[steelcitysfinest]

Im currently running Co2 in my 180 gal. tank. my co2 tank is 20 gal and it only lasted a little over 3 months! That doesnt seem right from what ive read on this and other sites.

I have an ADA drop checker its consistantly reading VERY close to perfect! BUT, i have to run my Co2 connected to a PH monitor 24/7. Im also Dosing EI plus Flourish and Flourish Iron every other day. My Co2 is injected by my 965gph sump pump. I have a bubble counter with bubbles coming at a CONSTANT rate so high its nearly uncountable. Thats what it takes for me to reach my desired 7.0ph and satisfy the colors on the drop checker.

So here are my conclusions:

1. My lights are on for about 10 hours a day, 4x 96 compact flors. Is that too long of a time period?

2. Injecting Co2 with a 965 gph sump pump. At the bpm rate i run my co2 it comes out as a fine "mist" into the tank pretty much non stop. Do i need to find a better way to inject the co2?

3. The Sump- I have a 25 gal. open sump for a filter plus a fluval FX-5. Is the fatc that sump is open leading to my co2 being gased off during filtration?

Any suggestion would be appreciated. Not only do i think im wasting co2 but the constant mist is unsightly. My plants and fish are all growing well and i'd like to correct my co2 problems!

 

[bradac56]

#1 = Yes I'd drop that back to 8 hours a day and get a solenoid for your regulator, put it on a timer so it turns on an hour before your lights turn off and then turns off when your lights go out. That will save gas over the long run since plants do not use C02 without light.

#2 = Yes more than likely your out-gassing your C02, if your water is choppy or dropping strait down through a pipe into a sump then your loosing allot of C02.

- Brad

 

[steelcitysfinest]

Meh, i kinda figured the sump had alot to do with it! Well i cant really do much about that at this point. I will change my lights to about 8 hours. i had my co2 on a timer and had it come on about 1.5 hours before the lights. By the time the lights came on the drop checker was indicating "low Co2", and stayed that way til about an hour before my lights went out!!! I let it run that way for the first week and it was low every morning. So i started running it 24 hours and my drop checker has stayed green and is almost perfect if not!

I was told by a guy at my LFS to try running my co2 through air stones (throughout the bottom of the tank) instead of my filter outlets (at the top of the aquarium) so the co2 i am using has to travel through the water column. Any ideas on whether that would benefit me. I thought i read here airstones will clog over time??I realize with the sump im gonna have some gasing of my co2... but hopefully i wont have that constant mist shooting from my filter outputs.

 

[bradac56]

An airstone is about the worst way to run C02, you could make a cheap C02 reactor using a Hagen Elite Mini filter for better injection. There should be a writeup here or on aquaticplantcentral.com for the exact modifications needed.

- Brad

 

[Hoppy]

If I read this correctly you are simultaneously trying to add CO2, which drops the pH about 1.0 when you are close to the optimum concentration in the water, while using a pH controller to keep the pH from dropping below 7.0, which is only good if the degassed water has a pH around 8.0, which is unlikely. If I'm correct, the first thing to do is stop using the pH controller.

Sumps can work with CO2, but not well if they are open topped so you lose lots of CO2 in the sump. That alone means you have to inject a lot more CO2 than would otherwise be necessary.

 

[vokshirclo]

If I read this correctly you are simultaneously trying to add CO2, which drops the pH about 1.0 when you are close to the optimum concentration in the water, while using a pH controller to keep the pH from dropping below 7.0, which is only good if the degassed water has a pH around 8.0, which is unlikely. If I'm correct, the first thing to do is stop using the pH controller.

Sumps can work with CO2, but not well if they are open topped so you lose lots of CO2 in the sump. That alone means you have to inject a lot more CO2 than would otherwise be necessary.

wonderful! thanks for the info..
However I think you should vary more examples to your writing much more interesting !

 

[steelcitysfinest]

Hoppy, my tap water tests at about 7.8-8.2 ph and VERY hard. I use the ph monitor as a back up incase my needle valve or regulator fails or incase of a co2 dump. Do I NEED the monitor??? Prob. not! But I have it so I'm gonna use it!

I'm gonna take some cut a piece of plexiglass to cover my sump but I need to find a way to temporarily seal it so I can access it for maintnance reasons. I'm also debating a co2 reactor but I need to do more research on those.