acclimating discus to new ph with CO2 question

[bodhidiver]

hello all
i've got some discus in a 75 gal with a ph of about 8 ... (our local water is hard and of high ph) These discus were bred locally and raised in this high ph...

i'm going to start injecting CO2 soon after my first shipment of plants arrives. Anyone know at what rate i should introduce CO2 without shocking my fish to death?
I'll have a automatic PH controller and a solenoid. Any recommendations? .5 change in ph per hour? day? week? I'm aiming for a ph of 6.8...
Am i being rediculous?
i was planning on waiting until my planted tank was established but ... i'm not sure excatly what happened. :P

[ChloroPhil]

You'll be better off getting a load of cheap plants now if you can and starting your CO2 supplimentation as soon as possible. Your plants aren't going to be using much gas for the first few days while the acclimate to your tank and get over the stress of shipment. All that time your pH is going to be fairly variable with the CO2 staying in the water. BTW, what's your KH?

[ronrca]

Before attempting to set a particular ph level, you need to measure your kh and find out what the optimul and dangerous level of C02 will be.

Here's the chart you will need to use:
http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/CO2/kh-ph-co2-chart.html

This will help you determine the safe level of C02 and ph. Just curious, why the desired level of 6.8?

I would also recommend getting your tank stable like biotypical mentions about adding plants! This will then help minimize ph swings with discus already in the tank. Once you have the accomplished, we can help you acclimatize your discus!

HTH!

[bodhidiver]

wow lots of information. this is going to take me a while to digest, I have never been a fast study with regards to analysis. Being a bit color blind doesn't help also when reading the results on my tests. :-[

6.8 was just what i had garnered off the net from various examples of working planted discus tanks...

This may take me a few days to figure out
i'll be back.

[bodhidiver]

out of the tap

our water ph is 7.64

total alkalinity (caco3) is 145 ppm
total hardness (caco3) is 190 ppm

Calcium is 52.8 ppm

manganese 1.56 ppb
magnesium 19 ppm

so it's moderate hardness...i guess

[ronrca]

Sounds like my tap water too! ;)

Attempting to get a ph of 6.8 may not be a good idea! I have troubles getting a ph of 7.0 because the C02 levels get to high! Usually its around 7.2!

[ChloroPhil]

try www.sfbaaps.com and look under the CO2/pH/KH table in the Reference section.

best of luck!

[bodhidiver]

hey thanks for the link! and the encouragement