[tomstanks]

I am preparing to embark on converting my fishroom (2x55G, 2x29G, 4x20G, 2x33G, 6x10G) and display room (300G, 220G, 150G, 90G) to central filtration - I keep all SA fish, and plant the heck out of everything. My question is, assuming I can keep the water system air-tight (going to be filtering in a series of 120G silo's with mechanical and bio), can I inject the CO2 at the egress point of the filter through a reactor, and monitor it in one of the mid-sized tanks to control to solednoid, or will I have a spectrum of PPM across the tanks given their varied size, water current, plants, and lighting parameters? If the latter, does anyone have any experience using a single source for multiple tanks, perhaps using a lowest common denominator/baseline? I am currently using 2 GLA hex manifolds (on 2 20# tanks) which work well, but refilling 12 bubble counters gets tiresome, and this would be the last piece to truly "automate" the whole shebang. Thank you in advance.

 

[PlantedRich]

No real experience with that setup but a guess would be that the PPM would vary quite a bit due to the amount of CO2 gassing off as it travels along from first to last tank. But then it is also likely that each tank will have different needs on CO2 as they will have differing amounts and types of the other variables. Lighting, ferts, number size and type plants? It might depend on how critical you feel the need of the right amount of CO2 to be.
Like I said, no real experience, just thoughts.

 

[xmas_one]

I would suggest that you use the same co2 level on the entire system and run good surface agitation (rippling returns) to ensure maximum o2 levels which in turn allows higher co2 levels.

 

[tomstanks]

No real experience with that setup but a guess would be that the PPM would vary quite a bit due to the amount of CO2 gassing off as it travels along from first to last tank. But then it is also likely that each tank will have different needs on CO2 as they will have differing amounts and types of the other variables. Lighting, ferts, number size and type plants? It might depend on how critical you feel the need of the right amount of CO2 to be.
Like I said, no real experience, just thoughts.

I don't know that there would be much CO2 loss in the system, it's not a "first to last tank", more a "hub with spokes". Ferts are a concern but they will be centralized as well. With plant type vs. CO2 needs my planting "style" is conducive to a baseline PPM requirement.

 

[tomstanks]

I would suggest that you use the same co2 level on the entire system and run good surface agitation (rippling returns) to ensure maximum o2 levels which in turn allows higher co2 levels.

I was thinking for the returns to drill 1/4" spraybars running off the 1/2 system, they could be pointed to maximize agitation.
I was going to drill the drains in the tanks, but not the returns (1 hole) - does that make sense in this case? The larger tanks have 1-2 overflow boxes already so they're a special case, for more reasons than this.
I am contemplating using one of my hex manifolds to boost CO2 in the larger, more heavily planted tanks (and for the orchid terrariums enclosed above the 300) - that would enable me to set my baseline a bit lower, say for the 29G's, correct?