Hydor Co2 Professional

[Ronan]

Hi

I've just planted a 180l Rena tank to which I've added the above CO2 injection system. I followed the advice in the manual which suggested around 16 bubbles a minute for my tank size. Things seemed fine but now I'm getting algae (diatom) on the gravel and some of the plants' leaves. When I tested the pH again and the KH I discovered that I had less than 5ppm CO2 in the tank (pH 7.4 and KH 4dH). I have now upped the bubble count but I'm now worried that I'll be through my CO2 canister in a very short space of time. In terms of lighting, I have 4 x 25W T8 tubes under the canopy of which the outside two have reflectors fitted as this is physically the most I could manage to squeeze in. That should give me between 2 and 3W per gallon which I know makes CO2 injection very necessary.

I'm rambling now, but essentially my concern is that I would have thought that the original bubble count should have been about right so that maybe something else is causing the CO2 to disperse from the water. I have a Rena Filstar X2 but I have placed the spraybar sufficiently under the water to cause only a partial ripple to the surface and in fact floating plants end up going into corners and then staying there.

Is my filter too powerful or is perhaps my reactor not diffusing the CO2 efficiently - I am getting a fairly constant stream of very small bubbles from the reactor which do get visibly smaller as they rise to the surface where they then end up getting hit by the flow from the filter spraybar.

Any advice greatfully received as this is my first major planted tank and the appearance of algae is causing me stress

Thanks
Ronan

 

[SuperColey1]

For the unit to say a set number of bubbles per min is ridiculous as they don't know how much light you have.

That rate might be for 1WPG / 2WPG / 3WPG anybodys guess.

The more light you have the more the plants will us and turn into oxygen and the more you will have to put in.

With regard to the silly little 74g bulbs for this system, see if the 500g disposables will fit and if not, if there is an adaptor that will let you use them.

I would ask Richard @ AE because Hydor will more than likely say NO they can only use the little bulbs, can you send us £12 each time. lol

I think I have read somewhere that the disposables will fit.

Andy

 

[Ronan]

For the unit to say a set number of bubbles per min is ridiculous as they don't know how much light you have.

That rate might be for 1WPG / 2WPG / 3WPG anybodys guess.

The more light you have the more the plants will us and turn into oxygen and the more you will have to put in.

With regard to the silly little 74g bulbs for this system, see if the 500g disposables will fit and if not, if there is an adaptor that will let you use them.

I would ask Richard @ AE because Hydor will more than likely say NO they can only use the little bulbs, can you send us £12 each time. lol

I think I have read somewhere that the disposables will fit.

Andy

Thanks for the advice. I have now have CO2 at 23ppm.

My next question is - can I get an extra shut-off valve to stop the CO2 dosing at night? I currently have the reactor switching off with the lights so from what I can see, a large bubble of CO2 builds up fairly rapidly and then floats to the surface very quickly so CO2 dosage much go down a deal. Is this sufficent for night-time?

Thanks
Ronan

 

[2pods]

I think someone on here was quoted £54 or thereabouts by a UK rep.

You might be better buying one from a german powerseller on ebay and fitting it to the tubing

Like this one

Peter

 

[Ronan]

I think someone on here was quoted £54 or thereabouts by a UK rep.

You might be better buying one from a german powerseller on ebay and fitting it to the tubing

Like this one

Peter

Thanks.

It seems that the Hydor won't take any other bottles and at my current usage rate it will cost me hundreds of pounds in refill bottles for a year. I'm thinking of getting a more serious pressurised system kit with a solenoid included such as D&D's or JBL's offerings. I've had a look at the German stuff on ebay but I always feel safer buying from someone I know to be very reliable and easy to contact such as Aquaessentials.

Ronan