Couple Of Questions About Pressurized Co2

[kcharley]

Thanks for the replies.

I'm SO PO'd though. We don't have our canister today. Had to leave it at the welding place.
Why?
B/c the lazy buttholes there apparently "shut down" whatever it is that they use to fill up the tanks.
That wouldn't be so bad if my husband had gotten there right before closing. I could understand it then...
But he got there a full freaking HOUR before they close.. WTH?
Good for nothin turds! UGH...
So he left it there and will be picking it up Monday. SIGH......

Hi Amunet,

Sorry to take so long to get back to you. (Car problems. Sheesh,it's always something.)

Regarding pressure settings, I tend to agree with KD that as long as you can adjust the CO2 level with the needle valve the pressure from the tank isn't that crucial. That said, my left gauge is at 60 lbs and my right is at 2+ lbs. I can think of a reason why the setting might matter. I have read that as the tank gets close to empty that it will just dump all the CO2 at once causing an overdose of CO2. It wasn't clear to me if that was from the writer's experience or just rank speculation. Anyway, my left gauge has been on 60 lbs for close to two months now. I figure when I see that one start to drop I need to refill the tank. Hopefully somebody more experienced will share their experience.

Regarding filling the tank, your experience reminds me that I read to use fire extinguishers shops because they are set up to fill tanks and can do it quicker and chearper than welding shops. Welding shops don't do a lot of filling and thus typically can't or don't fill tanks quickly.

HTH.

Greg

 

[Amunet]

*nods* Saw an add for a fire extinguisher place that refills.... but it's across town while the welding place is just a short distance from DH's work.
We might try the other place next time though.

 

[Amunet]

Alrighty, so we got our CO2 today. Didn't get a chance to set it all up though due to family stuff, so will hopefully get it up and running tomorrow
I don't like the bubble counter that came w/ the regulator though. Freakin suction cup keeps popping off the side of the tank... *shrugs*
The little filter we got to use as the diffuser is great though. Only problem is the airtube thing at the top isn't what we were hoping for so we're gonna have to cut a small hole in the intake part and put the CO2 tubing in to that. Not a problem though. It creates really tiny bubble and the output from the fluval pushes it to the rest of the tank
Will try to get some photos of everything tomorrow.

How many bubbles should we be aiming for per minute? We have really low wpg... really not even sure what it is, but the room does get a lot of light.

 

[aaronnorth]

5BPS to start with. Wait 2hrs, change slowly if necassarythen wait another 2hrs. Continue process. Best done over a day.

 

[Amunet]

5bps= per second?

 

[aaronnorth]

bubbles per second.

 

[Amunet]

Okedoke, thanks a bunch!

 

[Amunet]

Woot! CO2 set up and running finally
We set it up last night, but it was already really late so today is the first full day of the CO2 running
The little drop checker color is green, that's good right?

Couple of photos...

Little canister sitting next to the filter. Ignore the dust/pollen

And the crappy bubble counter, all the ugly tubing. Inside you can see the small filter/diffuser underneath the fluval output. And the killifish being nosey or begging for food heh.

I think we're gonna have to get different lighting or just do something. No idea what the wattage is, but I doubt it's even .5wpg.

 

[killudead]

yes, green is good. Yellow is Overdoseing and blue is not enough.


went and got the tank filled up today.
He said that i only needed one of these rubber gaskets, he said the ones i had "sucked"
no teflon tape on the threads and crank it down as tight as you can possibly get it.
Hopefully this tank will last longer than 15 days.

 

[Amunet]

Our CO2 lvls were ok for a few days, but the drop checker turned yellow, so we turned it down some now it's green again
YAY heh
W/ the low light, can't really tell any difference in the plants yet.
Gosh, I can't wait to get in the new lights!

 

[waterdrop]

Checking in.

How's it going Amunet and Greg???

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Amunet]

Pretty good as far as I can tell. We've reduced the bubbles to about 1bps but might bump it back up a little bit since we have stronger lights now.

 

[waterdrop]

Do you feel you're seeing any improved plant growth?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Amunet]

Well, we only recently got better lights, so I don't think there will be any improvement just yet. At least nothing dramatic.
I can tell that the water sprite? or wisteria, whichever it is is growing though. Not sure if it's b/c of the CO2 or lights or combo of both.

 

[Amunet]

OO a question on bubble counters.
Which is a good kind to get?
We're using the one we got w/ the regulator and it's complete crap.
It fills up w/ tank water even w/ those things that are supposed to prevent that in place.. check valves. Don't know what to do to prevent that from happening. Probably occuring b/c of the filter we're using as the diffuser being on when the CO2 is off at night.
Might try shutting that off as well when the CO2 turns off.. *shrugs* Any advice would be great

Also.... getting brown algae in the tank. Now the tank is still pretty much new... so is the brown algae inevitable? Even with co2 and all the plants?