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Co2 DC still blue after 4 hours?

Jay1

Member
Joined
25 Jan 2015
Messages
142
Well its finally running and trying to determine a profile.
EI dosing micro and macro
300 litres
Stock: Two Dainos, one Redcap, & Four minnnows.
KH 11
PH start 8.1PH
Current PH 7.9PH after 3.5 hours
BPS: 1per2sec
Still slowly tweaking as this is the first trial run.
I'm a bit confused about lighting as I know the lights should be on 2 hours before gassing and 2 hours off co2 when lights are still on.
The only problem I see is I ran LED's for only 3 hours (19.00-22.00) a day because I have natural light hit the tank front during daylight hours so increasing the lighting period is what I'm after I was considering 12.00pm till 4.00pm with lights on @10.00am and off 6.00pm. Does this sound okay? I can see some Co2 on the leaves on the otherside of the tank, but did a 50 % water change before I started.
Plants are always good without co2!
20150321_103847.jpg
20150321_103822.jpg
 
1 bubble per 2 seconds is the problem, or you possibly have a leak. Try 1 BPS and make the CO2 pipe as short as possible also.

It looks like the diffuser is mounted vertically rather than horizontally, you'll get better diffusion if you adjust it.
 
No do not put the lights on before the co2........or is that a typing error?
 
1 bubble per 2 seconds is the problem, or you possibly have a leak. Try 1 BPS and make the CO2 pipe as short as possible also.

It looks like the diffuser is mounted vertically rather than horizontally, you'll get better diffusion if you adjust it.
thanks Julian turned the diffuser but need to shortern the tubing to get the right angle on the duffuser.
No do not put the lights on before the co2........or is that a typing error?
Hey kirk Hope you are well mate?
Not sure confused now so its co2 two hours before lights then?

Video got it to 1 BPS but might need to crank it up still?
https://vid.me/zFSm
 
Well issues and upcoming issues are:
- Turn CO2 two hours before lights on to allow CO2 to level out before lights on.
- Turn CO2 off one hour before lights off.
- Your blue DC (and b**ger all pH change) indicates very very poor CO2 dissolution and/or flow. Major issue....needs sorting before exposing plants to any decent amount of light.
- Sun light (if that is what you mean) hitting tank is very bad, will just get uncontrollable algae. Indirect sunlight shouldn't be an issue.

Suggestions:
- Lights 4 hours or less at the start and lowered intensity especially with poor CO2.
- BPS is not really a comparable measurement but with a tank your size should be high maybe 4bps or higher. Weigh your CO2 cylinder before CO2 and after to see how much is used. I am using 20gr per day in 180litre tank.
- A spray bar across the back of the tank to get full width circular flow is the way to decent circulation.
- You need to seriously improve your CO2 before running at higher (& longer) light levels or else you will "burn" & "starve" all your plants to death and end up just growing algae.
- CO2 via inline diffuser is maybe the way forward, though with such a big filter and pipe you will have to get creative to get one in the filter outlet.
 
When I was running co2 on my 125l tank I was running the co2 at 2bps to get the drop checker to go green. In your tank you would need 3 or 4 bps to get enough co2
 
Well issues and upcoming issues are:
- Turn CO2 two hours before lights on to allow CO2 to level out before lights on.
- Turn CO2 off one hour before lights off.
- Your blue DC (and b**ger all pH change) indicates very very poor CO2 dissolution and/or flow. Major issue....needs sorting before exposing plants to any decent amount of light.
- Sun light (if that is what you mean) hitting tank is very bad, will just get uncontrollable algae. Indirect sunlight shouldn't be an issue.

Suggestions:
- Lights 4 hours or less at the start and lowered intensity especially with poor CO2.
- BPS is not really a comparable measurement but with a tank your size should be high maybe 4bps or higher. Weigh your CO2 cylinder before CO2 and after to see how much is used. I am using 20gr per day in 180litre tank.
- A spray bar across the back of the tank to get full width circular flow is the way to decent circulation.
- You need to seriously improve your CO2 before running at higher (& longer) light levels or else you will "burn" & "starve" all your plants to death and end up just growing algae.
- CO2 via inline diffuser is maybe the way forward, though with such a big filter and pipe you will have to get creative to get one in the filter outlet.

Thanks Ian I'll try different things over the next couple of weeks! The main one will be sticking the duffuser right under the output of the filter.
Spray bar is going to be difficult unless I run my 2217 in there but will have four set of pipes that need plumbing into the work top.
I can't run a inline into the FX6 there would be defo a gass build up on the filter. I could try and buy the kit that fits on the FX5 from tetra if I can improve it I will look further into the sparay bar.

When I was running co2 on my 125l tank I was running the co2 at 2bps to get the drop checker to go green. In your tank you would need 3 or 4 bps to get enough co2

Hey Matt eventually it will be 4-5bps the tube length is a problem got about 2.5 metres of length and even switching the system off it still bubbles well over a few hours later to get around this problem I might have to regulate the manifold with little output pressure and what I can tell is the duffuser is so fine it takes a lot of pressure just to get it to work hence bubbles even when the solinoid is off.
 
Well some interesting results tonight!
Start Ph 8.2Ph Co2 off 20.00 7.0Ph
Three hours of co2 injection.
Co2 on 17.00 to 20.00
Lights 19.00 to 21.00
First Drop checker green at top bluish green bottom (Fluval)
Second drop checker Green (Glass bubble)
BPS don't even know, its around 5-6 per second

Any room for improvements guys?
Fish are all okay no going for air and eating well tonight.
Solved the run on of bubbles tweaked the regulator down to lower pressure and needle valve working better during shut off period.
 
Well some interesting results tonight!
Start Ph 8.2Ph Co2 off 20.00 7.0Ph
Three hours of co2 injection.
Co2 on 17.00 to 20.00
Lights 19.00 to 21.00
First Drop checker green at top bluish green bottom (Fluval)
Second drop checker Green (Glass bubble)
BPS don't even know, its around 5-6 per second

Any room for improvements guys?
Fish are all okay no going for air and eating well tonight.
Solved the run on of bubbles tweaked the regulator down to lower pressure and needle valve working better during shut off period.

I'm a little confused by your profile, it says 3 hours of CO2 injection? It should be on about 2 hours before the lights come on, then stay on until an hour before the lights go out. Obviously you will need to lower the BPS if you increase the injection period. To my knowledge, plants don't 'register' anything less than around 4 hours of light - not sure how accurate this is though.
 
Hello Julian I think I was on the limit the Goldfish were fine but one Minnow was at the top of the tank looking a bit dazed.
I've turned the airstones back on and leaving them for a couple of days, but already tweaked back the finer regulator will try again on wednesday.:(
 
Yeah you need to get some surface agitation there to degass the CO2 else it will never level out, it will continue to drop the pH.
 
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