Help Calculating Co2...

[jaeger5]

Hi guys,

Just bought a CO2 system, done loads of reading but now I've read some conflicting information on a forum somewhere and it's confused the heck out of me, I just want to make sure doing things correctly.

In order to calculate the amount of CO2 in your water you have to know the KH and the PH.


BEFORE adding any CO2, testing my water using my own kit and at my LFS just to be sure, my KH reads 7.3 and my PH says 7.

Looking at the chart, this would put me at 21ppm... Obviously my CO2 can't be at 21ppm because I haven't actually added any CO2 at this point, so it should actually be zero/trace right?


AFTER I add CO2, my PH drops to about 6.6 (I have a JBL PH sensor) - am I right in saying that KH stays the same even after adding CO2?

Bubble counter is set to 1 bubble every 2 seconds-ish (I know this doesn't really mean anything because a bubble can be any size) and CO2 indicators inside the tank turn GREEN after about an hour.

Looking at the chart (this time with the CO2 turned on and assuming that CO2 doesn't change my KH) this puts me at roughly 60ppm.



In order to get my CO2 to the 20-30ppm sweet spot, I need to decrease my KH and increase my PH... correct? How do I do this?

 

[m_attt]

In your drop checker, you need 4dkh water and bromo blue indicator solution, then start you gas at 1bps and wait an hour, if you drop checker isn't lime green up the gas a tiny bit, and repeat untill it goes lime green. That will be your desired rate, remeber it takes at least an hour for the drop checker to register any changes.

 

[jaeger5]

In your drop checker, you need 4dkh water and bromo blue indicator solution, then start you gas at 1bps and wait an hour, if you drop checker isn't lime green up the gas a tiny bit, and repeat untill it goes lime green. That will be your desired rate, remeber it takes at least an hour for the drop checker to register any changes.

The drop checker indicates that the co2 ppm is at the correct level? How accurate are they?

 

[m_attt]

Yes they are, its basically a ph test, as long as you use 4dkh water and bromo blue you will be fine. read this

 

[SO19Firearms]

How accurate are they?

Not very - But so long as you have 4dKH water in there at least you're only trying to measure one variable which is a lot better than measuring 2