Co2 Question

[rms]

Hi,
 
I have pressurised co2 coming into my tank via a glass diffuser. The position of the diffuser is, as recommended, bellow the filter output so as to increase the amount of diffusion. The problem I have noticed is the plants around the area of the filter are coming along just fine, growth and health are very visible. In comparison the left side of the tank looks like the plants are..... in another tank. 
 
Giving it some thought I'm wondering if repositioning my filter so the intake is above the co2 will help. I can't imagine the bubbles could be more diffused and the output would face the length of the tank rather than from the back to the front. I'm also wondering if passing the micro bubbles through a filter will somehow make the co2 less effective or maybe do something bad to the bacteria colonies. So my question is would this work?
 
Many thanks

 

[rms]

Just posted this in fish emergencies, but then realised that forum is for fish, not filters!! Well here it is....
 
Earlier posted a question about co2 feeding into my filter from a diffuser and after reading a bit decided to feed it directly from the co2 tube instead of from the diffuser. Turned my filter off, fed the tube just a small amount into the side grill of the filter (Fluval U2) and turned it back on. Nothing happened. I can't imagine the tube going in would stop it from working, it was only just inside, pressing against the filter media and there is nothing in there that relates directly to power. I took the tube out returned the filter to the water and still nothing. So basically my 2 month old filter has packed in. Brilliant!!
 
I have an old filter as back up and guessing to fire it up and squeeze my Fluval media around it's intake to seed it. Then just hope for the best. I've overstocked my tank, but upped the filter size to compensate. The old filter will not cope with the bioload though so I'll be heading for a pretty major mini, if not complete cycle. Again....!
 
Has anyone had an issue with Fluval and tried repairing? I'd really rather avoid the above and wondering how long roughly I have? Would it be a good idea to keep the filter media in the tank and take out the filter housing and open it up? Would this preserve the bacteria for longer if placed over an air stone? Should I just put up with re-cycling and send the filter back?
 
Not really sure what to do but lots of ideas (right or wrong) popping into my head. Already made some pretty stupid decisions so paranoid about making more!! I've had months of ups and downs, dead fish, fish-in-tank-cycling, panic and making bad decisions. Even ended up running two tanks un-cycled!! Finally it's all running smoothly on one tank. Started on plants and all going really well. Now this. Grrrrrrr!!
 
Thoughts/ideas appreciated.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Hi,
 
I have pressurised co2 coming into my tank via a glass diffuser. The position of the diffuser is, as recommended, bellow the filter output so as to increase the amount of diffusion. The problem I have noticed is the plants around the area of the filter are coming along just fine, growth and health are very visible. In comparison the left side of the tank looks like the plants are..... in another tank. 
 
Giving it some thought I'm wondering if repositioning my filter so the intake is above the co2 will help. I can't imagine the bubbles could be more diffused and the output would face the length of the tank rather than from the back to the front. I'm also wondering if passing the micro bubbles through a filter will somehow make the co2 less effective or maybe do something bad to the bacteria colonies. So my question is would this work?
 
Many thanks

 
It sounds more like a circulation issue than anything else.  What's the turnover of the tank?

 

[rms]

Yes it was a circulation problem, which is why I wanted to change the position of the filter. I just realised that changing it would mean co2 bubbles passing through the filter and wasn't sure if this was ok. Have since found out that's fine, but my filter has now decided to stop working. Puts a whole new slant on things...

 

[KirkyArcher]

Before I got my in-line diffuser, I had my ceramic diffuser directly under the intake strainer of my external filter, this worked extremely well and as a result was able to reduce my bubble count by almost half to get the same 20mg/l dosage. The only issue was that about twice sometimes three times a day during the Co2 "on time" I'd get a flurry of belched out bubbles of trapped gas out of the spray bar

 

[rms]

Yep I got that issue from this site too: http/www.aquatic-eden.com/2006/10/methods-of-diffusing-co2-in-aquarium.html
 
In terms of the filter packing up I've chopped up the sponge from the U2 and put it in the old filter. Luckily I have a cannister I fired up into a tank I was just about to empty. I've placed the cartridges from the U2 inside the cannister to keep the bacteria in them alive too. Next stop is an email to Fluval to ask how I go about getting a new filter sent and if they say I need to return the filter media as well I won't be very impressed.
 
Will wait till the water clears and then pop the co2 tube into the intake and see if it belches!!
 
No circulation problems now!!

 

[rms]

Before I got my in-line diffuser, I had my ceramic diffuser directly under the intake strainer of my external filter, this worked extremely well and as a result was able to reduce my bubble count by almost half to get the same 20mg/l dosage.

 
How did you come to the conclusion that 20mg/l was the right dosage? I have a drop checker on it's way and as far as I can see it will tell me I have the right amount by colour, not by measurement. At the moment I'm basing my level on bubbles per second, as that's predominantly what I could find on the web. Will see how the drop checker reads this, but can see positive results. More important, the fish are just fine. Would appreciate some pointers.

 

[KirkyArcher]

When I bought my JBL permanent Co2 test kit it stated 20-25mg/l is ideal quantity of dissolved gas to have in an aquarium, I understand this level is correct for healthy plant growth and to prevent any risk of fish suffocation, with the JBL drop checker there is a graded scale ranging from Dark Blue 3mg/l - Yellow 50mg/l the colour of the test liquid that's the closest match to that on the scale indicating the dosage, However many aquatic plant experts will recommend a  higher 30-35 ppm or mg/l level, using other peoples BPM count is at best going to be hit and miss as size of bubble and therefore amount of gas being dispensed will depend on diameters of tubes or glass pipe capillary size. 

 

[rms]

When I bought my JBL permanent Co2 test kit it stated 20-25mg/l is ideal quantity of dissolved gas to have in an aquarium, I understand this level is correct for healthy plant growth and to prevent any risk of fish suffocation, with the JBL drop checker there is a graded scale ranging from Dark Blue 3mg/l - Yellow 50mg/l the colour of the test liquid that's the closest match to that on the scale indicating the dosage, However many aquatic plant experts will recommend a  higher 30-35 ppm or mg/l level, using other peoples BPM count is at best going to be hit and miss as size of bubble and therefore amount of gas being dispensed will depend on diameters of tubes or glass pipe capillary size. 

Thank you, this is very helpful. I did wonder about measuring by BPM, but I've been very conservative with this method so far. It also seemed a little odd to me that a drop checker will simply be blue, green or yellow. I was wondering about this because of the variants in colour with other test kits such as ammonia, nitrite etc. I don't think my drop checker comes with a colour chart (hasn't arrived yet), so another question.... Would the colour/shade of colour for my checker relate correctly to a colour chart from say JBL, even though my checker wasn't a JBL product. I hope that makes sense!!

 

[KirkyArcher]

I assume that JBL permanent test liquid is still a Bromo Blue 4dKH solution so again I'd assume that the JBL colour scale would make an effective method to measure Co2 levels with your or any other drop checker 

 

[rms]

I assume that JBL permanent test liquid is still a Bromo Blue 4dKH solution so again I'd assume that the JBL colour scale would make an effective method to measure Co2 levels with your or any other drop checker 

 
Yes I'm using 4dKH so it would make sense the results are accurately comparible. Many thanks for your replies