I recently had a unfortunate and expensive accident with overdosing CO2 which killed off most of my fishes. I bought a Milwaukee PH probe and connected the solenoid to it. The tank water was 7.7 in ph (reads 6.0 in my drop checker?!!). I set the ph to 7.0 and switched the gas on- the fishes started to hide, become darker and started to just stay in one place. I immediately switched CO2 off and Ph was 6.9. The fishes did recover.
The questions I have are
1. How much should the PH drop or is it based on GH/KH?
2. Is there a safe way to add CO2 without killing the fishes?
3. Is there any way to check if the CO2 is within normal or optimal range- I have a drop checker mounted inside which was rock solid green (optimum range) ?
Anecdotally, after my discus died i lost interest in the tank and decreased the light to 8 hrs with about 100watt of T5HO and did not check on the tank much- no fert no CO2, no excel- the HC started to grow well into a carpet and the plants are doing quite well, no algae either.
So is it even worth the hassle of CO2?
I did calibrate the meter before using it.
Replies appreciated.
The questions I have are
1. How much should the PH drop or is it based on GH/KH?
2. Is there a safe way to add CO2 without killing the fishes?
3. Is there any way to check if the CO2 is within normal or optimal range- I have a drop checker mounted inside which was rock solid green (optimum range) ?
Anecdotally, after my discus died i lost interest in the tank and decreased the light to 8 hrs with about 100watt of T5HO and did not check on the tank much- no fert no CO2, no excel- the HC started to grow well into a carpet and the plants are doing quite well, no algae either.
So is it even worth the hassle of CO2?
I did calibrate the meter before using it.
Replies appreciated.