% Co2

[gizmo001i]

Hi,
Just want to check that I have my CO2 setup properly as there seems to be some difference of opinion about % CO2. At the moment, my tank is steady at PH 7, KH 11 and CO2 @33% operating at 60 bpm. The fish seem all OK and my plants are pearling so all seems well. But some information says that you shouldn't go above 25% but others say you need 30 - 35% to get good plant growth. None of my fish are gasping for air and all my other stats are good. Any views on this will be most welcome as it can be rather confusing for a newbie when there is conflicting ideas.
Cheers
Ian

 

[Themuleous]

First off, please tell me you mean PPM and NOT % CO2? 20% CO2 would probably kill everything in the tank, including the gravel!

If you're using one of the CO2 calcualtors that you input KH and pH into then you'll be getting CO2 in ppm (parts per million) if you were running at 20% CO2 you'd have 1 part CO2 for every 5 parts water! I.E. instead of 30ppm you'd be at 200,000ppm! and I doubt thats even possible!

I think the 20ppm CO2 is the old school way of thinking (although Im not 100% sure on that). The EI way of doing it needs CO2 at 30ppm and that tends to be what people who are 'in the know' aim for. I personally run my nano at somewhere between 30 and 45ppm CO2 with no obvious ill effect to the fish. Zig runs his at 40+ ppm if my memory serves me correctly.

Having yours at 33ppm will be fine, and as you say the plants clearly like the addition of the CO2

Hope that clears things up a bit

Sam

 

[gizmo001i]

Oops, yep I mean ppm (and here's me, an engineer lol). Thanks Themuleous. That's exactly what I wanted to here. Hopefully it will keep the algae under control as well.
Ian

 

[Themuleous]

Should help