[tetra73]

I thought I finally got myself some decent glass bubble counter from Green Leaf Aquarium. It is nice. The tubing diameter inside the counter is smaller and so my bubble rate is higher. My current bubble rate is based on the bubbles coming out from my CO2 tubing, directly in the water column. Then, I used the same bubble rate on my DIY syringe bubble counter. It was about 1 bubble more. Right now, the bubbles inside the glass counter are so fast that I couldn't even capture them with my camera with flash. I tried using mineral oil before but it foams up and the oil got inside my CO2 tubing. Fortunately, I have a valve checker to stop the oil from getting inside my CO2 reactor.

Any ideas or thoughts as to how do I make good use of the bubble counter other than it only tells me my CO2 is working???

 

[audioaficionado]

Any bubble counter is relative to your setup and not another tank even. You start real slow and only tweak it up or down a small amount each day. Once you get past 4 to 5 bbs, it gets hard to read. Make a small change and watch your fish and drop checker color. They do have inline glass bubble checkers that are inverted and have much larger bubbles so you can count them easier.

 

[Optix]

fish > drop checker > plants > bubble counter

 

[jl209]

I really only use mine to make sure my regulator isn't drifting. It just gives you a visual of how much c02 is going into your tank.

 

[fishlegs]

I think they are useless. It's silly when people here compare bubble counts because one bubble for me might equal six bubbles for you. It's like comparing one zorblat of CO2 to four wiglams of CO2... neither is a standard unit of measure, so we are making a useless comparison.

I agree with the "crank it up and watch the fish" approach. This works better for me than even drop checkers.

 

[audioaficionado]

It's very useful to have some sort of flow meter to gauge the CO2 flow rate. A bubble counter is a good way to see if your flow rate is stable and being properly regulated. You can't just watch your fish to see if something just went South on you like a bubble counter will. Drop checker is a good visual to see if you are keeping things between the ditches, but the response is much slower and takes a few hours to adjust to any changes. The fish are the ultimate judge for trends. However if you have a sudden change in flow rates, it might be too late by the time you come around the tank to check again. A bubble counter will let you know of a change immediately, but they are only a relative gauge and not a precision measurement device.