Okay I Have A Pressurized Co2 System Now What?

[wolfwolf]

After a brief 2 weeks trying to use a DIY system I have decided to go to a pressurised system. I got a dual regulator, solenoid, needle valve, and bubble counter all in one piece. I believe it is a milwaukee. I also found out that I have a welding suplpy company less than 1 mile from my house so I got a 5lb CO2 tank. This is for my 20 gallon high tank. Now my questions.

What is the goal of turning the co2 off during the night. Is it to prevent pH drop? Should my drop checker be green all day and blue at night or green all of the time?

What is the procedure for finding the proper time to turn the solenoid on and off?

How long will the 5lb tank last?

How many days until I see a difference in plant growth? Algae?

 

[Truck]

After a brief 2 weeks trying to use a DIY system I have decided to go to a pressurised system. I got a dual regulator, solenoid, needle valve, and bubble counter all in one piece. I believe it is a milwaukee. I also found out that I have a welding suplpy company less than 1 mile from my house so I got a 5lb CO2 tank. This is for my 20 gallon high tank. Now my questions.

What is the goal of turning the co2 off during the night. Is it to prevent pH drop? Should my drop checker be green all day and blue at night or green all of the time?

What is the procedure for finding the proper time to turn the solenoid on and off?

How long will the 5lb tank last?

How many days until I see a difference in plant growth? Algae?

the reason for the solenoid is it switches off the supply at night.

plants cant photosynthesize without light so when the lights go off the CO2 isnt being used, so we switch it off to prevent over dosing, or unused CO2 being wasted

 

[aaronnorth]

We turn CO2 off at night because plants dont use it,
turn it on up to 2 hours before lights on, and up to 3 hours before lights off (as plants start to slow down in photosynthesis rates towards the end of the photoperiod)

The CO2 time will depend on plant mass, size of tank, lighting levels etc. so it is hard to say.

 

[SuperColey1]

Don't worry about 'Ph drops' due to CO2. It would need to be crazy KH water to have a problem. This is a much overplayed part of the hobby.

Those of us who use CO2 on solenoid will have tanks where the Ph drops by a full point within 2 hours (i.e. CO2 starts: Ph = 7.4Ph, lights on 2 hours laterh = 6.4)

A similar thing when the solenoid cuts the CO2 off dependent on the surface turbulence. We all have fish with no problems. When fish die due to CO2 injection it is from being gassed by too much and not Ph drops.

The 2 different ways of running CO2 are via solenoid where you choose the injection times. The Ph will drop during injection and rise when it is not being injected. 30ppm normally means 1Ph lower than normal.

The other is running 24/7 where the CO2 is injected at much slower rates to reach 30ppm at lights on. This method means the Ph will be much more of a level thing closer to the one point lower than normal.

The advantages/disadvantages aren't as simple as stated as people assume you waste loads when running 24/7 whereas I didn't notice that much difference in the time my bottles lasted when I used to run 24/7. This is because you are running at a much lower rate.

Running via solenoid IMO is better though as you give the fish a break and it also means you can blast CO2 in for 8 hours in comparison to having to allow for the 16 hours when the plants aren't using it.

AC

 

[wolfwolf]

Well I decided to try the on 2 hours early and off two hours early to see if it works. The goal being to have a "green" drop checker before the photo period and a green to blue change over the last 2 hours of the photo period. Correct?

 

[aaronnorth]

it should change from green to blue 2 hours after lights off (because this is the point where no more photosynthesis occurs) And also it takes around 2 hours for the frop checker to change colour.

e.g. 4pm (CO2 off), 6pm (lights off) 8m (Blue drop checker)

So you know that if it is blue (<25ppm) then this was the level at 6pm when photosynthesis stops.

After saying this I wouldnt worry to much though, as long as it doesnt go into the yellow zone (without experience) then your fish will be fine.

 

[SuperColey1]

I have experience of yellow. Returning from work and a nice tank of solid dead fish, shrimp and snails.

(The snails recovered within a few hours)

AC

 

[wolfwolf]

Okay. Thanks guys.

Hopefully my fish and I will never see "Yellow".