Got Co2

[onebto]

I have been doing a bit of reading and decided to get a CO2 unit.

At the same time I purchased a Red Sea CO2 indicator works by putting 1mil of water in it plus 2 drops of regent then put in the tank and leave for 10 minuites then its either green yellow or blue. Green being OK blue insufficient and yellow to much which to me seems a little inaccurate for my liking.

Currently I am getting blue after using the unit for 24 hours with the recommended 10 bubbles a minute in the bubble counter I have the defuser 3/4 way down my tank and I can see the bubbles coming out of it I have leak testead the line and joins to see if there are any leaks and all is well there.

So my question is what is the best way of monitoring my CO2 level any recommendations?

What level should I be seeking?

Currently I only have a few plants in my tank I am shortly going to get some more and recognise it maybe the case I may have to up the CO2 level as I increase my stock of plants am I correct on this matter?

I realise the Red sea indicator is probably not the best way to monitor things ( I will learn one day not to listen to LFS advice) and may need to be sacked but it was not expensive.

I have to admit the whole subject of the plant side of aquariums I have neglected to study seriously but now I find myself wanting to get into it more I would appreciate your thoughts, advice or links on the matter greatly

Regards onebto

 

[aaronnorth]

The best way is to buy a CO2 meter if you have a spare £200.

The next best is the drop checker.

You say you add water, but is this tank water or 4dKH water?

It needs to be a known KH so you work out the level of CO2 dissolved.

As CO2 dissolves in the dop checker, it will lower the pH as it produces an acid, when it turns green, it will be at pH6.6, and because we know the KH is 4, looking at one of those pH/KH charts it will tell you there is 30ppm CO2.

If you are using tank water, there will be other substances in there such as NO3 which will already be decreasing the pH so it might be that the aquarium water is already at pH6.6 (and to make it easy your water may also be at 4dKH) which means there is 30ppm CO2, but this is clearly not true as you cannot reach these levels without injecting any!!

Take a look at the guide in my sig for a full depth article.

Thanks, Aaron

 

[onebto]

I have been using tank water be honest i did not notice anything in the instructions about using a specific water I will take another look at the instructions.

Basically this checker as mentioned before you add 1mill of water 2 drops of regent you then seal the bowl onto the other piece then turn it up side down put it in the tank I guess the air bubble then catches NO2 over the 10 minuite waiting period and you then measure the water/regent mixture against the band on the cap. ill take some pictures and post them tonight.

Nice one Aaron thanks for your response and insite I will take a look at your guide much appreciated

 

[aaronnorth]

Don't worry, they all tell you to use tank water,
10minutes isnt enough time to wait either, drop checkers can lag behind time by about 1hr. So if you see that the DC is green at 2pm, then this means there was 30ppm CO2 at 1pm, so in fact the CO2 level will be higher that what is being shown. You need to use this to know when to turn your lights on in a morning.

So start your CO2 injection going, then check on the DC every hour. Once you notice it is green, then you know when to turn the lights on (1hr before though remember).

Personally, I just turn the ligts on after about 1.5 - 2hrs, then turn the CO2 off about 3hrs before lights off, (as 2hrs before lights off, my DC turns yellow so i know that 3hrs before lights off the CO2 must be hitting about 35ppm) so I want to stop it going any higher.

Small adjustments is the key. Be patient, it may take a few days of tweaking, if the fish start to gasp then do a 10% water change.

I choose to have a high injection rate and a fair amount of surface agitation.

The 4dKH water can be bought from Aqua Essentials.

Thanks, Aaron

 

[lljdma06]

Don't worry, they all tell you to use tank water,
10minutes isnt enough time to wait either, drop checkers can lag behind time by about 1hr. So if you see that the DC is green at 2pm, then this means there was 30ppm CO2 at 1pm, so in fact the CO2 level will be higher that what is being shown. You need to use this to know when to turn your lights on in a morning.

So start your CO2 injection going, then check on the DC every hour. Once you notice it is green, then you know when to turn the lights on (1hr before though remember).

Personally, I just turn the ligts on after about 1.5 - 2hrs, then turn the CO2 off about 3hrs before lights off, (as 2hrs before lights off, my DC turns yellow so i know that 3hrs before lights off the CO2 must be hitting about 35ppm) so I want to stop it going any higher.

Small adjustments is the key. Be patient, it may take a few days of tweaking, if the fish start to gasp then do a 10% water change.

I choose to have a high injection rate and a fair amount of surface agitation.

The 4dKH water can be bought from Aqua Essentials.

Thanks, Aaron

Or you can make your own, which is what I do. I follow JamesC recipe in his site.

http/www.theplantedtank.co.uk/co2.htm

It's not hard, just scroll down. I think his final liter amount isn't quite right though, maybe a typo or I'm reading something wrong, but if you mix 10ml of 40dkh with 90ml of distilled water, you get 100ml of the 4dkh which is plenty. Measuring the 6g is best done with a jewelry scale. I picked up mine from ebay for less than the cost of one bottle of reference solution sold commercially. I had the other items already at hand. Using proportions I can get it to make less 40dkh (5 liters is a lot), but then you really need a jewelry scale to measure accurately.

llj

 

[onebto]

Don't worry, they all tell you to use tank water,
10minutes isnt enough time to wait either, drop checkers can lag behind time by about 1hr. So if you see that the DC is green at 2pm, then this means there was 30ppm CO2 at 1pm, so in fact the CO2 level will be higher that what is being shown. You need to use this to know when to turn your lights on in a morning.

So start your CO2 injection going, then check on the DC every hour. Once you notice it is green, then you know when to turn the lights on (1hr before though remember).

Personally, I just turn the ligts on after about 1.5 - 2hrs, then turn the CO2 off about 3hrs before lights off, (as 2hrs before lights off, my DC turns yellow so i know that 3hrs before lights off the CO2 must be hitting about 35ppm) so I want to stop it going any higher.

Small adjustments is the key. Be patient, it may take a few days of tweaking, if the fish start to gasp then do a 10% water change.

I choose to have a high injection rate and a fair amount of surface agitation.

The 4dKH water can be bought from Aqua Essentials.

Thanks, Aaron

Or you can make your own, which is what I do. I follow JamesC recipe in his site.

http/www.theplante...k.co.uk/co2.htm

It's not hard, just scroll down. I think his final liter amount isn't quite right though, maybe a typo or I'm reading something wrong, but if you mix 10ml of 40dkh with 90ml of distilled water, you get 100ml of the 4dkh which is plenty. Measuring the 6g is best done with a jewelry scale. I picked up mine from ebay for less than the cost of one bottle of reference solution sold commercially. I had the other items already at hand. Using proportions I can get it to make less 40dkh (5 liters is a lot), but then you really need a jewelry scale to measure accurately.

llj

Thanks for that

 

[SuperColey1]

The reason for the large initial volume is to reduce the margin of error.

Was originally something from Barrreport I think.

i.e. if you are 0.5g out on the 5 litre mix then it is a much smaller percentage of error than being 0.5g out on 100ml

The larger the initial mix, the lower the error margin on the final mix.

I use the other 4.99 litres to mix dry ferts or anything else that needs non tap water.

AC