[cblwry]

Good Morning! I have a 20g high with T5 lights and a canister SunSun filter. I have been trying to set up a paintball CO2 system and I guess I can't wrap my old brain around it. I got a diffuser w a bubble counter from GLA and a drop checker to check the levels. There is also an airstone in the back. Set it all up last night and turned the gas on as light as I could possibly get it. The fluid in the checker went from blue to a lovely lime green. This is correct right?? But after a few hours the fluid went to yellow and fish were gasping. So I turned it off. This morning the checker shows lime green again and fish have recovered. I had been dosing with Excel to clear up some BBA. Should I turn off the CO2 while dosing?? Or is there something else I am doing wrong. Sorry if all this sound stupid but this is my first CO2 tank and I really want this to work.

Thanks and have a great weekend. :confused1:

 

[joekidwell]

I wouldn't use them together or at least until u get used to you're co2 system and know how much co2 it produces on its own.

 

[Optix]

you can use them together...just cut down on your co2 and keep watching your fish and DC

 

[cblwry]

Thanks, I will stop dosing the Excel. And I think I will only have it running while the lights are on also. Maybe that will help. I have the flow turned down as low as I can at the moment.

 

[bsmith]

There is no reason to not dose Excel at the same time as your using co2 in the tank. In all reality co2 and Excel have as much in common as Barack Obama and Ron Paul. You have the right idea though, using excel only to kill algae by spot treating it (hopefully thats what your doing?).

Drop checkers are a decent tool in seeing that we are getting co2 at the levels we are trying to hit. But they react very slowly. So while the next morning your DC was still green there was no co2 in the water more than likely.

 

[bsmith]

I wouldn't use them together or at least until u get used to you're co2 system and know how much co2 it produces on its own.

Excel is not Co2. It is only marketed as an alternative to using gas co2.