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Showing posts with the label Carbon Dioxide

Red Kelakai and Dissolved Organic Carbon update

This is the update of the red Kelakai and DOC treatment, the color is very orangy for a Terengganu of this size. This is also the 2nd Marulioides that I've tried with Red Kelakai treatment and yes they do bring out the color of the fish. The previous Kalimantan also display obvious orange patches on its side just as this piece.  I think it can be safely concluded that Red Kelakai will bring out the color of the Marulioides from this 2 experiment. Red Kelakai and DOC Previous Kalimantan orangy patch with Red Kelakai treatment

DIY CO2 head from China review

I did a review on ready made head designed for DIY CO2 system. Ordered at Lazada costing RM72.00 inc postage. Took about 10 days shipped from China. I received the goods nicely packed, and they even include an instruction to produce CO2 with citric acid and sodium bicarbonate. I did not use that formula as I'm used to yeast and sugar formula. This time I ordered brewers yeast instead of the normal bread yeast, as I was told that brewers yeast will last longer as they can withstand alcohol. After mixing everything I waited for reaction and non could be seen. At first I suspect the diffuser was set too deep which need higher pressure. So I raised it to 6" below surface and waited another day. Next day still no bubbles could be seen, and I suspect a leak. I remove the diffuser and and put the hose in water and I would see bubbles coming out. So the mixture is good, no leaks but why is there no bubbles? I'm kinda puzzled. 3rd day I decided to add more yeast and af

Black waters of South East Asia

Further studies in my research for the relation of carbon dioxide and peat swamp had lead me to more datas confirming this anomaly. Peat swamp or Black waters indeed are starved of oxygen and contains high level of Carbon Dioxide as I've suspected all this while. We take a look at the work of Dina Muthmainnah and Zulkifli Dahlan for the research paper of Biodiversity of lebak deling swamp in Pampangan Indonesia. http://www.innspub.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/JBES-Vol6No6-p324-333.pdf In their research they have tested the black waters from multiple points and the water parameter shown below is of similarity from those that which I did with simple testing, not as sophisticated as I lacked the equipment in doing so The important aspect here is that it confirms that Black waters are indeed low in oxygen and abnormally high in carbon dioxide (CO2). The PH is similar at 4.5PH average and TDS an average of 24PPM which I recorded an average of 25PPM at Terengganu swamp.

CO2 setup

I've many people asking me how to set up a CO2 system so I'll just share my simple setup as a guide for you guys. Setting up multiple tank from a single source of CO2 is proving to be a pain, I tried balancing with ordinary aerator splitter, metal lever and plastic screw type and it never work. Or I ended up with the hose exploding out from the splitter when the pressure got intensed. In the end I gave up and found a shop that sells regulator splitter head and this works like a charm. So dun waste your time doing what I did. And I did not know that technology had advanced tremendously, there is now such thing as atomizer that produces extremely fine bubbles to maximize CO2 absorption. And you will need a bubble counter with the atomizer as you wont know how much CO2 is going into your tank. You will have many choices to choose the size of your canister, usually from 0.5liter to 5 liter tank. I took the 3liter tank. Of how much CO2 you need to pump into the tank will depen

The relation of CO2 and Marulioides Flower

I was surprise with the fantastic result from using CO2 injection on the flowering of Marulioides in the passed 3 months and I started googling for the relation of CO2 and marulioides. I can't find any obviously other than those of my own posting but interestingly I stumble upon the relation of Peat swamp and Carbon Dioxide!  And to my surprise, peat swamp is the largest deposit of carbon on earth. They are the fixed deposit for Carbon Dioxide. When carbon is exposed to oxygen they becomes Carbon Dioxide (C + O2 = CO2). And when Carbon Dioxide is exposed to water some of them becomes Carbonic Acid (CO2 + H2O = H2CO3).  The habitat of peat swamp Marulioides is acidic and rich carbon in the soil. And it also happened that peat swamp Marulioides are plentiful with flowers as compared to open water marulioides. I think I've just stumble on the key to flowering Maruliodes. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/peat-lands-and-greenhouse-gasses/ We now know

CO2 project upgrade

Comparison 3rd day after CO2 injection After my success with the first fish with CO2, I've decided to buy a pressurized system. With the proper system I can choose to inject as many tank as I wish. Besides a pressurized system is much more effective in dosing CO2.  I started with the Black tank fish as it is just next to the 9bars CO2 tank that was first experiment with. Its easier to control both of them being neighbors. The pressurized system is not easy controlling the bubble count and I was kinda uneasy having to pump pressurized CO2 with this, I need to be careful as they comes in very fine bubbles that makes dissolving mighty effective. And too much of CO2 in still water couple with thicken surface can lead to disaster - CO2 poisoning.  Experiment with such precious fish makes me nervous. Anyhow I set the bubble count to around 5 seconds per bubbles, its hard work tweaking this, I spend 2 days doing so. I kept a close watched on both the fish for CO2 poisonin

CO2 tank update

This pc is the most interesting progress that I've ever achieved, it started with actinic tanning and later on switched to CO2 treatment in low oxygen environment. The result is amazing. PH 5 TDS 120

Actinic and CO2 update

Actinic and CO2 update, progress is going well

Is Oxygen a criteria?

I did a thinking the other day and something struck my mind of the Marulioides habitat. Flower performing specimen most time thrive in still water, low Ph and blackwater. When I had failed specimen they are most time related to fast moving water, powerful pump, air pump, high PH, these if you look at it in another angle are somehow related to the ratio of oxygen vs carbon dioxide. Is Carbon Dioxide one of the factor for flowering of the marulioides?  Or is starving of oxygen the caused for producing flowers. Remember open water and Marulioides from rivers has less flowers? How are the lack of oxygen causing a flower bloom? So the only way we can find out is to do a set up to test out this theory. I've practically ran out of tank to do so many types of experiment, thank god I still have 14pcs of Terengganu to try out. I choose the many band var which is the most stubborn of all types. From my understanding this is the controversial spec that is causing all the fights. The many b