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Getting it "lime green"

B

Bahamuts

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Joined
24 Nov 2011
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30
Hi all,

I have a AquaStart 500 (65L l 50cm x w 34cm x h 49cm)

3 weeks ago I bought a JBL kit and starting injecting CO2.
I use the included bubbletrap at max length and the solenoid to cut off CO2 when lights are not on.

The instructions said to start at 1 bubble / 5 seconds and work your way up untill the drop checker was lime green.
Now I have been gradually highering it to the point where it runs at 1 bubble per second. The color of the drop checker is still not close to lime green. It is less blue than before but I am still only around 10-12 ppm according to the colour scale (measured just before it gets cut off). I did a PH test and that gave me about the same result.

1 bubble per second in my counter is 1 bubble per second in my trap so I don't seem to have a leak somewhere. The bubbles run up the trap fine and get a lot smaller when reaching the top so it is (I think) dissolving fine too.

I am using the spraybar that came with the filter and there is good flow (but also quite a lot of surface agitation, is this causing it to evaporate?).

Should I be running this at even more bbs? That seems a bit extreme for such a small tank and if something is causing this will just drain my cannister faster...
Should I try the glass diffuser in stead?
Or is there something else I can do to get to the "sweet spot"?

Thanks in advance.

Sven
 
From what I've learned on here there are lots of things that come into play. So much of this trial and error, but most importantly take your time with what you do. Also, don't change too many things at once.

For surface agitation the trick is not to break the waters surface. So as long as it's not splashing you should be OK. Have you tried your drop checker in a different area of the tank as it might be in a dead spot? How long is your CO2 on before your lights come on?

I have a 65L tank, glass diffuser under filter inlet and spraybar and have to run closer to 2 bubbles per second to get the Co2 level correct. CO2 is on for 90 minutes before lights. I also think 2BPS is high but I'm still tweaking it though to try to make it more efficient.
 
I've got an aquastart 320t, and I imagine that you're using the little connector to plumb the co2 straight into the filter flow? The spraybar should be about 1cm under the surface of the water, pointing towards the front of the tank, once I did this the surface agitation was significantly less but with no reduction of flow. The pressure may not be enough to push the co2 into the water and might just push it in, in spurts or the seal between your pipe and the connector might be iffy, so try it with the glass diffuser and check you have co2 coming out. Also a drop checker will show you the amount of co2 in the tank 2 hours ago not now (in case nothing had told you that).
 
davem said:
So as long as it's not splashing you should be OK. Have you tried your drop checker in a different area of the tank as it might be in a dead spot? How long is your CO2 on before your lights come on?
Click to expand...

Yeah I did try several spots in the tank but no difference.
I did have quite a bit of splash, I'll move it down and see if that helps a bit.
The Co2 comes on just over an hour prior to the lights turning on.
So running it at 1 bps in a smallish tank is not too extreme yet? The fish are not gasping or anything but it seemed quite a lot when the booklet stated to go with 1 every 5 seconds for 50L tanks :)

RudeDogg1 said:
What are u using to inject the co2 diffuser, atomiser ect?
Click to expand...
The bubble trap that came with the kit, about 20cm long. Visually I think the glass diffuser would be slightly prettier but I started with this since I was told a trap is more efficient.

Arana said:
what are you filling your dropchecker with?
Click to expand...
It came with the JBL set, it is Bromo Blue unless I am severely mistaken.

PeteA said:
I've got an aquastart 320t, and I imagine that you're using the little connector to plumb the co2 straight into the filter flow?
Click to expand...
Nah it goes cannister - tube - bubble counter - tube - non return valve - tube - trap
The filter is in the back left corner with the spraybar aimed towards the middle front, while trap is front left.
From the bubbles going from big to very small I reckon it is doing what it should, but I could always try the glass one for a bit in case reducing the splash does not seem to help.
 
With the jbl diffuser you need to ensure its an an area of good flow to take the dissolved c02 with it. I'd aim for turning co2 on 2 hours before lights to have s nice green drop checker when lights come on. And with that particular diffuser you don't actually need the bubble counter as you can count the bubbles going up the spiral.
The water breaking the surface will be why it's taking longer to change colour in the drop checker as it will be gassing off some of the co2. To counter this you can either turn up the co2 or lower your outflow do as to not break the surface at all. Their recommendations for 1 bubble every 5 seconds is very low.
 
Bahamuts said:
So running it at 1 bps in a smallish tank is not too extreme yet? The fish are not gasping or anything but it seemed quite a lot when the booklet stated to go with 1 every 5 seconds for 50L tanks :)
Click to expand...

I would imagine JBL err on the side of caution with their instructions. It's too easy to gas your fish if this kit is in the wrong hands.

If you can get your CO2 to dissolve efficiently the less it will cost you to run.

What filter do you run?
 
Alastair said:
With the jbl diffuser you need to ensure its an an area of good flow to take the dissolved c02 with it. I'd aim for turning co2 on 2 hours before lights to have s nice green drop checker when lights come on.
Click to expand...
Ok I'll make it turn on a bit earlier


davem said:
I would imagine JBL err on the side of caution with their instructions. It's too easy to gas your fish if this kit is in the wrong hands.

If you can get your CO2 to dissolve efficiently the less it will cost you to run.

What filter do you run?
Click to expand...

The internal Aqua One Maxi 102F that came with the tank. (500l per hour)
Have been wanting to upgrade to a external Fluval one but that will be for after the holiday period
 
The most important question, how are your plants? If they're growing well, don't worry about the drop checker.
 
Arana said:
what are you filling your dropchecker with?
Bahamuts said:
It came with the JBL set, it is Bromo Blue unless I am severely mistaken.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Sorry i meant what are you mixing with the bromo blue? i seem to remember JBL instructions tell you to mix it with tank water :rolleyes: if this is the case you will not be getting a true reading, you need to mix it with 4DKH water to see the true CO2 levels.
 
Morgan Freeman said:
The most important question, how are your plants? If they're growing well, don't worry about the drop checker.
Click to expand...

the Limnobium laevigatum is the only thing that is growing well, I nip off the new ones every 2-3 days to make sure they are not taking away too much light from the rest.

The rest looks healty but I wouldn't call them fast growing at all, specially not what I would expect from things like Hygrophila polysperma with CO2 + daily ferts.
Maybe 1/2 an inch a week...


Morgan Freeman said:
Sorry i meant what are you mixing with the bromo blue? i seem to remember JBL instructions tell you to mix it with tank water :rolleyes: if this is the case you will not be getting a true reading, you need to mix it with 4DKH water to see the true CO2 levels.
Click to expand...
It was a premix of Bromo Blue with 4dkh water, 35 drops as instructed fills it up perfectly
 
One thing that still puzzles me here is how people get a lime green drop checker at lights on? It seems many people switch their CO2 on 2 hrs before lights on. If the drop checker is telling us what was going on approximately 2 hours before how can that be? o_O

I have my co2 come on at 2pm, at lights on which is 4pm the drop checker is not green. At about 6pm its is emerald green at 8:30 when the CO2 goes off it is lime green. Does this sound about right or am I taking too long to get there?
 
PeteA said:
I've not really played with mine but it doesn't drop towards blue at all. Nice lime green at lights on and emerald most of the rest of the time.
Click to expand...
Peter how long is your Co2 on before lights on?
 
CO2 kicks in at 1.30pm with the lights coming on at 3.30pm. CO2 off is 7.30pm and lights are 10.30pm. What I have found is that the pressure of the CO2 (2.5) means that CO2 tends to carry on feeding into the tank for another 20 minutes after it switches off. I've got one of the new style UP atomisers.
 
PeteA said:
CO2 kicks in at 1.30pm with the lights coming on at 3.30pm. CO2 off is 7.30pm and lights are 10.30pm. What I have found is that the pressure of the CO2 (2.5) means that CO2 tends to carry on feeding into the tank for another 20 minutes after it switches off. I've got one of the new style UP atomisers.
Click to expand...

Thanks again for the repsonse Pete, your CO2 time isn't a million miles away from mine. I'm using an inline UP atomiser of the output of a 2078. I might try uping the bubble rate a bit next time I'm home for the day.
 
Bubble rates seem to be dependant upon a number of factors, including the diffuser/atomiser, bubble counter and the length of pipe between the injection point and the actual pipe outlet. What I do find is that when the CO2 kicks in the bubble rate seems very fast until the tubing and atomiser gets up to working pressure. When I was originally setting mine up I got it up to pressure and got the bubbles running to the point where I could barely count them (i.e. too quick) as I knew that 190 litres was going to need quite a bit of CO2. It's never gone yellow for me, but not blue either.
 
Getting it "lime green"

I use bubble rate as a guidance of how much change I have made to the needle valve.

My drop checker is also not yellow, but stays green all the time, will not drop to blue unless I have it outside the tank.

Co2 is an art, much harder than keeping plants. :)


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I don't know what is the secret of success, but the secret of failure is trying to please the world!
 
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