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Bubbles per second!

dkm

Member
Joined
7 Jun 2009
Messages
208
Hi,

My tank has been set up for 8 days now. It is 400L (minus displacement) and I have planted 24 V. Nana, 15 E. Parvula and 35 pots of HC all from Tropica.

My lighting is approx 2 wpg, KH very low and GH medium. I have a bit of green water probably due to ammonia spike off the set up with ADA amazonian soil. Doing 50% water changes every three days now the ammonia is coming down. I am also running a UV to try and clear up the green water. It has been running for 4 days and has only made a very slight difference to the 'greeness'. Fert is TPN+ 20ml a day as seems to be the norm according to other threads on UKAPS.

I was instructed that I would need 40 bubbles per minute but to get the drop checker to go light green (trying to get it high to give the HC a good start) I am running my co2 at approx 6 bubbles per second!!!

My questions to you all are:

would you expect this bubble rate at this stage?
at its present rate how long is a 2kg cylinder going to last? !!!

Any advice would be much appreciated.

dave
 
Bubble rate means nothing, as bubble size from regulator to regulator will vary, also the tubing, bubble counters, etc. I run my bubble count at stupid levels on my 60cm tank. Go by the Drop Checker. Try moving the DC around within the tank too.
 
Forgot to mention.

I have no leaks as far as I can make out. And I use a AquaMedic CO2 reactor and no bubbles escape into the tank which would indicate all the co2 is being dissolved into the water. Finally my water turnover is approx 12x and hour with good flow throughout the tank.

Dave
 
Will try that James. Going to move my DC now.

Cheers

Dave
 
As James has stated its not the amount of bubbles been added - its the colouration of the Dc to look at. If you find that you DC are lime green in various positions within the tank and you are still at 6bps your 2 kg bottle of gas should last approx. 3 months.

Regards
paul.
 
Thanks Paul,

Moved my DC just waiting for a few hours to see what the reading is. Good to know my 2kg cylinder is not going to run out that quickly then. Phew.

Dave
 
My last 2kg FE lasted 9 months (almost to the day) on a 60ltr set-up at a normal injection rate.

You can do the maths! If you manage to get over two months out of it you should be pleased (or under injecting) in my experience.

Good luck and keep us informed!
 
I will be happy for 6-8 weeks to be honest. Lets see how it goes.

Thanks for the replies guys.

Dave
 
Simon D said:
My last 2kg FE lasted 9 months (almost to the day) on a 60ltr set-up at a normal injection rate.

You can do the maths! If you manage to get over two months out of it you should be pleased (or under injecting) in my experience.

Good luck and keep us informed!


Wow thats is an awful long time!! I get about 6 weeks to my 2 kg in my 180L tank, Just aquired a 5 kg bottle simply to save a few trips to the refilling shop :lol:
 
Hi mfcphil

mfcphil said:
I get about 6 weeks to my 2 kg in my 180L tank,
Have you checked your system for leaks.
I definitely get 3 months on a 180l and I'm running my DC in the yellow all the time.
Maybe the answer is we have just got different diffusion rates or surface agitation.

Chris
 
Just goes to show how many factors are really involved
 
A word of warning - I got just two weeks out of my very first 3kg! I discovered my CO2 hose connections between FE and solenoid were not properly tightened. Luckily I had a second ready to go on, but it was an easy mistake to make.
 
Easily done,

I have a spare co2 cylinder too. Just in case. I have double checked the connections and all seems well.

Dave
 
dkm said:
I will be happy for 6-8 weeks to be honest. Lets see how it goes.

Thanks for the replies guys.

Dave

I reckon thats a pretty realistic expectation from a tank of that size if your doing it right.

35 pots of HC, wow you don't muck about do you!!!!!!! Hope you got a good deal on that little lot.

Regards, Chris.
 
Will do. Will do Paul. Bear with me. Just getting the time thats all!

Well I got three weeks out of my 2 kg. Bit disappointed. So went out and got two 6.5kg cylinders. The guy in the shop did not even charge me for the deposit on the cylinders and only charged me approx £27 for the 13kg's worth of co2 (food grade). At the present rate they should last at least 9 weeks each!

At the rate I have it running (cant count that fast) I am very surprised at how well my reactor is coping with it. No bubbles escaping into the tank at all.

Dave
 
PS: got a good deal on all that tropica. Still expensive though.
 
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