How do you measure yours?

[JenCliBee]

Hi all..... Just thought i would ask a general question on monitoring CO2 levels in your tanks?....

What would you say was the most reliable way.... drop checker, PH test kit, plant growth, fish behaviour.. etc etc.

Just curious really, i would imagine a drop checker with 4dkh solution been the obvious with fish monitoring at the same time but what's your way? and what way do you see as been the most accurate?


Thanks

 

[Mark Evans]

drop checker, but mainly i use the plants.

 

[JenCliBee]

drop checker, but mainly i use the plants.

Thanks for the reply mark


No one else monitor there levels then?

 

[nry]

The fish - turn CO2 up until they start to gasp, then knock it down a notch until they are happy again

 

[Garuf]

http://www.aquascapingworld.com/forum/w ... evels.html

This should give you a clear over view, ignore the posts by anyone who uses a ph monitor and read everything Tom Barr says.

I don't have anything alive in my tank so I just let the co2 do it's thing, increasing if the plants tell me to.

 

[ceg4048]

Yeah, obtaining an accurate CO2 measurement is very difficult to accomplish. Because of that, we're really not interested in an absolute value, only that we have a sufficient value to obtain good plant health and not so much that we are beyond the ability of the fish to adapt to the level.

Each species has an ability to neutralize the effects of hypercapnia (high bloodstream CO2 level) to a certain extent. This is typically accomplished physiologically by increasing the bicarbonate level in the bloodstream, thus neutralizing the carbonic acid produced by the CO2 and which restores the Hemoglobin-Oxygen affinity.

It takes about 6 hours after a CO2 injection rate increase for the fish to start to make the adjustments. After 24 hours the Oxygen uptake efficiency in hypercapnic fish returns to nearly 100% of non-CO2 values. As the CO2 partial pressure increases this maximum Oxygen uptake efficiency is lowered.

What complicates this issue even more is that the CO2 concentration in the tank is not homogeneous. So the dropchecker color or pH probe tells you very little about what level the fish is seeing or even what level the plant is seeing.

Without an actual CO2 probe costing thousands of pounds, we can only ever get a "best guess" from a dropchecker or pH measurement.

Using a combination of dropchecker readings, change in water pH, plus observation of fish behavior, as well as observation of plants/algae, we can get the general feel of things.

Cheers,

 

[JenCliBee]

Thanks to all and Clive for the explanation, unfortunately i didn't understand most of it lol, but im sure if i did it would be very useful .

As to the answers, sounds like a balance that comes with experience and not equipment with all aspect having to be taken into account.

Thanks again