CO2 too high..

kamla

kamla

The Algae Grower
Feb 8, 2005
249
0
0
NJ
CO2 too high..

O.k. I have 72 gal tank, I have a DIY CO2 reactor and a DIY CO2 diffuser.
I also use flourish Excel according to the dosing instructions.

I use 65*2 blubs of PC for 7 hrs and 65*4 of PC blubs for 3 additional hrs,
So 1.8watts/gal for 7hrs and 3.6watts for 3 additional hrs.
(Doing that till I can afford a pressured CO2 system) :idea2:

My PH is 6.6 ~ 6.8
KH 6~7
Nitrates 7.5

This gives me around 39ppm of CO2 according to Chucks cal.
And it s say that the 39ppm of CO2 is high. :eek:

My question is, Is this level of CO2 going to effect my fishes..
Should I shut of the CO2 diffuser at night so that the CO2 level go down?

Plants are doing fine and so are the Fishes, but I don’t want any long term effect on my poor little fishes.


Thax
 
39ppm shouldn't hurt anything, just watch the fish - if they become listless, hang around at the top or stop eating, act quickly. A few hours of heavy surface agitation (such as moving a spray bar above the surface and lowering the water level) should improve things by off gassing some CO2. The CO2 in my 65g varies (gotta love DIY), it's often between 35 - 45ppm with no ill effects, and I've read many other posts on planted forums from people with similar levels and healthy fish.
 
how do you figue out how much CO2 you have in your water ??
 
Check out this site. There's a handy CO2 and fert calculator you can download, and a CO2 chart on the site.
You need to know the pH and KH of your water, there's a correlation between the two and CO2. There are certain circumstances where the chart won't work, but for the most part it's a great way to tell how much CO2 is in the water when you're injecting.
 
Thanks Blinky,
i was thinking of shuting off the CO2 Diffuser @ night so that the CO2 level come down.
What are u r thoughts on that...

BTW Nice tank...One day mine might be haf as nice...:)


Grey Legion - you can also download the chucks cal Here
 
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I personally don't change anything at night, I see a fluctuation of about .2 pH - from 6.4 to 6.2 or 6.6 to 6.4 (depends on how fresh the mix is) overnight. If I was using pressurized, I'd probably have it shut off with the lights so the tank would last longer. Either way, I don't think the fish mind ;)

Thanks for the compliment, I feel like there's still a long way to go, but it's getting there :D
 
co2-dietsch.gif


Taken from thekrib.com CO2 Chart
 
this may seem kinduv random... but how important is CO2 to the health of your plants? the plants in my tank grow like crazy, could the two bubble walls on the back of my tank be doing that? or am i doing something else right?
-all of my plants are free floating-
 
I've had my CO2 at above 60ppm for a few days before I spotted it. No harm done. I wouldn't worry at it being 39ppm unless there are signs in your tank that it is causing problems.

Now someone correct me if I'm wrong but 30ppm is the max CO2 level that plants will actually use. Any more is just wasting gas. I haven't heard of any studies done on the tolerance level on fish but no doubt that some fish are more susceptible than others to an overload of CO2.

The KH/pH/CO2 relationship actually produces a very interesting curve.
 
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