DIY CO2 question

[kidnick]

I have my new canopy going and decided to add the DIY CO2. I mixed up one two liter bottle w/check valve that started producing right away. Then I couldn't rember if it was to produce 1-2 bubbles/sec or minute. Anyway I ran it for 3-4 hours the first night before the lights were out. Igot nervous about it in the morning when Iturned the lights on cuz the fish seemed sluggish. I didnt get a reading on the water sample i took till 3-4 hours later Cuz I go to work really early. I didnt trust that sample cuz it sat for hours so I put the CO2 back in and took a reading that night before the lights were turned out. The ph was 6.5 the Kh was 70 (according to nutrafin test). One question is ...do I divide that by 17.8 to get the degrees of hardness? If so I get a reading of 3.9degrees .According to the charts Ive seen that gives me a reading of between30-47 ppm of Co2. I put an air stone in from an air pump to give some O2 at night cuz I was afraid of killing my fish. The next morning I took a reading of the Ph at 7.0 Kh 70-80 . the fish seemed to be fine. One thing is that tha CO2 was comming straight from an airstone...no reactor or anything else. Since then I hane made a new spray bar for my Fluval404 . I took off the jet type that ran 2 inches below the surface and made a vertical spray bar that has spiral holes and the airstone/the CO2 is inside of this to get churned up and fed to the tank. Is this good enough to do the job? And also I'm worried about that reading of 30-47ppm. Ph test kit is Tetra. Am I going about this right? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Dave_Discus]

Your fish were sluggish becuase they got too much c02 overnight.

Neve dose c02 overnight without a controller.

Dose in the day when you can keep an eye on the ph
to determine bubble rate. Usually a couple a second.


If your kh is really 70....your in trouble.

test again. I would keep it around 3

[kidnick]

The ph was 6.5 the Kh was 70 (according to nutrafin test). One question is ...do I divide that by 17.8 to get the degrees of hardness?

the 70kh, dont i divide that by 17.8 making it 3.9° hardness?

i think maybe they were just sleeping, then when i turned the lights on BLAM! full sunshine...

[Ed13]

I can't help you with the math. I usually use pressurized with a ph controller. But, since this is DIY, running 24/7, an air pump on a timer running when the lights are off might be a good idea.

[kidnick]

My main concern is that there is such a big swing in CO2 levels over a matter of points eg.(.5-.9 degrees) that goes from 10-15ppm to30-47ppm. Maybe I need to get a better test kit that is more accurate? One of those full aquatic kits that test everything like iron,.magnesium, phosphates, etc..

[nacra99]

The ph was 6.5 the Kh was 70 (according to nutrafin test).


If 70 is in ppm, then you divide by 17.9 to get deg KH.

Using your KH and your pH drop, you should be able to easily find out what your CO2 concentration is. Because of the unreliablility of DIY CO2, i would try to keep your CO2 level around 15-20ppm (20-30 for compressed CO2). This gives some space to allow any sudden increase in CO2 conc.

Cheers
Marc

[dean]

I used 2 DYI co2 bottles on my 75 gal for months without any problems.
I now used pressurized on a timer.
In a heavily planted tank with a lot of fast growers, at 3+ wpg, 1 DYI should not cause CO2 overdose overnight.
If your plants are pearling by the end of the lite cycle,as they should be,the O2 saturation is reached, which shouldsustain fish thru overnite.
DYI output decreases greatly after 3 days as sugar is used.
I was never able to get my co2 level up to levels to prevent algae,until I suplemented w/ Flourish excel,

[Dood Lee]

I used 2 DYI co2 bottles on my 75 gal for months without any problems.
I now used pressurized on a timer.
In a heavily planted tank with a lot of fast growers, at 3+ wpg, 1 DYI should not cause CO2 overdose overnight.
If your plants are pearling by the end of the lite cycle,as they should be,the O2 saturation is reached, which shouldsustain fish thru overnite.
DYI output decreases greatly after 3 days as sugar is used.
I was never able to get my co2 level up to levels to prevent algae,until I suplemented w/ Flourish excel,

I have to agree with Dean. If you have over 2 wpg, you absolutely need to go with a pressurized setup, especially for a tank as big as yours. DIY co2 won't cut it, and you will eventually spend more money on DIY mixtures in the long run.

[kidnick]

I do see streams of tiny bubbles comming from the vals and java ferns , once in a while a bubble from the glosso but no pearling as you say before the lights go out.