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What is your bubble rate?

1K views 7 replies 4 participants last post by  jimmyhat 
#1 ·
I know this won't be an exact comparison because you have things like plant load to consider, but still, I'm curious. What is your bubble rate, what is your CO2 level, and how are you diffusing?

My bubble rate is 12 bpm and my CO2 level is 43. I use an AM 1000 reactor powered by an Eheim 2026.

And you?
 
#2 ·
Using bubles per minute is completely waste of time to measure your co2.You should increase it until your pH drops to the desired level and study the pH/chart to find your co2.your bubbles per minute could be 2 or 200,it doesn't matter.It is better if you increase it a bit slowly.
 
#3 ·
Correct.

"The formula used for this calculation is: CO2 (in PPM) = 3 * KH * 10( 7-pH ) where KH is Carbonate Hardness in degrees."

This is, of course, how I came to the conclusion that my CO2 level was 43.

I'm asking about bubble rates, as I stated, out of curiosity. I'm in no way implying that you can count bubbles and come to a conclusion on the amount of CO2 you have dissolved into solution.

However, I disagree that bpm is a completely useless figure to have. If you consider plant load, light and ferts, KH, pH, etc and then observe the bpm measurement, it may give you some idea of how efficient your dispersion method is.



Here's an example: I make a DIY internal reactor, run it for a week and take measurements. Then, I make a DIY external reactor, run it for a week and take measurements. If I try to match the ph for both of these reactors, then I can observe the bpm that it takes for each of these reactors to reach my desired ph and come to a pretty good conclusion as to which reactor is more efficient, as all other factors will have been equal.

:proud:

Did you read my post before responding to it?
 
#4 ·
That's right you can see how efficient your dispersion is,for example if you move your reactor a couple of inches further away you might need double amount of bubbles to reach the same pH but what I mean useless is because co2 is very very cheap so you don't need to be 100% efficient.Regarding your equation I'm not sure if it's right,check the co2 chart in this site
 
#5 ·
I snagged it here: http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_co2chart.htm

It's Chuck's formula, most likely what the CO2 charts are based on, only the formula can give more exact results because there's no rounding.

CO2 is cheap, I agree. But there is something to be said for making something the best it can be, or at least, when given options, having the ability to pick the best option.

I think this is turning into something much more complicated than I wanted. This topic wasn't even supposed to have the potential of becoming a debate.

Really, I just wanted to take a quick poll of bpm, co2 level, and dispersion method being used.
 
#7 ·
Random- I will make you happy and let you know that I have 3 bubbles per second...YES, per second!!! On my 225-260 gallon tank. I am not sure exactly how many gallons it is b/c of its odd shape. My Ph is down from 8.0 to 7.5 and unless I mix RO (which would take a long time on my size tank) thats as low as I can get it. I can' dissolve any more bubbles.

Anyone....Anyone??????
 
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