Aquamedic Co2

[DarkEntity]

Righty,

got my first CO2, bought the Aquamedic compressed kit, currently running at 1 bubble every 4 seconds, can someone give some advise on what else i can do to get it off to a good start. The tank is a 125 Litre Rio

There seems to be varying opinions on bubbles per minute etc..

 

[Themuleous]

In order to know what level of CO2 is in the tank you need to test for KH and pH. Have you tested for these recently?

Sam

 

[DarkEntity]

i tested the PH last night apparently if it drops by 1 in 24 hours you have 30ppm....ill dig out KH and GH just now and test.....

On thing is the large sprial thing in the tank, what does it actually do, i was expecting the bubble to travel down the spiral and out the bottom, but all it seems to do is CO2 > Bubble Counter > Spiral thing in tank > bubble pops out the top...i dont see the point it bing there as it doesnt seem to do anythiing.

KH - 4
GH - 4
PH - 7 (last night)
PH - 6.5 (now)

 

[Paul_MTS]

I haven't seen the AquaMedic diffuser but at work we have a JBl spiral one.

Idea is as the bubble spirals up the diffuser the CO2 slowly dissolves into the water. You probably can't see a change but the longer the CO2 bubbe stays in the water the longer it has to disolve.

 

[nicklfire]

The spiral diffusers are ok. They give long contact with water but it's not a 100% absorption into the water which is what you want, bigger bang for your buck. If you start out with smaller bubbles, less surface area higher diffusion. You may want to look into getting a ceramic diffuser, air has to be forced through the ceramic making micro bubbles that diffuse at a higher percentage equally putting more co2 into the water.

To measure how many bubbles per second you need in your tank you're going to have to get a ph drop checker such as the one below.

You put a solution of 4dkh solution in that little guy, you add some ph regeament and then you get a very accurate reading of co2 in your tank, if it's green you got around 30ppm , if it goes blue your low on co2 and yellow is your too high.

Ezy enuf eh, search for the forums for the 4dkh solution on how to make it, or you can purchase it... (supercorey1) was nice enough to sell me some, but easily enuf to make.

 

[Themuleous]

KH - 4
GH - 4
PH - 7 (last night)
PH - 6.5 (now)

I make that 37ppm CO2, so about right. It doesn't want to be any higher. Keep an eye on the fish if they start gasping at the surface lower it a bit.

Sam

 

[DarkEntity]

Ive scrubbed the CO2 until my new glass diffuser gets here, im ditching the huge spiral thingy