CO2 questions

plah831

plah831

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Apr 29, 2006
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Monterey Bay, CA
so I've decided to go with a fermentation CO2 setup because Flourish Excel doesn't seem to give comparable results.

my questions are:
1. how should i acclimate my fishies to the pH drop that will occur when I start using CO2? is the change in pH from night to day (air pump will be turned on at night) going to stress them?

2. how does one insure even dispersal of CO2 if the unit is only on one side of the tank?

3. is heat dispersal from the heater more unneven due to decreased water agitation?
 
1. unless you overdo the CO2 level, the change in pH shouldn't be drastic enough to affect your fishes.

2&3. Use a powerhead near the diffuser/reactor if there is insufficient water circulation, this also helps with the heat distribution.
 
plah831 said:
my questions are:
1. how should i acclimate my fishies to the pH drop that will occur when I start using CO2? is the change in pH from night to day (air pump will be turned on at night) going to stress them?
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Depending on the size of your tank, this should be no problem at all....or a small one.
If you have a tank of over 20 gals., DIY CO2 will generally not cause your pH to drop much. One generator is usually not strong enough to yield much over 12 - 15 ppm/CO2 which probably won't even be noticed by your fish.


2. how does one insure even dispersal of CO2 if the unit is only on one side of the tank?
The gas is absorbed into the water column and will make it's way around the tank.


3. is heat dispersal from the heater more unneven due to decreased water agitation?
At this time of year that should be a non-issue. But in when the heater is running in the cooler months, as long as you have circulation the water will be heated evenly. There is a difference between surface agitation and water circulation. You can move a lot of water without agitating the water's surface.

Len
 
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so use an underwater pump with the CO2 unit to take care of questions 2 and 3? the problem is, the tank is only 10 gal with 2 dwarf puffers and the fishies are so tiny that the slightest current knocks them around.

i looked at a chart on aquabotanic, I believe, that said that 12-15 ppm of CO2 at my KH (8 degrees) would result in a pH of 7.2. this is a whole 0.8 different from my normal pH of 8.0. This really won't stress my fish?
 
A pump's probably unneeded in a 10g tank, the filter should provide enough circulation.

The change in pH is gradual with CO2 injection so the impact isn't as drastic as dumping a fish into the water with different pH.
 
OK, thanks a lot! I guess I'll just monitor my babies closely to see if they have any issues. So far I've had ammonia and nitrite spikes from mis-use of root tabs, and they weren't phased a bit (I caught it in time to do 50% water changes three times in two days), so I have high hopes :)
 
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