The picture on left is the last photo I'll ever take of my 10 gallon setup. That's because I dismantled this aquarium and upgraded it to a 20 gallon tank. In other words, I took all the plants and fish and simply added them to a larger tank with a larger filter and new substrate.
In the next days, I'll probably write about this new setup a bit more extensively. First, the amount of plant material I removed from the 10 gallon setup was simply astonishing. I separated each plant group and laid them down on my washer and dryer. It took the entire surface of the washer AND the dryer to lay out all the plants that had grown in that cramped little 10 gallon aquarium.
There are three reasons why I upgraded. First, I added fish. The new residents, 10 Red Cheek Cichlids overwhelmed the small setup. This caused a surge of algae and green water despite the overwhelming amount of healthy plant growth. The effect of adding fish was quite immediate. Within the first week, I observed the surge in greenish water and accelerated algae growth.
Secondly, I moved to a bigger setup because the plants were just too cramped. I was no longer able to provide growth space to all the different types of plants that I had initially rooted in that tank.
Thirdly, space was so limited that I feared it would be too cramped in there when the fish reached adult size.
Since I don't have room for any other aquariums except for the three I have currently, I will donate the 10 gallon tank at the local aquarium gardener's club.
Below is a picture of all the plant material I recovered from the 10 gallon aquarium. Notice plants are grouped together by type.
It took 200 drops of PH Down to bring the PH from 7.00 to 6.71 this morning. The PH is now stable at 6.81. It could rise during the day as the plants photosynthesize and produce excess oxygen. I've been leaving the PH monitor on daily to see how it fluctuates. I haven't yet seen a rise in PH during the day. The PH was below 7 when I left it last night and was 7 just a hour before lights went on this morning.
Shown on left is healthy Micranthemum unbrosum. It remains nice despite the algae bloom. New foliage has a tint of pink on it. This developed in the intensely bright light. Also, the stem length between leaves is shortened in bright light. New growth on right is more bushy, curled on itself, than growth in more shaded left near aquarium wall.
I continue to inventory the plants I grow. I intend to start a plant list page to list all the aquarium plants I can find on the Internet and books. The purpose of this would be to profile those I add to my aquariums and find potential new plants to experiment with.
A 50% Reverse Osmosis water change and fertilizer dosing was done two days ago. This tank has been given a few ounces of Seachem Purigen to clear up cloudiness. This worked marvelously. CO2 was also enriched yesterday: I changed the yeast mix in one of the DIY bottles.
PH: 6.9 GH: 6 dkh KH: 5 dkh Chelated iron: 0.5 mg/l Phosphate: 1.5 mg/l Nitrate: 10 mg/l Redfield ratio: 5 (Chance of blue-green algae) Calcium: 20 mg/l Copper: 0 mg/l Carbon Dioxide: Between 17 and 24 mg/l according to this chart.
Remarks: Seems like this aquarium is doing quite well except that the Redfield indicates a chance of blue-green algae. It might be a good idea to add PhosGuard to the filter pad to reduce Phosphate but I am not going to go that route today.
I'd like to see if adding trace elements will cloud up the water or not. If not, I can eliminate that as the cause of my incessant water cloudiness. I've managed to clear up the water by using a few ounces of Purigen in the filter pad. See previous post.
Once I know the trace fertilizer is not causing cloudiness, I'll add Flourish Excel, an organic carbon solution and watch for cloudiness.
I recently added Four Leaf Clover and Narrow Leaf Temple. The Temple looks great and so does the Clover. The clover was grown emergent and is about a foot tall. See picture on left. I assume it will die back somewhat now that it's fully underwater. When it looses it's beauty, I'll prune it back and stick it firmly into the gravel.
I hope the clover will form a nice carpet, but it may also grow taller than expected. It has been said that this plant may grow tall in lower light conditions and grow short in bright light. It reproduces by runners. I also planted it in my 10 gallon - pruned and reduced to an inch high - and hope to see if form a nice carpet in that bright light environment.
I'm very impressed with a product called Purigen by Seachem. It claims to be the Ultimate Filtration and I think it is.
As I mentioned and shown with a picture in a previous post, my 35 extra tall aquarium looked terrible with a surge in cloudiness after a large water change. The water looked like diluted milk. Look at picture on left. It almost instantly became very cloudy after the addition of fertilizer. Since the substrate had not been disturbed too much, and since the filter was clean, I didn't think the cloudiness had anything to do with turbulence caused by the water change. Secondly, algae is mi minimal. I wasn't too bent on the idea that an algae bloom was forming. It would have been much more gradual. The only thing that seemed plausible was an organic material of some kind. I suspected that when I added fertilizer, it may have reacted with the water in some way. Could the organic CO2 be the cause? Did it kill off a bunch of algae? Who knows. I decided against adding a water clarifier as those may cause gill problems in fish. Furthermore, they simply "clump" floating debris together to make it less buoyant so that it sinks out of water.
So I added about 2 ounces of Purigen to the Whisper filter pad. Look at the difference it made in two days! See picture on left. From my vantage point, the cloudiness is gone. The tank is equipped with a large hang-on Whisper filter. I even prefer these to cannister filters. I took a clean mini whisper pad and inserted the washed Purigen. Then I added that filter pad to a clean large Whisper filter pad, the kind that actually fits in the tank's filter. A few particles of Purigen escaped into the water as I pressed the pad into the filter, but that stopped. The Purigen stayed put inside the filter. There has always been a bit of cloudiness in this aquarium but not anymore. After two days with Purigen, this tank is sparkling! I'm completely sold.
There are other positive things to say about Purigen. According to the manufacturer, it won't affect trace elements significantly. It also controls Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates and raises redox (whatever that is). It is also re-usable when exhausted. Once the Purigen changes from beige to brown, it is removed from the filter and soaked for 4 hours in a buffer solution. It returns to its beige color and can be put back in use.
I monitored PH with a Pinpoint electronic PH monitor during the installation of this synthetic compound absorbent. The PH did not fluctuate. I will be doing all my regular water tests this morning and see if any other values are affected. I'm expecting Nitrate to be low but I hope things like chelated Iron are still present.
On Tuesday this week, I initiated a large water change to reduce out of control Phosphate levels. I also experimented to reduce PH. Additionally, I introduced two new chemicals: PhosGuard, to help further reduce Phosphate and EasyBalance to help keep the PH on the slightly acidic side.
One critical problem was the first-time appearance of green algae on the aquarium glass. It had popped up overnight seemingly. None of it one day and then a patch or two on the front and back the next day. Let's see what the water parameters look like this morning...
PH: 6.94 (Rising from 6.8 yesterday morning) GH: 8 dkh (Stable) KH: 7 dkh (Last time tested was 6 dkh) Chelated Iron: 0.5 + mg/l Nitrate: 10 mg/l Phosphate: 0.7 mg/l (Falling from very high 4.0 mg/l two days ago) Redifield Ratio: 10 (Excellent) Copper: 0 mg/l Calcium: 40 mg/l (Rising from 20 mg/l) Temperature: 76F
Remarks: These are excellent readings in my opinion. The most critical one was Phosphate because it had risen to 4.0 + mg/l a couple of days ago. I believe this was due to the addition of a solid fertilizer or possibly the addition of sulfuric acid to reduce PH. I won't try the fertilizer again, but will be using the Sulfuric acid again. I should be able to prove or eliminate this as a possible problem. 0.7 mg/l Phosphate is not too high. There's PhosGuard in the filter pad, which will continue to clean it up. Plants do need a little Phosphate as a nutrient, but since my tap water is already high with it, I am not worried. I always add a bit of tap water during water changes to keep the buffering capacity from falling too low.
PH is rising slightly. I would rather keep it at around 6.7. It seems my CO2 mix helps reduce PH. I'm interested in the continued use of PH Down (Sulfuric acid) when water changes are not necessary. I've ordered some which should arrive today or tomorrow. I'll have to see how PH it fluctuates on its own during the day. I presume it will, as plants photosynthesize, releasing oxygen and taking up CO2.
The Redfield Ratio is still within normal range. Chance of blue-green algae if Phosphates rise, but Redfield will rise to a better level if Phosphates continue to fall, which is what I assume will happen with PhosGuard.
Nitrate at 10 mg/l is excellent and manageable. I can easily estimate the Redfield Ratio with these Phosphate and Nitrate levels. The goal with a normal Redfield is to keep the aquarium free of algae.
Perhaps Calcium went up after the addition of well water? I used it to buffer as my PH fluctuated to 6.1 with my PH experiments. By the way, I think that low PH killed the Riccia plants. Can't tell for sure if that's it. Will have to purchase more and experiment.
GH and KH are stable. Water is slightly soft as desired. Very nice.
No discernible Copper. That's a surprise. There was always a bit in the water and the Flourish Trace product contains Copper so I wonder why it's so low? Could PhosGuard be sucking it out? Otherwise, iron levels are ok and I remember dosing with trace elements right after the water change. I'm not going to re-dose today. I usually have a tendency to dose fertilizers way too much anyway.
Temperature is lower than usual because I didn't connect the heater after my last water change. My water temp has a tendency to rise because of the intense light on such a small aquarium. I've installed a large fan in the home-made light fixture and whenever temperatures rise, I leave the fan running during the night as well, even when the lights are off, otherwise the water temperature gravitates around 82F.
I've successfully reached a PH value of 6.5 yesterday using a combination of methods. First, as mentioned in other posts, I tried a product called PH Down. My water's buffering capacity kept making the PH rise back to above 7. Then, I changed the water, about 70% of it with R.O. water and added a product called EasyBalance by Tetra. The PH fell to 6.5 and stayed there for a while. However, that's not all...
I also changed the yeast and sugar mix in my DIY bottles which, one hour later, was overwhelming the CO2 reactor. The PH continued to fall during the day until it reached 6.1. That was way too low for my taste and for the Beta's health too. PH fluctuations stress fish, but at 6.1, I can't imagine fish surviving...
Anyway, come evening, I removed some of the water and added regular well water to buffer a bit. I also turned the CO2 reactor off to let the gas dissipate instead of being mixed with the aquarium water. Within a few hours, PH had sprung back to a range between 6.5 and 7.0. I know this PH swing is way to much for fish. The Beta remains gregarious and took his normal food this morning without hesitation. Lesson learned: R.O. water with low KH sure does come down fast from above 7. CO2 injection must be monitored.
I'm leaving the Pinpoint PH Monitor in the water all day today to see how PH fluctuates. The aquarium has about 30% well water and the rest is R.O. PH was 7.0 this morning when I switched on the CO2 reactor, and is now 6.8 as indicated in the photo. It will be interesting to see if the CO2 mixing affects the PH much during the day. I suspect the addition of well water will prevent a large swing.
Other observation: For the first time ever, I felt it necessary to clean the front glass. A bit of algae had sprung up in the tank. The Phosphate level is high at the moment and I may need to change the water again. I did add PhosGuard in the filter pad and this may very well take care of the Phosphate and algae problem. I'll have to test and see...
Following a rapid rise in Phosphate from 0.5 mg/l to 4.0 + mg/l, I decided to go ahead and change 70% of the water.
According to a friend of mine, a fertilizer called Planttabbs I used yesterday may very well be the cause of the super fast increase in Phosphate.
"Those plant tabs have lots of Phosphate and might be appropriate as
plant tabs for water lilies to get them to bloom. This particular plant
tab may be inappropriate for general planted aquaria, in my opinion."
Monitored PH during the water change process and added a product called EasyBalance with Nitraban! The Ph remained pretty stable around 6.5 once I added the EasyBalance product. I continued to add RO water and only 3 cups of straight well water in order to have some buffering in there. Note that EasyBalance does claim to raise KH and thus also buffers the water.
Since I removed the larger part of water, I felt it necessary to mix in the usual water liquid fertilizers: Trace, Iron and Organic carbon. As I poured this mixture in, the PH dropped to 6.3 but bounced back to 6.5 and has remained there. The Pinpoint PH monitor currently reads 6.54.
I finished the routine by changing the DIY bottles as they both seemed exhausted. The CO2 reactor chamber was no longer showing a gas vortex. Well, this proved a mistake. Within 30 minutes, the reactor was unable to cope with the excessive surge in carbon dioxide gas and started spraying microscopic bubbles. So I know now that one bottle change at a time is enough!
Phosphate is at 2.0 mg/l now, which is still high. Hesitantly, I think I might go ahead and put a bit of Seachem's PhosGuard in the filter pad. I will do another water change tomorrow.
I noticed a large swing in Phosphate levels in my 10 gallon aquarium
since yesterday, from 0.5 mg/l to 4 mg/l. Incredible.
What caused this? I'm trying to think back as to what I did to this aquarium...
1. I added a little bit of Flourish trace element solution to the water.
2. I reduced PH using a product called PH Down which contains Sulfuric acid.
I used a lot of this.
3. Added two "Planttabbs" aquarium plant food (11-15-20) which contains
11% Total Nitrogen (N)
4.9% Ammoniacal Nitrogen
6.1% Nitrate Nitrogen
15% Available Phosphoric Acid (P2O5)
20% Soluble Potash
What could be the most plausible culprit? Does sulfuric acid increase
phosphates? Someone mentioned online that PH Down contains Phosphoric
acid but the product I have doesn't mention any such acid, just sulfuric
acid.
It goes without say that I noticed the first patch of algae on the glass
this morning. I never had any algae in this aquarium before. Didn't want to have to change water again so soon...
UPDATE: I sent this information to to a friend hobbyist and here's his comments on this matter:
Indeed.......... 4 mg/L Phosphate if way too high. Do a 90% water change to get rid of the excess.
Those plant tabs have lots of Phosphate and might be appropriate as plant tabs for water lilies to get them to bloom. This particular plant tab may inappropriate for general planted aquaria, in my opinion.
Since sulfuric acid lowers pH and a lower pH may cause the chelate associated with phosphate item, to become weaker and release available P faster...... can't say for certain.
One can easily over fertilize a planted aquarium, especially if one has few plants, plants that are slow growers or if the plants had picked up nutrients to the extent they could not store any more in their cells.
I've been aware for a long time that my water sources have a high PH reading. My well water is around 7.7 and my aquarium water varies between around 7.6 and 7.9.
For the last two days, I've been trying to gradually lower this PH to neutral. I'd like to go as far down as 6.5. I'd like to be able to maintain it on the slightly acidic side at around 6.6 to 6.9.
From previous experiments, I am aware that peat will reduce alkalinity. I don't mean PH. By alkalinity, I mean the KH or buffering capacity. For example, I poured about 8 gallons of well water into a plastic garbage can and introduced a pillow case filled with about 10 cups of Canadian peat. I let this water oxygenate with a couple of air stones and a powerful air pump for 8 days and measured the KH afterward. The KH had dropped from a very hard 25 dkh to 5 dkh. However, the PH remained high as usual. So this experiment didn't really reduce PH although I was using a color test kit at the time which reads a solid blue color above 7. So even if the PH had dropped somewhat, I would not have been able to see the difference. The problem with peat is that it also colors the water. It gives it a brownish tea tinge. I don't use it in my aquariums anymore because this staining affects light penetration.
Anyway, back to PH. So I purchased a small bottle of a product called PH Down by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals. This product contains Sulfuric acid. I started dosing my 10 gallon tank as directed. The Pinpoint PH monitor showed an initial drop of less than .1. I continued to dose for two days. I eventually lost count of the dosing. PH seemed to drop around .2 and then bounce back a bit. I finally got it down to 6.9 and stopped.
Every time I dosed, the water's buffering strength seemed to diminish. In other words, the PH values were not so quick to bounce back up. I decided to measure hardness to see if the GH and KH had dropped in the process. The initial KH was 6 dkh and after dosing with PH Down, the KH had dropped to 4 dkh. According to what I've read, this low alkalinity means little buffering which means it's easier to manipulate PH, which can also be dangerous for PH swings. At any rate, the experiment worked. The PH dropped and the water's ability to buffer also dropped. One significant side note is that the general hardness seems unaffected. It actually went up a bit from 8 dkh to 9 dkh. It's possible that fertilizers added yesterday affected GH but I didn't bother taking measurements before and after dosing fertilizers.
Here's the skinny on my PH experiments:
10 gallon aquarium Initial PH 7.7 Final PH 6.9 after dosing with API's PH Down Initial KH 6 dkh Final KH 4 dkh after dosing with API's PH Down
I wanted to know what other hobbyists were saying about lowering PH. It looks like people have tried different things. Some suggested vinegar and some suggested peat. As I've already said, I don't like to use peat even though it does reduce alkalinity and thus helps in altering the PH. Some had suggested Reverse Osmosis water which is what I use to reduce hardness and remove other pollutants. My RO comes from a Kent Maxxima system. I find this machine to be extremely efficient. A very good investment.
I also read that some products use a phosphoric acid with can raise phosphate levels in the aquarium. This is a nasty side-effect. I don't know if PH down has this effect. The product says it contains sulfuric acid. I will test my water to see current phosphate levels. I noticed the appearance of algae on the front glass this morning. A small, subtle patch. This tank has NEVER had any algae.
This is not the end of my experiments. Following the successful lowering of PH in my 10 gallon tank, I wanted to know if I could control PH effectively during water changes. So my first idea was to see how pure RO water PH is affected by PH Down. I also took this opportunity to test out vinegar as a possible alternative.
Here are the experiments and results:
TEST #1: RO water and PH Down 1. 1 cup of RO water 2. Initial RO water PH value: 7.78 3. Added 5 drops of PH Down (Sulfuric acid) 4. Swirled the Pinpoint probe to mix the solution. 5. Final RO water PH value: 3.31
Remarks: The PH drop was instantaneous.
TEST 2: RO water and white vinegar 1. 1 cup of RO water 2. Initial RO water PH value: 6.27 3. Added 5 drops of vinegar. 4. Swirled the Pinpoint probe to mist the solution. 5. Final RO water PH value: 4.30
Remarks: So vinegar actually does affect the PH but it doesn't seem to be as effective as PH Down, and I don't know how it affects fish or water chemistry.
TEST 3: To see how much vinegar is needed to drop PH as far down as 5 drops of PH Down. 1. Added 10 more drops of vinegar to the current solution. 2. RO water PH value: 4.05 3. Added 60 more drops of vinegar 4. RO water PH value: 3.65 5. Added 5 drops of PH Down 6. Final RO PH value: 3.21
Remarks: Clearly, PH Down is far more effective than vinegar.
I re-did the first test after soaking the Pinpoint probe in the aquarium for five minutes to make sure and got the same results.
TEST 4: Re-do TEST 1 1. 1 cup of RO water
2. Initial RO water PH value: 7.5
3. Added 6 drops of PH Down (Sulfuric acid)
4. Swirled the Pinpoint probe to mix the solution.
5. Final RO water PH value: 3.18
I am convinced API's PH Down product works well to reduce PH. Now I need to find out if it affects phosphates. If so, it might cause algae to grow in my tanks. I also need to measure for a few more days to see if I can maintain slightly acidic water conditions because as far as I can read, most plants prefer this type of water for more effective growth. That's the goal after all.
This morning, the 10 gallon tank water tests reveal the following:
PH: 7.6 + Unchanged. GH: 8 dkh and it was 10 dkh two days ago. KH: 6 dkh and it was 7 dkh two days ago. Chelated iron: 1 mg/l and it was 0 mg/l two days ago. Nitrate: 10 mg/l and it was 40 mg/l two days ago. Phosphate: 0.5 mg/l and it was 2 mg/l two days ago. Redfield: 14 Calcium: 20 mg/l and it was 40 mg/l two days ago. Water Temperature: 79F
Remarks: I'd say that the addition of reverse osmosis water has improved the water conditions greatly. It's astonishing that the hardness has remained stable and even dropped a bit. I venture a guess that GH is still dropping due to the proper addition of carbon dioxide. I added a special reactor that mixes this gas efficiently. See this post for details. The iron level is high. I dosed with fertilizer. I expect this to fall if plants absorb it. The most surprising value of all is the Nitrate. By default, my well water starts with about 60 mg/l of Nitrate, which I find quite high. RO water has helped reduce this. Photo on the left shows the actual test result. It's hard to tell from a picture, because the liquid appears darker than it is, but the liquid is not the usual blood red since using RO. It's a paler shade of orange, which looks like 10 mg/l to me. Phosphate levels are also down. This leaves the aquarium with a normal range Redfield ratio of 14. This aquarium is still free of algae. I'm hoping that maintaining the Redfield between 10 and 20 will keep the aquarium algae-free despite the addition of high light levels. I added a strong fan on my home-made light fixture. The aquarium temperature has decreased to a better temperature.
Here's the test kit list I currently use. I am going to switch to a Pinpoint PH monitor to get a good reading. The color tests for PH are not very accurate in my opinion. Anything higher than 7 is a solid blue color. With a Pinpoint, I'll be able to test the difference between a 7.2 and an 8.2. Water is very alkaline here in the mid-west.
Testing products used:
PH: Aquarium Pharmaceuticals CU (Copper): Aquarium Pharmaceuticals NO2 (Nitrite): Aquarium Pharmaceuticals NO3 (Nitrate): Aquarium Pharmaceuticals NH3 (Ammonia): Aquarium Pharmaceuticals PO4 (Phosphate): Aquarium Pharmaceuticals O2 (Oxygen): TetraTest Silicate: Seachem FE (Iron) Non Chelated: Nutrafin FE (Iron) Chelated: Nutrafin CA (Calcium): Nutrafin KH (Carbonate Hardness): Aquarium Pharmaceuticals GH (General Hardness): Aquarium Pharmaceuticals
The picture on left is the last photo I'll ever take of my 10 gallon setup. That's because I dismantled this aquarium and upgraded it to a 20 gallon tank. In other words, I took all the plants and fish and simply added them to a larger tank with a larger filter and new substrate.
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