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I'm unsure on this

Koi426

Seedling
Joined
14 Oct 2019
Messages
9
Location
Cumbria
I have acquired a co2 kit for my pllanted tank which is approx 340litres UK. I have a co2 2kg carbon dioxide fire extinguisher and a co2 supermarket regulater with a solonoid. It's a doul gauge regulater showing the tank psi at around 800 and outlet psi 58 or so. It has a bubble counter attached to regulater and I'm counting roughly 2 bpm. I'm quite nervous of doing something wrong as the tank is fully stocked with nano fish, does it sound right?
 
Hi Koi

I'm no expert, but it seems you're not doing much wrong at all. 2bpm is probably not enough for 340L, but is a good place to start. Just increase the bpm's until your drop checker is lime green. If it goes yellow, decrease the bpm.
You probably don't need as much as 58ps, I use around 30-40psi and that's because I use an inline diffuser. In-tank diffusers probably work at a lower psi, but I've never used one.

Hope that helps!
 
Thank you for your reply, I'm not sure how to adjust the out going psi it just seems to be set that way. Could you explain what an in line diffuser is?
 
O ok I think I have something like that but made out of plastic. Thank you for your help I'll bring it up and keep an eye on the drop checker
 
Presume you mean bubble per second not bubble per minute?

You have quite a large volume of water so you will likely need a lot of CO2 and very effective flow and distribution.

Perhaps if you could outline the set up and equipment you have and we can provide more specific advice?
 
On my 180l tank I get through about 0.01grams/litre/hour of CO2. So for me at 8hours and 180litre tank that is 180 * 8 * 0.01 -> 14grams per day. This gives a green/yellow drop checker "everywhere" in my tank. I also have over 5000litres/hour flow rate, 2100l/hr from two filters and 3200l/hr from a powerhead.

So, you will be looking at least 30grams/day CO2 for 340litres. Get a pair of digital scales (Argos £10 ?) weight your CO2 cylinder before CO2 on and weigh is afterwards. 30gr should be easily measurable.

Your filter(s) flow rate will need to be at least 3400 litres/hour if you want to have any chance of succeeding with CO2. Flow and circulation are absolutely essential or else plants suffer as they are not being supplied with enough CO2. This is very hard and time consuming to get right.

Really, to help more, we need details of your tank dimensions, filters your are using, lights you are using, ferts dosing scheme your are using. All these things are quite critical in achieving success in a hi-tech CO2 injected tank.
 
Yes thank you I meant bps heh. Wow I'm feeling a bit over my head now but I have a fluvial fx4 and all pond solutions 2000ef filter with a UV sterilisor plumbed into the outlet of the fluvial. The outlet pipes are at oppasite sides of the tank for even flow. A have an aquasky lighting system with the plant mode on. I haven't a tape measure handy to measure tank dimensions but I can get that. As for fertilizers I...don't use them? The plants I have are low maintenance really but I find that algae builds up and I had hoped co2 could assist in helping with this and giving the plants a boost. Please tell me if I have missed telling you guys something vital. I appreciate the help
 

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The reason algae is moving in, is because your plants are dying, releasing organics into the water feeding the algae. Just adding CO2 will not necessarily fix this, unless all "parts" of a hi-tech tank are correct.

Algae can be due to:
- Insufficient CO2 levels.
- Poor CO2 distribution and flow (though with an FX4, provided output is configured correctly ie spray bar you should be OK)
- Far far too higher light level for your CO2 and fertiliser levels.
- Insufficient fertilisers for the plants.
- Poor water quality.

How are you feeding the FX4 output back into the tank ? Spray bar ?
How are you injecting CO2 ?
What does your drop checker(s) say about CO2 levels ?
You need to add fertilisers, as I suspect your lights are very very high light causing all the issues. Can you dim your lights ?
 
Yes I can dim the lights down. The fx4 has the stock outlet and the 2000 has a spray bar

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I am still on hold using co2 for now, I'd like to do it weekend when I can keep an eye on it. The co2 is low in the tank monitoring using drop checker.

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Hi Ian,

That's a lot of flow in a 180 litre tank! What fish do you have in there?

JPC

Very fit ones OFC :lol:

But then thats from me who has 2 x XF330 Gyre with max output of 18000 LPH on 500l tank plus FX6 :crazy:
 
Hi Ian,

That's a lot of flow in a 180 litre tank! What fish do you have in there?

JPC
You would be surprised how the flow just dissipates around the tank. Fish don't seem to bother too much, there are plenty of slow flow areas they can hang out in. The 3200l/hr power head is only on for first couple of hours when CO2 is on, so only 5000l/hr during CO2 time. Without the power head I found there were places in the tank where I could place a drop checker and it stayed blue (and algae appeared), despite my 1500l/hr & 600l/hr filters.
 
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