CO2....

[Walt]

Ok.. alittle confused here, so i thought Id give a shout out to you 'knowing' folks

Ive gotta 5 pound co2 tank and duel guage regulator...
What else do i actually need to hook this up to my tank?

Im gonna get myself a coralife compact hood with (2) 65watt bulbs(6700k), and up my lighting to about 2.6WPG in a week or so, and wanted to get some co2 hooked up first....(im at 1.8wpg now)

My regulator is for carbing beer , so one guage tells me whats in there, and the other allows me to adjust the pressure coming out... at like 2psi intervals...

Soooo.... id like to know what else exactly i need....

Im trying to decide if itll be worth it, or just hang 2 Nutrafin's on the side for $40....

Thanks!
Walt

 

[RYO]

Hi m8 as far as i know most regulators arte pre set to 1- 1.5 bar.all you need after that is a diffuser(found this 1 to be pretty good) - http/www.aquaessentials.co.uk/index.php?...products_id=261

Oh and the co2 proof tubing and check valve
Im looking at a brewery regulator myself but havnt eeeer*found*a small enough co2 bottle yet lol

 

[Walt]

Cool!
Ok.. i wasnt sure if i needed some kinda smaller adjusting regulator...
I can adjust mine all the way up to like 60 psi....
I just wasnt sure if i had to be able to do real small adjustments... ie smaller then my regulator does... ie less then 1 psi...

Heres my brewing setup..
Lama Brewery
Walt

 

[Walt]

just thinking ahead, and thought of something....
my ph is sitting at 6.2 now...
if co2 is gonna cause a drop, whats a good way of keeping the ph from driving down too low....

 

[smithrc]

you will need a needle valve to control the bubble rate.

 

[Walt]

ahhhh.. ok.. i was wondering about that...

so a needle valve n diffuser n co2-tubing n check valve....

That it?

 

[smithrc]

sounds right to me!

canister - regulator - needle valve - check valve - tubing & diffuser. Yep. that'll do you

dont forget the test kits for KH an PH though so you can work out the CO2 content

 

[iggy01]

just thinking ahead, and thought of something....
my ph is sitting at 6.2 now...
if co2 is gonna cause a drop, whats a good way of keeping the ph from driving down too low....

[snapback]875038[/snapback]​

Hi Walt,

If you already have a pH of 6.2, you can raise it slowly by using baking soda. As smithrc said you will need a KH test kit. It is important you test for KH first before you start adding CO2. I'm guessing you have a low KH because of the pH reading. Either that, or you have a stack of bogwood or something else in your tank driving the pH down.

Have a read of this link on water chemistry. It may be helpful to you.

Good luck!

 

[zig]

just thinking ahead, and thought of something....
my ph is sitting at 6.2 now...
if co2 is gonna cause a drop, whats a good way of keeping the ph from driving down too low....

[snapback]875038[/snapback]​

Hi Walt,

If you already have a pH of 6.2, you can raise it slowly by using baking soda. As smithrc said you will need a KH test kit. It is important you test for KH first before you start adding CO2. I'm guessing you have a low KH because of the pH reading. Either that, or you have a stack of bogwood or something else in your tank driving the pH down.

Have a read of this link on water chemistry. It may be helpful to you.

Good luck!

[snapback]875178[/snapback]​

Yep Just about to post pretty much the same thing

Here another link with similar info

Water chemistry

 

[iggy01]

What is it they say about great minds Zig.............nevermind, it wasn't meant for us two anyway!

 

[Walt]

Yup... KH is low...
I picked up a KH ang GH test last night, and my KH is 3 (54ppm).
So that would explain the weak buffer...
Ill have to pay close attention to that when the co2 game starts....

Got my diffuser ordered and am trying to hunt down a needle valve locally...if not, ill pick that up online too....
Should have CO2 running within a week or so

Heres how the tank is looking so far.....

My new Cardinal buddies!

One of my hard working algae eaters!

I think my plant started perling cause he heard me talking about hooking up CO2

Walt

 

[iggy01]

A KH of 3 is just about ok for injecting CO2.

There's something not quite right about your KH- pH readings though. Are you sure your pH is 6.2? A non-CO2 tank usually has around 2-3 mg/l CO2. With a KH of 3 dH, I would expect your pH to be around 7.4-7.6

You can work out the CO2 content of your tank by viewing the calculator at the bottom of this page. You will see with a pH of 6.2 and a KH of 3, you have around 57 mg/l CO2. I can assure you that unless you are already injecting CO2, you will not have anything like that amount of CO2. There appears to be something in your tank bringing the ph down.

Could you check the pH and KH of your tap water and see if that is any different?