New to Site and CO2

[ian_m]

thanks ian_m,
I will change the airline asap thanks.

Where I read about this was on a US forum and someone wondered if air line could be used as a CO2 infuser. He put 25m of CO2 pressurised airline, both silicone and plastic, in a tank of RO water (so and pH change could be spotted instantly) and left for a day or two. Basically no change to pH and both tubes remained pressurised with no CO2 loss. So experiment was a fail as CO2 infuser.

However, someone seeing this got a piece of silicone airline, precision weighed it, left it standing in pressurised CO2 environment at his University for a while and precision weighed it again. It was heavier having absorbed CO2. Not great results as didn't state type of airline, pressure of CO2 and length of time, but CO2 absorption clearly occurs.

 

[Bertie]

Well it seemed to work yesterday but by 5hrs after lights on the fish were hangin!!! Now this morning I had to change Soda Stream Bottles...only got 2 weeks out of one bottle.

Did a heavy,heavy pruning operation this morning and noticed that most of the green plant tips were yellow/translucent. Is that due to my (now removed) reflectors giving out too much light. To refresh I have around 160Litres. Dosing with 5ml of TNC complete daily, 4ml Neutro CO2 and at the moment 4 bps of CO2.

To be honest I feel like ripping all of the plants out and doing over again

 

[RolyMo]

I do not to by any means pertain to be an expert and wont be offering advice as I would leave that to the experts on this forum.
But wow 4bps is a lot in my world. I tend to hover around the 1-2 bps, for my RIO 180l. Admittedly I would say I have a medium planted tank. But I am using the filter, powerhead and lights that came with my kit RIO 180.
Can you show us pictures?

 

[Bertie]

Hi RolyMo
Mine is a Rio 180 as well, with about 160 litres of water!! I started (2 weeks ago) using reflectors and CO2. I removed the reflectors yesterday. I would not consider mine a heavily planted tank especially as I did a major,major prune this morning. I took out the supplied internal filter and replaced with an Eheim Pro 3 250 rated at 950 lph plus a New Wave 1.6 which I now have at 800 lph and a submersible rated at 200lph. I do not know why it uses 4bps but it is

 

[John S]

I would monitor it again today Bertie. Canisters that are low in Co2 can 'dump' the end of the bottle quickly (depending on your reg) and this may be what happened yesterday. If the fish are gasping again today then drop your bubble rate.

Do you have a lot of surface movement?

 

[Bertie]

Hi Davem,
Yes I have quite a bit of surface movement. The spraybar is just under the water. It cannot be lowered anymore as the eheim 16/22mm hose is quite rigid. I have the spraybar going left to right, and New Wave pump positioned nearly at the front left top just under the spray bar,pointing to right but angled towards the front and slightly down and the small submersible low down back left going back to front across the diffuser. If I have not confused you too much.

 

[foxfish]

I am not sure about me but sounds like you have confused the flow!
In an ideal world you would, a full length spaybar across the back pointing towards the front pane of glass with enough flow to turn the tank over 10 x an hour would be great!
The idea is to get the whole tank volume turning in a continues circular flow!

 

[Bertie]

Hi foxfish thanks.

Yes,I would love a spraybar along the back but I am not very practical at working that sort of thing out. Firstly the configuration of the Eheim Inlet pipe and the "stiffness" of the hose makes it very difficult to get the spraybar along the back wall. Secondly the back wall of the Tank is 100cm, That is a lot of spraybar and I suppose that I would have to make one myself? Or have two Filters? I am on a fixed income as I and the wife are both retired.That is why I have the extra pumps to make sure I have movement everywhere that I can see.

But in saying that yes I would love the spraybar along the back wall.