automated pH dosing

[raglanroad]

Any ideas on how to make an automated pH tester w/ drip emitter for peat infusion? I musta been up too late last night...

[ronrca]

Question - why are you adjusting the ph? Is it necessary that you have to adjust it?

[raglanroad]

Not neccessarily. I want to get water with close to natural parameters for Altums, and discus people do more of that type of environment than the ornamental angel keepers, they like high pH, high Gh stuff like that. Am forwarned of the instability of the water at low Gh and ph. I think that 25% water change /day will help with stability of pH. I have an answer to the automated pH thing. The tester intended for co2 continuous immersion. That switch could turn on and off a peat infusion drip, keeping pH constant, as there will be lots of aeration to blow off co2 at night. Funny thing about the warnings, though. One warning was of pH rise, the other was of pH fall.The drip could handle pH rise, only the aeration could reduce pH fall. Is this right? There would of course be very little buffering.

[ronrca]

Not neccessarily. I want to get water with close to natural parameters for Altums, and discus people do more of that type of environment than the ornamental angel keepers.Actually, my adults and juv discus are in ph of 8.2 and gh/kh of around 100ppm. I always thought that discus require soft water and low ph however that is not the case unless you intend to breed discus. When I first started with discus and before simplydiscus, I actually tried to lower my ph to around 6.5 with acid. I never succeed because either the ph would rise again or crash (btw, this was in the storage tanks, not in the fish tanks). It is much easier to keep discus in aged tap water and keep the ph constant than messing around with it.

Ph rising/falling can be a number of factors. One, buffering capacity and second, C02 to mention a few. If aeration is causing the ph to rise, that is due to C02 being dissapated via surface movement. A high buffering capacity will also cause ph to 'bounce' back. In your case if you are using peat drip, aeration shouldnt be the cause unless you have C02 in your water already. Are you using aged water meaning do you aerate and heat your water 24 hours before a wc?