C02 Shut Off At Night ?

[Spooky76]

HI people

I recently started adding c02 to my tank 9about 3 weeks ago. I followed Georges advice and its working great, about 1 bubble every 3 seconds which for 200L should be OK, my Kh is 4 and Ph 7.3..

but at night I unplug it as I dont like it running when the lights are off.

My Question is. Is there a way to shut off the C02 at night via some kind of valve which you can buy ? I have searched around and cant really find anything that isnt industrial sized ?

Thanks

 

[vonjankmon]

What you are looking for is a Solenoid Valve.

You can usually find them for about 50-70 US dollars give or take and most online fish stores carry them, they're harder to find at your LFS, at least in my experience. In a pressurized system they go before your needle valve and bubble counter.

 

[garuf]

You can get them of ebay from german sellers much more cheaply, to me it sounds like you have very low co2 levels but I could be wrong.

 

[Spooky76]

Your right, my c02 is low, well just below the recommended amount on my test kit, but I thought putting c02 in at night was bad as the plants dont use it...

 

[garuf]

true, but many run co2 at night with lots of surface agitation to maintain co2 levels.
CO2, should be kept at around 30ppm, do you have a drop checker?