[D.gilly]

ok CO2 has been running for about a week and the ph wont drop past 6.5 at the most. The probe ( sms 122 ) isint doing a very good job it was de calibrated after a day and ph test kit verified. it read 7.2 ph was 6.5 ! its hooked up to a selunoid and aquariumplants best regulator thingy anyways my ph wont drop i think its because of the high GH/ KH they read
GH............179 ppm
KH............89.5 ppm

any thoughts ?

 

[Rex Grigg]

Try injecting more CO2.

 

[D.gilly]

the reactor cant handle it it will just spit it out. its a vortex and it has an almost 100% effiency rate if used properly because it dissolves the co2 by mixing it up into the water in the container and the filter pad stops any run away bubbles but some bubbles collect near the base and form larger bubbles until a huge bubble pop's out. Its on about 2 bps right now and has gone anywhere from 1-4 bps this week with me fooling around trying to make it drop. its reading 6.6 right now so its dropped 0.2 i will monitor it further. thanks

 

[Ransom]

Just to verify, your kH is 5 degrees (89ppm / 17.0) and you're trying to get your pH below 6.5 which means you're trying to get your CO2 ppm to 60 ppm or above?

 

[D.gilly]

well ? i guess. ive had little to no pearling so far and co2 has been running for almost a week straight.

 

[Rex Grigg]

You could inject CO2 till the tank looks like club soda and not get pearling.

 

[D.gilly]

yes i realize this but my KH is high and i have med to high light as well as am dosing ferts and there are plenty of nutrients in the water.

 

[Hoppy]

If you get or make a drop checker and use it as a CO2 gage you can tell just how much CO2 you really have in the water. The KH/pH table isn't a good way to do that, since the water in the tank usually has enough stuff dissolved in it to make the pH/KH/CO2 relationship not work right. If the method you now use to get CO2 dissolved into the water isn't working well, and it doesn't seem to be, the best idea is to try another method, such as a Rex style external reactor, or a Barr Internal Venturi reactor, or a couple of ceramic disk diffusers, etc.

 

[Politely]

I don't think your KH is that high. No offense, but it's not clear what problem you're having. Is it the controller you're complaining about, the pH not dropping or the lack of pearling?

If the controller is not working, then send it in for repair - my experience with Milwaukee has been really good. If you're sure it's the controller that's limiting your CO2, just take it out of the chain until you get it fixed, and try running it w/o the controller. But I think this isn't your problem because:
1) since you've ran the CO2 reactor at highest capacity and the pH still isn't going down; and
2) the dial on the SMS goes down to 5.5, so it shouldn't be limited by your 6.5, or the fact that it reads higher than actual.

With respect to pH, unless you have other reasons to drive it below 6.5, there's no need to do it for pearling purposes. If you have fish, you may stress or lose them.

FWIW, I have a 120g with similar water conditions (and about 3wpg light) and you've described a CO2 reactor similar to mine, and even at 1bps, the plants start to pearl. With about your level of KH (mine is at 90ppm), my pH starts at about 7.2 and at about 2bps, the CO2 drives it down to 6.8 within a few hours, at which point my controller shuts down the CO2. The plants pearl consistently.

-P

 

[D.gilly]

ok here goes ph controller once calibrated for the 500th time read 6.6 and dropped overnight to 6.5. Ph card reads anything from 6.5-6.0 not exzactily precise. I want the ph to be 6.2 because of my fish im in the process of creating a soulth american biotope and from what i know ph should be between 5.0 and 6.8 im going to drop it slowly to around 6.0 hopefully KH is a tad high optimal would be 2 dkh. I will watch the controler for now and possibly return it.

 

[Hoppy]

You would do better to adjust the KH and GH to match what the particular biotope requirements are, not the pH. You can mix in distilled or DI water to do that. As I understand it, fish react much more to dissolved solids in the water, which are reflected in the GH and KH readings, than to pH which is highly variable in nature.

 

[pbohart]

Are you dosing EI?

I find that if my Nitrates are at 0 then plant growth slows and pearling stops regardless of CO2. If I then do my daily EI dose the the pearling kicks right back in.

This makes sense to me as pearling is the result of photosynthesis - which is aided by fertilization.

As the experts on this forum so often point out - no one level is responsible for a healthy tank. Healthy levels and stability across all parameters are what results in healthy, algae-free, growth.

FWIW

 

[D.gilly]

ok well ph has dropped to 6.3:thumbsup: so i guess all is well now ? im not dosin ei no im using tropica mastergrow.