Gh/kh And C02 Levels | The Planted Tank Forum

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LittlePinkDot L So I'm wondering how this could be affecting my tank. I have a a GLA c02 system on a timer. I currently do not have a drop checker but I turned the c02 down a couple notches when I noticed my puffers gasping at the surface. I try to keep my gh 4 and kh 4. I accidentally boosted the kh to 5 on Sundays water change. Because of the snail shells that the puffers leave to dissolve, my gh goes up to 7 by the time my next Sunday. I did a 50% waterchange on sunday as usual because of EI. But it only brought the gh down to 5 this time. I haven't had to add any equilibrium for 4 weeks so far. Water from my tap is 0gh 0kh. How do these fluctuating gh and kh affect my C02 concentration? And by how much? And since I'm not adding any hardness to the water won't the gh reading eventually go down? I mean I am removing hardness every time I do a water change, they gotta start running out of minerals eventually. I would think the gh increase would start slowing down. #1 · Jan 24, 2017 So I'm wondering how this could be affecting my tank. I have a a GLA c02 system on a timer. I currently do not have a drop checker but I turned the c02 down a couple notches when I noticed my puffers gasping at the surface. I try to keep my gh 4 and kh 4. I accidentally boosted the kh to 5 on Sundays water change. Because of the snail shells that the puffers leave to dissolve, my gh goes up to 7 by the time my next Sunday. I did a 50% waterchange on sunday as usual because of EI. But it only brought the gh down to 5 this time. I haven't had to add any equilibrium for 4 weeks so far. Water from my tap is 0gh 0kh. How do these fluctuating gh and kh affect my C02 concentration? And by how much? And since I'm not adding any hardness to the water won't the gh reading eventually go down? I mean I am removing hardness every time I do a water change, they gotta start running out of minerals eventually. I would think the gh increase would start slowing down. Sort by Oldest first Oldest first Newest first Most reactions #2 · Jan 24, 2017 Hi LittlePinkDot, I see you are on the 'Wet Coast' as it is called up there! The dKH and dGH do not effect your CO2 concentration at all. When you do a water change that will typically reduce the CO2 concentration for several hours until it has an opportunity to build back up. PS: Tom Barr is talking on Seattle April 14th, why not come to Seattle for Valentine's Day, visit GSAS (as a guest) and hear the talk! #3 · Jan 25, 2017 Can't make it there. I don't have a drivers license. If kh does not affect c02 levels then why is kh on that c02 chart along with ph? Show more replies 0 Reply #5 · Jan 25, 2017 If you want 20 ppm of CO2 in your water you have to diffuse 20 ppm of CO2 into the water, and keep it up at a rate that replaces the CO2 used by the plants, and lost from the water surface to the air. It makes no difference how much GH or KH you have. If you want to try to measure how much CO2 is in the water you can measure the KH and the pH of the water and those charts will give you a number which will most likely be much higher than the amount of CO2 you actually have in the water. This is because the charts don't work at all accurately with typical aquarium water. Raising the KH will also raise the pH, even if you only have the 3 ppm that we typically get from the CO2 in the room air. Changing the GH will do nothing except raise the GH. Buffering is done by a mix of a weak acid and the conjugate base of that acid - meaning the chemical formula for the conjugate base is the same as that for the acid, but minus one hydrogen atom, making it an ion in the water. If you mix CO2 in water a small portion of the CO2 forms carbonic acid in the water, and the conjugate base for carbonic acid is the carbonate ion. So, a mix of a carbonate, like sodium bicarbonate, which becomes a mix of carbonate ions, plus some anions, and carbonic acid, which forms from CO2 in the water, is a buffer. That buffer holds the pH constant at a value that depends on the amount of carbonates in the water (KH) and the amount of dissolved CO2 in the water. It buffers the water against changes in pH that would be caused by other weak acids or bases in the water. Insert Quotes Post Reply

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