It's my view that often the problems that the people that are new to this hobby experience are a result of very simple mistakes. Things like wrong lighting, inacurate test readings and such.
Lately I haven't checked the pH of my tanks as often as I used to. I found that I check if the bubble rate is consistent and if the plants look good. I know that with a KH=3 and 1 bubble per second I get no less than pH=6.7 in my 55 gal tank.
That led me to think that a beginner may benefit from simple advice like setting the CO2 at certain rate instead of running tests with a cheap pH test kit or even a probe that could be off. Of course with such an advice there is a lot of assumption going on. But if the tank hardware is good and things are not running as they are supposed to often the solution to the problems is much simpler than we all think.
Another common problem that I think many people overlook is the loss of CO2 due to turbulent water movement. That is another thing that a beginner must pay attention to. Again - a simple approach.
I'm far from trying to say that one can come up with a foolproof way to run a planted tank. But certain things could definitely be presented in a simpler way for the beginners.
Do you see my point? Any opinions?
--Nikolay
Lately I haven't checked the pH of my tanks as often as I used to. I found that I check if the bubble rate is consistent and if the plants look good. I know that with a KH=3 and 1 bubble per second I get no less than pH=6.7 in my 55 gal tank.
That led me to think that a beginner may benefit from simple advice like setting the CO2 at certain rate instead of running tests with a cheap pH test kit or even a probe that could be off. Of course with such an advice there is a lot of assumption going on. But if the tank hardware is good and things are not running as they are supposed to often the solution to the problems is much simpler than we all think.
Another common problem that I think many people overlook is the loss of CO2 due to turbulent water movement. That is another thing that a beginner must pay attention to. Again - a simple approach.
I'm far from trying to say that one can come up with a foolproof way to run a planted tank. But certain things could definitely be presented in a simpler way for the beginners.
Do you see my point? Any opinions?
--Nikolay
