[fishnovice33]

I set up my new tank yesterday. Have a 2217 and pressurized co2. I used 1.5 ML 4Kh solution And 5 drops of Ph solution per directions. Plenty of surface agitation from the Eheim output, tank is open.

It turned the desired blue and I set it in my tank. I did 2 bubbles per second for about 3 hours and it turned green. Everything seemed normal. I am using a reactor.

Turned the co2 off about 9 PM. Woke up and the drop checker is still green and as of now still green. I have not turned the co2 back on since last night, I wanted to judge how long it’s take my new tank’s co2 to completely dissipate and wait until it turns blue...but seems it’s taking a while.

Also my Eheim is making noises like it has air probably every 10 minutes but overall running smoothly. I have other Eheim which stopped making this sound overnight but they don’t have co2. Does the new tank bubbles and co2 cause this? My reactor is slowly filling and isn’t filled completely yet.

Anyways just wondering how long to keep my co2 off, I am keeping the light on about 5 hours a day...but I feel the plants may still be getting the co2 they need according to my drop checker? It’s been a while since I have had co2 any advise is appreciated.

 

[jellopuddinpop]

That’s pretty strange. Normally, your drop checker is going to show you what the conditions in the tank were about an hour earlier.

You mentioned that you’re running your CO2 through a reactor. Is the reactor before your filter, or after? Just guessing, but I bet the reactor was letting bubbles escape, and they got trapped in your filter. Even after the CO2 turned off, you still have a significant amount of CO2 build up in the filter. It will continue to dissolve until it’s gone. If your reactor is before your filter, try putting it after instead.

You can also verify that this is causing the problem by taking the filter apart. You can clean it if you want to, but just opening it will vent any CO2 that may be built up. Open the filter, pour out any water (to dislodge bubbles), reprime and restart it. If your drop checker goes back to blue in an hour or so, then you know that was your culprit.

 

[fishnovice33]

Thanks for the reply. My reactor in the in output. It does make sense though that there is a lot of co2 in the filter for both these issues. I have observed a lot of bubbles on the grate on the top of the filter media. Hope this doesn’t happen every time I use co2...maybe I’ll dial down a bit. Thanks, I’ll get all the air out of the filter and see if it does the trick.

 

[jellopuddinpop]

Thanks for the reply. My reactor in the in output. It does make sense though that there is a lot of co2 in the filter for both these issues. I have observed a lot of bubbles on the grate on the top of the filter media. Hope this doesn’t happen every time I use co2...maybe I’ll dial down a bit. Thanks, I’ll get all the air out of the filter and see if it does the trick.

I'm sorry I didn't understand... your reactor is on your input or output? Like, before or after the canister filter? If it's after the canister filter, then that can't be the problem. If it's before the canister filter, then just move the reactor to the other side. You really don't want high CO2 concentration going into your filter anyway, it can affect your biological filter.

 

[fishnovice33]

Thanks for the reply. My reactor in the in output. It does make sense though that there is a lot of co2 in the filter for both these issues. I have observed a lot of bubbles on the grate on the top of the filter media. Hope this doesn’t happen every time I use co2...maybe I’ll dial down a bit. Thanks, I’ll get all the air out of the filter and see if it does the trick.

I'm sorry I didn't understand... your reactor is on your input or output? Like, before or after the canister filter? If it's after the canister filter, then that can't be the problem. If it's before the canister filter, then just move the reactor to the other side. You really don't want high CO2 concentration going into your filter anyway, it can affect your biological filter.

It’s in the output not input so after the canister. I cleaned out filter and had a ton of bubbles. All plumbing and lines secure no air bubbles in the line. Was fine for a few hours but now the same thing. Drop checker still green.

My only two thoughts are:

1. I don’t have a lot of plants yet so I may have overdone the co2 and it wasn’t all absorbed and the filter should clear out once co2 dissipates.

or

2. There is some sort of leaks in my new Eheim 2217. But water doesn’t come out when it’s off anywhere and I checked the seal, seems fine.

I am starting to bet it’s #2. I am going to wait until the reactor fills and checker turns to blue if I am still getting air it had to be a leak in some seal on the 2217. I’ve never had any issues with 4 different classics until now...

 

[fishnovice33]

We’ll drop checker is finally blue after almost two full days.

Checked inline tubing again no bubbles being brought into filter. No bubbles coming up through reactor into filter (which wouldn’t make sense anyhow as bubbles are at the bottom AND top of canister). Seals are fine there is resistance removing the top. But again bubbles are in top and bottom of filter so I’d think if there was an oring issue they’d only be up top. I put food grade oring grease on it beforehand too.

So I am still at a loss why it’s containing and gathering bubbles. The carbon on top is full of them and so is the coarse filter at the bottom (pics). The flow is perfectly fine so I doubt it’s some sort of obstruction. Just expelling gas every 10 mins.

I can only imagine at this point it was just way too much co2 that never got absorbed by the plants or water because there are little plants and the reactor was not full for these days. I did give it a hefty dose of co2 at the beginning. But would that really cause this mess?

Also reactor took 2 days to finally fill up. Not sure this affects anything though.

 

[Asteroid]

There really isn't any reason you need the drop checker to go back to blue. As long as the fish are OK it just means you'll need less co2 throughout the day to get back to good co2 concentration. In one of my setups I'm running co2 8 hrs a day and the drop checker is almost always lime green since I have very little surface agitation.

Check your PH change from degassed to midday gassed. Generally your looking for a drop of 1.0