The Planted Tank Forum banner

CO2 rate

1715 Views 23 Replies 9 Participants Last post by  limige
i ordered stuff for a co2 system, where should i start with the bubble rate, its a 5' long 120 gallon tank.
1 - 20 of 24 Posts
Get a drop checker too, that helps and takes some of the guess work out of the equation.
One or two bubbles per second seems like a safe starting point.
Then check your drop checker for the color. Although drop checkers aren't completely accurate, they can give you some idea of how much CO2 is in the water. Blue is too low, green is about medium, and yellow/green is about right.

Keep increasing the bubble rate very slowly while watching your drop checker and your fish. Make small changes and wait a few hours for the results. As long as your drop checker is in the blue to green range and your fish are fine, you shouldn't be at the point of gassing your fish. But as you get into the yellowish range, you want to watch your fish very closely and make your changes very slowly.

Keep increasing the CO2 until you see your fish stressing. They'll start hovering at the top of the tank, gasping for air. At that point, you're too high and need to decrease the bubble rate. You can do a quick water change to help the fish.

Then keep watching the fish at the lowered rate. If they're fine again, then that should be your highest CO2 rate. Watch your fish very closely for the next 24 hours, and then keep an eye on them for the next couple of days just to be sure.

So I use the drop checker to give me a general idea of how much CO2 is in the water and use the fish to tell me when I've hit the point of going too high. By reaching that point and then dropping back a little, I am able to inject the highest level of CO2 in the tank that's still safe for my fish.
See less See more
With a tank that size I'd be concerned with maintaining consistent disolved co2 levels. An atomizer and a reactor should be a serious consideration for anything bigger than a 55g.
I planned on injecting it into my canister intake. Between the impellor and all the foam and such it should dissolve very well
2 bubbles per sec is pretty small in a 120 isn't it?

Fish will be removed till tank is deemed safe
I planned on injecting it into my canister intake. Between the impellor and all the foam and such it should dissolve very well
Feeding CO2 into a canister can work, but the amount of CO2 you're going to need to inject may be too much for that kind of setup.

I think you'd be much better off using a reactor instead. You can build one for very cheap and they work excellent on large tanks (I'm using Rex Grigg style on my 75g and 90g).
2 bubbles per sec is pretty small in a 120 isn't it?

Fish will be removed till tank is deemed safe
Yeah, you'll probably have to just about stream it. But it' better to start off slow and build your way up than to try it the other way around.
you very likely to run into issues with streaming it into an intake of a canister,you better off making a reactor keeping less strain on the motor and having the chance to air lock it depending on the type and flow rate. it will also keep it much quiet.

a dc isnt really needed and can have its own issues with a tank that big due the the flow of the tank if you have the filter on one side it might not circulate though the whole tank with the same co2 levels. depends on the scape, flow outputs/intakes, gph, etc,etc so just plan and test for better results, if its not housing fish you might try and drop some type of coloring device for the water to see where ur flow is in the tank so u can adjust accordingly. in all honesty your co2 will likely be high enough that u cant judge it by bubble count unless your using multipul ports/needlevalves.

idk if your new to these types of set ups or just new to tpt, if its the first reseach everything now to save yourself huge headaches and $$ later. hope it helps.
See less See more
I planned on injecting it into my canister intake. Between the impellor and all the foam and such it should dissolve very well
To avoid a complicated setup I'd either run an inline diffuser off the filter output, or run a reactor off the output. There's been a lot of talk over the years about co2 degrading gaskets, seals and impellers, as well as killing beneficial bacteria, all of which I haven't seen any proof of. But since inline diffusers became popular in the last few years people have using them on the filter output with great success.
I have an external canister filter and I previously used a reactor but it just killed the flow in a big way. I now use an Up in-line diffuser which works brilliantly:



Great diffusion as the bubbles are right in the filter flow, and without the flow kill
See less See more
Cool! I'm new to the whole co2 thing. Saw it setup in a Detroit shop a d they used the intake on the filter so I was going to do just that. But wasn't sure since I have a much larger tank.

I welcome all the input and any advice from your experience. I'm a newbie to this.
I have an external canister filter and I previously used a reactor but it just killed the flow in a big way. I now use an Up in-line diffuser which works brilliantly:



Great diffusion as the bubbles are right in the filter flow, and without the flow kill
Any links where this can be bought?
try "UP New Aquarium Co2 Atomizer System" on eBay. got my from seller hkaquarium and had good experience
i ordered stuff for a co2 system, where should i start with the bubble rate, its a 5' long 120 gallon tank.
Bubble rate isn't listed with NIST, ;) so it's not helpful to you to ask what's an appropriate rate from others, because everyone else will have a different rate, size of bubble, tank size, number of plants, lighting intensity, water chemistry. You can also measure co2 qualitatively by measuring the PH. The PH should be on the acid side say from 6.6-6.9, but not higher than 7 vwhich is neutral.
Cool! I'm new to the whole co2 thing. Saw it setup in a Detroit shop a d they used the intake on the filter so I was going to do just that. But wasn't sure since I have a much larger tank.

I welcome all the input and any advice from your experience. I'm a newbie to this.
I grew up in Lapeer Mich.
For a 2 bps is to low I got a 110g tank and my bubbles are fast steady count , I'm using a 20" house filter with 1" ports only because I using a Eheim 2262 filter with 900gph pump , I did use that Co2 Atomizer System but didn't work for me , didn't like the 7-up look and even use the CarbonDoser EXT5000 (External Reactor 5000) they say it would handle tanks over 100g's "Wrong!!" It would just spit out the bubbles back in the tank and back to the 7-up look!
A good 20in house filter with a 3/4in or 1in ports will dissolve the co2 100% before it get's to the tank.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=165975&highlight=ext5000
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=184843
1 - 20 of 24 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top