Too Much Co2?

[garybuk]

right 1st thing i wana get stright stuiped but wana get it right!

plants in the light give off?
plants with no light give off?

too much co2 is bad for the fish so dont wana kill my fish off!

i have lots ov bubbles in my tank is that pushing oxygen in my tank?

basicly thinking ov doing the water suger and yeast trick in my tank! as i want me plants to grow but dont wana harm my fish!

i heard you dont need the bubbles on in the day but do at night?

any help will be very greatfull!

 

[Revision17]

right 1st thing i wana get stright stuiped but wana get it right!

Great!

plants in the light give off?
plants with no light give off?

Umm, what?

too much co2 is bad for the fish so dont wana kill my fish off!

If your fish are at the surface gasping in the morning before the lights come on, you have too much CO2 in your tank. Ideally buy a drop checker. Another test is to test the kh and ph and look at a table to find the amount of dissolved CO2.

i have lots ov bubbles in my tank is that pushing oxygen in my tank?

If you're talking about bubbles created by plants during the day, then yes that's oxygen. People in the hobby usually call that "pearling".

basicly thinking ov doing the water suger and yeast trick in my tank! as i want me plants to grow but dont wana harm my fish!

i heard you dont need the bubbles on in the day but do at night?

any help will be very greatfull!

You'll only get bubbles during the day since that's when photosynthesis is occurring. Oxygen is a byproduct of photosynthesis.

 

[RadaR]

right 1st thing i wana get stright stuiped but wana get it right!

plants in the light give off?
plants with no light give off?

too much co2 is bad for the fish so dont wana kill my fish off!

i have lots ov bubbles in my tank is that pushing oxygen in my tank?

basicly thinking ov doing the water suger and yeast trick in my tank! as i want me plants to grow but dont wana harm my fish!

i heard you dont need the bubbles on in the day but do at night?

any help will be very greatfull!

Plants in the day time give off oxygen.
Plants at night give off CO2.
You can inject CO2 but point your filter outlet up for a bit of surface agitation. That way CO2 shouldn't build up too much, aspecially at night. Creating the bit of surface agitation will mean you have to inject a bit more than usual though.
Are the bubbles large? If so, then no. Oxygen probably wont' be going into the tank. The large bubbles will reach the surface rapidly and cause surface agitation, decreasing CO2 levels, rather than increasing oxygen levels.
What you've heard it to inject CO2 in the day, but switch on an air pump at night to drive off the CO2. It's an ok idea, lots of people do it. The only down size is a varying pH. It going up and down throught a whole day. Some species wouldn't take kindly to it. I know that crypts might indeed melt.

 

[garybuk]

right 1st thing i wana get stright stuiped but wana get it right!

plants in the light give off?
plants with no light give off?

too much co2 is bad for the fish so dont wana kill my fish off!

i have lots ov bubbles in my tank is that pushing oxygen in my tank?

basicly thinking ov doing the water suger and yeast trick in my tank! as i want me plants to grow but dont wana harm my fish!

i heard you dont need the bubbles on in the day but do at night?

any help will be very greatfull!

Plants in the day time give off oxygen.
Plants at night give off CO2.
You can inject CO2 but point your filter outlet up for a bit of surface agitation. That way CO2 shouldn't build up too much, aspecially at night. Creating the bit of surface agitation will mean you have to inject a bit more than usual though.
Are the bubbles large? If so, then no. Oxygen probably wont' be going into the tank. The large bubbles will reach the surface rapidly and cause surface agitation, decreasing CO2 levels, rather than increasing oxygen levels.
What you've heard it to inject CO2 in the day, but switch on an air pump at night to drive off the CO2. It's an ok idea, lots of people do it. The only down size is a varying pH. It going up and down throught a whole day. Some species wouldn't take kindly to it. I know that crypts might indeed melt.

thanks!! as in bubbles i mean from an air pump! no bubbles comeing from my plants?

and im kinda ok with the ph i got a constance ph meter so keeping an eye on that alot! seince the real plants gone it the ph has gone higher?

ok so at the min i have alot ov surface agitation as i am running two air pumps non stop!!

shud i turn these off in the day and let the co2 build up , then in the night turn them back on ( or when the light is turnt off)
rembering that my co2 system(home made) will run thur the night too!

also to catch my co2 do i just put an upside down cup in there to catch the co2? other wise it will hit the top and cause surface agitation???

i hope this makes sence i am not not the best typer or speller in a long long way!!

thanks again

 

[sjdriscoll]

Most people don't worry about CO2 levels being too high at night with a yeast kit - it's never been a concern for me anyway. I do run an airstone for a few hours at night but it's not really to drive off the CO2 (I do it to alter the water circulation and eliminate 'dead' spots).

If you do run an airstone then make sure it shuts off an hour or two before the lights come back on so that CO2 can build up again.

There are lots of ways to diffuse the CO2 into the water. The method you have talked about is not very efficient. You can use a 'ladder', which is ok. I prefer to have my CO2 bubble directly into the intake pipe of my filter (external) so that they go past the impeller and get 'smashed' up into micro bubbles before being pumped back into the tank.

Hope this helps.

 

[garybuk]

Most people don't worry about CO2 levels being too high at night with a yeast kit - it's never been a concern for me anyway. I do run an airstone for a few hours at night but it's not really to drive off the CO2 (I do it to alter the water circulation and eliminate 'dead' spots).

If you do run an airstone then make sure it shuts off an hour or two before the lights come back on so that CO2 can build up again.

There are lots of ways to diffuse the CO2 into the water. The method you have talked about is not very efficient. You can use a 'ladder', which is ok. I prefer to have my CO2 bubble directly into the intake pipe of my filter (external) so that they go past the impeller and get 'smashed' up into micro bubbles before being pumped back into the tank.

Hope this helps.

have you made your own yeast kit? in a 2l bottle? if so how much suger and yeast you useing?

 

[sjdriscoll]

[/quote]
have you made your own yeast kit? in a 2l bottle? if so how much suger and yeast you useing?
[/quote]

Yes i made my own yeast kit. I use a 2 x 2litre bottles linked to the same outlet. I use 1 pint of sugar to 1 pint of water, 1/2 tsp yeast and 1/2 tsp bi-carb.

I change out each bottle about once every 10 days - so I always have a steady supply of CO2 - my drop checker is always green.

Good luck

 

[garybuk]

got confused lol sorry.. why you use two bottels? and do you use 1pint suger in one bottel or both?

thats alot ov sugar lol???

 

[sjdriscoll]

lol - yes it's a lot of sugar but each bottle needs to run for 10 days without letting up too much so that I can keep the CO2 levels stable in my tank. Unstable CO2 is algae's best friend!!

I run 2 bottles tandem to keep the CO2 stable - each bottle has the same mix that I stated before, 1 pint sugar + 1 pint water.

I have a 20 gallon tank and find that I must keep this level to maintain my CO2. If you have a smaller tank you could use 1 bottle maybe.

 

[garybuk]

lol - yes it's a lot of sugar but each bottle needs to run for 10 days without letting up too much so that I can keep the CO2 levels stable in my tank. Unstable CO2 is algae's best friend!!

I run 2 bottles tandem to keep the CO2 stable - each bottle has the same mix that I stated before, 1 pint sugar + 1 pint water.

I have a 20 gallon tank and find that I must keep this level to maintain my CO2. If you have a smaller tank you could use 1 bottle maybe.

I got a 500l tank!! 6ft long... ok i will give this mixture ago! cos mine gave off lots n lots n lots n lots of co2 and my ph dropd from 8.00 to 7.50 wasnt letting it go any lower is creaping back up slowley now!

 

[sjdriscoll]

Wow - 500l is a huge tank and you would need loads of bottles (10) all linked up to get 30ppm of CO2!

A tank this big would need a pressurised CO2 rig for sure. You can get these for around the £100 mark or make your own from a fire extinguisher for around £40. Either way you need to look into this more. Have you got 2WPG lighting to begin with?

Research the treads on here.

 

[garybuk]

Wow - 500l is a huge tank and you would need loads of bottles (10) all linked up to get 30ppm of CO2!

A tank this big would need a pressurised CO2 rig for sure. You can get these for around the £100 mark or make your own from a fire extinguisher for around £40. Either way you need to look into this more. Have you got 2WPG lighting to begin with?

Research the treads on here.

lol i didnt wana spend too much money cos my cichlids mite eat the plants?? how come my ph droped soo much then??

i dont even no wot 2wpg lighting is but i got lighting from a juwel 240?? t5 i think??

 

[sjdriscoll]

Maybe you need to think about this more. Most cichild tanks don't have many/any plants at all. I'm not a cichlid man but all the display tanks I've ever seen are rock and sand based.

WPG means how many watts of light do you have per gallon of water in your tank. Look on the tubes for the watts - add them up if you have more than 1 tube - divide the total into the number of gallons in your tank. I have 2 tubes at 25w each so I have 50 watts over 20 galls = 2.5WPG.

2WPG is regarded as the min amount of light required for a planted tank with CO2. You can always go 'low tech' and grow low light plants without CO2.

Good luck.

Steve