Making CO2 Injection

tredd

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Dec 13, 2003
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I'm in the process of making a pressurized CO2 injection system for my 90gal tank. Once I get everything setup, how many bubbles should I start off with per second? Also how fast will the pH drop, or how fast should it drop so it won't affect the fish? Right now my PH is 8 and my KH is 3.9. I've figured out that I need to get my PH down to 6.8-7 from Chuck's aquarium calculator. How does the GH factor into this equation and what does it affect? Will the KH valve change as the PH is lowered?

Thanks
Tim
 
Start it off slow...1 bubble a second and test, test, test.

You will see results fairly quickly. If CO2 is getting into the water, you will see PH drop within an hour...

As for how fast to drop it as to not affect the fish...I would probably look to move your pH down over the course of a week. Just move it down very slowly and gradually....


What kind of filtration do you have?

As an example of how bad filtration can affect you...I had a wet dry on my 125g. I had to give it 6-7 bubbles a sec to drop my PH from 7.6 to 7.0...now I swapped the wet dry for 3 cannisters and only have to give 2 bubbles a sec to get down to 6.8....
 
Slow, slow, slow

I wouldn't start as high as that, I'd go for maybe 10 bubbles per miinute, maybe 20 at the most. The system may be unstable at the start, sometimes things are temperature dependant and the bubble rate that you thought you began at is not what you may find several hours later.

Be sure to begin in the morning when you can be around all day to watch for instabilities in the bubble rate or the fish for signs of distress.

Personallly, I started at 6 bubbles per minute, which is about the slowest flow I could get through the needle valve. After a few days I increased that, after I had seen the pH that resulted in -- since the tank was full of new water it actually took a little bit longer to see what the tap water would settle out to as entrained CO2 left but was supplimented with injected CO2.

Then I still watched very carefully, for AM and PM pH levels, to see if I was near a danger zone or maybe needed to turn the CO2 off at night. In my case the pH changed too rapidly as the CO2 was turned off for the night so I leave it on.

How many bubbles per minute is too much is a very individual thing. In my 59 gallons, with a glass top, the best bubble rate depends on how much surface agitation the filter returns create. The gooseneck return is much different than the submerged spraybar. My water is moderately hard and well buffered and it bounces back easily. Yours will be different, test and be certain.
 
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