph probe as just got it and the test solutions and report back, fish seem to be alright and the shrimps, Cherries.

Jeff
 

Tom Barr

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You cannot measure CO2 from GH and KH.

You need pH and KH.
 

Tom Barr

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You cannot measure CO2 from GH and KH.

You need pH and KH.
 

Tom Barr

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reef12;117759 said:
So I have a KH of 4 and a PH of 6.6 so 30.1 then?

Jeff

You would have a possible maximum of 30.1, not any more than this, but possibly less.

So it's an upper bound. A starting point to target, then tweak from there.
 

reef12

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Thanks will watch and see where it goes.

Algae around, but as just set back up could be the reason.

Jeff
 

reef12

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I turned back the Co2 a tad as algae blooming pretty good.

So are the plants but I guess as new again will take awhile to catch back up.

Jeff