Flyfisherman said:
The only way to tell whether the distribution of Co2 is sufficent is by put a DC within the tank - check colouration - then move the DC around to test for change in colouration.
Regards
PAul.
Actually this doesn't really tell you much. The only
real way to tell whether the distribution of CO2 is sufficient is to look at your plants. If they are suffering CO2 starvation it will be obvious because the plant will either suffer varying degrees of structural failure, or, varying degrees of CO2 related algae - and it won't matter one iota what the dropchecker says. The dropchecker is a very useful frame of reference, and we always suggest it's proper use, however the data that the dropchecker returns to you can only ever be ratified and corroborated by the data being returned to you by your own eyeballs observing the plants themselves. This is such a basic, yet profound principle that folks are still having difficulty coming to grips with because it's too obvious. It's kind of like...a trick question.
If your dropchecker is green and you observe a plant disintegrating, is turning brown, translucent, has holes, has thread/hair algae, has BBA or sometimes staghorn and even GSA, then the conclusion you should draw 99.99% of the time is that there is a problem with CO2or flow, and it absolutely doesn't matter where it's mounted. Always look at you plants and trust what they tell you before looking at your dropchecker. The worst words ever uttered by a hobbyist go something like this:
"I know my CO2 must be good because my dropchecker is lime green".
That is the equivalent of blind faith in a test kit and it can lead you astray.
Cheers,