• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

2kg CO2 life?

Gary Nelson

Member
Joined
20 Jan 2011
Messages
1,292
Location
Leicestershire
Hi,

Can any of you advise me on how long you would expect a 2kg to last on a 180litre tank?

I am running 3 x 24w T5's on 7hrs per day - co2 comes on one hour before lights and goes off one hour before lights out.

Cheers, Gary
 
i think this is a piece of string situation 35kg has lasted me nearly 4 months on a 760l tank at 1.7 WPG wth t5 lighting and 18 dGH and 10 dKH water and medium plant stocking maybe if we all gather enough information some sort of maths/ computer genius can write a program that would be able to give a ball park figure. as this is a common question
 
so here comes the piece of string per litre of water a week i use 2.7g of co2 fox fish uses 1g of co2 so im nearly 3 times higher with less light. these are very rough figures someone might need to check them. but if im even %50 right getting a ball park number will take a lot more info(and less Guinness :) )
 
Hi viper3770

I run a 180 litre, lighting (90W T5's) on for 7 hours a day and CO2 is maxed out :rolleyes: .
I get between 10 & 12 weeks out of a 2kg FE :D .
Might I suggest you turn it on 2 hours before lights on and turn it off 2 hours before lights out. Just gives you a bit more wiggle room if your circulation is a bit suspect, that's all.
Lights on is the most critical part of the lighting period to have your CO2 saturation at it's best.
 
My favorite subject ! The following equation will give you the life of a gas cylinder in days.

No days = 36141 * (weight of gas in kg) / (bubble count in b/s)*(hours per day) * (bubble radius cubed)

For example:
Bubbles from my JBL bubble counter are approx 6mm diameter (3mm radius) so
2kg @ 3b/s for 10 hrs/day would last approx -
(36141 * 2)/3*10*(3*3*3) = 89 days (3 months)

My cylinder is approx 3kg and lasts about 6months @ 3bs for 7hrs/day

Imagine spending £100 at 10p per hour for 10hrs/day - it would last 100 days! 1kg of co2 expands to about 550l if released so it's just a question of working out how many bubbles equates to this volume

Estimating bubble counter size is probably the hardest part but it's dead easy to program into a spreadsheet so you can see how bubble size/duration/ bubble rate effects cylinder life.
 
Depends on the tank, one every 14 weeks for my old 60cm. It's much more like one every 6 months for my current 20l.
 
Back
Top