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New to Site and CO2

Bertie

Bertie

Member
Joined
18 Apr 2013
Messages
489
Hi,
I am new to the forum, as well as aquariiums and especially CO2.

I have had my tank, a Rio 180, for about 6 months.It has approx 160 Litres of water.
I started plants in January and I started CO2 two weeks today.

I am having a problem with my CO2, which may be causing my black algae problem.

I have a reasonable flow using an Eheim Pro3 250 filter with a stated flow of 950 lph. I also have a small submersible pump at about 200 lph and als a New Wave circulation pump running 800 lph.

Now the problem...I am injecting 4 bubbles per second going through a 2.5 cm glass ceramic diffuser.
The CO2 comes on 2 1/2 hrs before lights and goes off one hour before lights off.

The lights are on 8hrs daily. When the lights come on the drop checker is still a blue colour. Two hours after lights on the drop checker turns green and my ph is 6.8. about 2 hours before lights off the drop checker turns a lime green and my ph goes to 6.6.

I do not know why it is like this and I would have thought 4 bubbles per second into 160 Litres would be enough? But as I say I am a novice. I am also not seeing any pearling.
 
Hi Bertie. You need to get to lime green at lights on. I'd try switching the Co2 on earlier in half hour steps or you could up the injection rate. You can also turn the Co2 off earlier if you like.

My Co2 comes on 4 hours before lights on and goes off 2 hours before lights out and my injection rate is higher than 4bps.

Do you have much surface agitation?.
 
Hello,
This is undoubtedly why you have a problem:
Bertie said:
When the lights come on the drop checker is still a blue colour.
Click to expand...

When the lights come on the DC needs to be lime green to yellowish, however, accomplishing that means that later in the day you can too much dissolved CO2 for the fish to cope with.

4 BPS may not be enough. You'll need to find a way to increase the bubble rate without killing your fish and you can also try supplementation of CO2 via liquid carbon products like Excel or EasyCarbo, as long as you don't have any sensitive plants which react negatively to liquid carbon. You can turn the gas off earlier if you wish to help with the fish.

When the lights come on in the morning is THE most critical time for CO2. The plants don't really care too much on the tail end, however the beginning of the photoperiod is when most people induce the damage.

Cheers,
 
Hi Davem,
Will try your suggesions thank you. I would have thought 4 bubbles per sec would be fine as I have read people with larger tanks using less? I am using soda stream bottles at the moment. I don't think they will last me long...looks like it might get expensive as the wife is adamant that I cannot have a FE in the living room.;) I think I will up the bubble rate first but will have to keep a close eye on the fish. Thanks again.
 
Thanks ceg4048, I do dose with 4ml of Neutro CO2 on a daily basis. I will up one bubble first thing (if I can count them, I have great difficulty counting with my varifocals and ancient eyes):) I will also get it to switch on earlier and turn off 2 hours before lights off.
Thanks
 
Hi Bertie, welcome to the forum.
So you are saying your problems are ... you dc is not green at lights on, you are not seeing any pearling & you have some black algae.
Well pearling is not particularly relevant as this visible function is not necessary to obtain strong plant growth.
You mention 4 BPS, well that is only a guide of course but it might be enough if you have really good distribution.
I would try moving the powerheads to get a better flow as this is probably the most difficult aspect of C02 injected tanks to get right!
You dont say much about lighting but I would suggest you reduce the light period to 6 hours too.
 
Hi foxfish,
I have two 45w T5 Juwel daylight tubes with reflectors but someone told me to remove the reflectors until CO2 is sorted so will do that in the morning as it is my water change day.
I have been going loopy trying to move the circ pumps and the plants do all sway in the flow.
 
Well...done my water change already!:D I have taken the reflectors off and set the timer for the CO2 to come on three hours before lights on.
Should I up the bubble rate from 4 bps? or leave it and see how it goes today?
Thanks everybody by the way for your help. I think I am going to have a big pruning session very soon as the plants look horrible with the black algae.
 
I'd leave it today and just see what effect the earlier start has but I'm certain you will have to up your injection rate a bit. It's a good idea to remove the affected leaves.
 
OK Thanks davem....the trouble with removing the affected leaves is that if I do it all at once I will have very minimum of plants left :D but I understand what you are saying and will remove the most affected ones first!
 
Done already? My girl friend would nor be so happy if I was up at 6 doing water changes but then I do make a lot of noise :p

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2
 
I have had one other thought. I believe that the airline I am using is just that...silicone air line and not co2 airline...would that give me a co2 loss along its length, and if so would it significantly affect the amount of co2 usage?
 
Bertie said:
I have had one other thought. I believe that the airline I am using is just that...silicone air line and not co2 airline...would that give me a co2 loss along its length, and if so would it significantly affect the amount of co2 usage?
Click to expand...
The CO2 "dissolves" in the silicone airline changing its properties. Some silicone goes gooey and other hardens with CO2 over time, which is why you should use proper CO2 tubing. CO2 also can affect rubber seals, which is why it is not recommend to inject CO2 into the inlet of filters, though many people do with no issues.
 
Hi foxfish, I did try a reactor/diffuser with twin impellers...I run it off a small submersible pump in the tank (ugly) but I had to input 6 bps and the thing did not seem to be able to cope! I suspect it was too small at only 5 inches, excluding pipework. I did not want to attach it to my filter as the filter hosing is 16/22 and the pipe on the reactor was only about 12mm.
 
thanks ian_m,
I will change the airline asap thanks.
 
Well something has happened. The lights just came on and the dc is showing green and my ph is 6.8.
Should I try and fiddle and try and get a lighter green or leave alone? Taking into account I will have difficulty in adjusting it very finely? As far as counting any bps after 4 I will find nigh on impossible with my eyes.;)
 
Bertie said:
Well something has happened. The lights just came on and the dc is showing green and my ph is 6.8.
Should I try and fiddle and try and get a lighter green or leave alone?
Click to expand...
Leave alone and see how it goes...
 
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