Water Chemistry

I did all the tests I have, which now include Nitrate and Phosphate, and it almost makes sense:

	pH	dGH	dKH	CO2	NO3	PO4
58G	7.6	6.16	7.28	5.5	10	0.25
20G	7.6	5.60	6.16	4.5	5	0.25
Tap	7.6	3.92	5.04	3.8	2	0.25

Tests were done at around 6pm, 1 hour after CO2 was turned off in 58gal and 1-2 days after 50% water change. Looks like the water pH is too high for my pH Low Range (6.0-7.6) test. I need to get a high range test, better yet figure out how to lower the pH. It seems like topping off the tanks with distilled water might be a good idea. For now I decided to bubble CO2 into 58gal 24 hours/day instead of during the "lights on" hours only....

Water Chemistry

Today I finally used the test kits - all I had - low range pH and KH/GH. The results are really confusing:

	pH	dGH	dKH	CO2
58G	7.0	15.68	10.08	47
20G	7.6	8.96	5.60	6.8
Tap	7.6	10.08	7.28	7.5

There is no surprise that 58Gal has lower pH - CO2 injection shows. 58Gal does have a terribly high GH - I tested it twice only to get the same result - I guess water change is overdue. But 47ppm for CO2? My fish is doing just fine and has no desire to die as it should do at 47ppm concentration of CO2. And my tap water has higher GH than 20Gal? This I certainly do not understand. My guess is that the GH/KH test kit needs calibration. I also ordered phosphate and nitrate test kits.

Bogwood and Moss

I just got myself some bog wood and Java Moss (Vesicularia dubyana). I started with soaking the bogwood for few days and followed with boiling it for a couple of hours. I attached the moss with fishline to a couple of pebbles. I also used fishline to attach anubias to bogwood and then wrapped it up with the mosss. Finally I wrapped another piece of bogwood with moss and left it in a covered glass container under the sun with some water on the bottom - I expect for it to grow in real fast with high light and 100% humidity - we shall see if it works.
Update: well, it looks like I cooked moss in the direct sun. So far no luck.
Yet another update: first female and then male white cloud minnows died because of the deterioration of water caused by new moss. I made a 50% water change - barbs seem to be OK.

20 Gal Tank Setup

This is a moderate light, no CO2 injection tank. I use Hagen Glo fixture with 2x24W T5HO fluorescent bulbs and a daily dose of Seachem Flourish Excel. Filtration is provided by Eheim 2213. Substrate is a 1.5" layer of flourite.
I planted Anubias barteri and Anubias barteri petite in this tank. I also routinely plant cuttings from 58gal tank, but they do not grow well and are soon covered in algae. The next time I prune plants in 58gal, I replace plants in this tank with the cuttings.
Cleanup crew includes Malaysian Trumpet snails, 20 Olive Nerite snails and 3 otos.
6 Tiger barbs (Puntius tetrazona) and 3 albino barbs are constantly chasing each other establishing pecking order. Originally the school consisted of 7 barbs. One of the barbs died after being constantly chased by the dominant specimen, I decided to increase the school by adding albinos. So far it works.
The 2 white cloud minnows (Tanichthys albonubes) live in my tanks for almost 3 years. They are ignored by barbs.