Ok, making the jump to pressurized CO2

Still hasn't been delivered. It was supposed to be delivered on the 15th. I think UPS screwed up.

That's alright though, I still don't have a CO2 tank. I will definitely secure the tank so it doesn't fall over. I don't need any low flying projectiles.
 
Originally posted by superjohnny
Still hasn't been delivered. It was supposed to be delivered on the 15th. ......
Click to expand...
Always 'try' to get Tracking Numbers...
 
Got it, now I need a tank. I called about 15-20 places this weekend and all but 1 was closed. The open one was like 40 miles away :rolleyes:

This week it's on.
 
Ok, got the CO2 tank today. I couldn't find one reconditioned so I bought a new aluminum 5# for $85. It's quite shiny and pretty :cool: So total I'm into it about $168. Not too bad, about average. I'm feeding the CO2 into my canister. I'll watch that over the next few days for air-locks, but right now it seems to be ok.

I still have to figure out how to stablize my KH. I've got a nylon bag of crushed coral, but this seems to be pretty potent (ph went up over 7.4). Hopefully I can add it back in after I get the CO2 up.

So here are my water parameters...
PH 7.2
Amonia 0
NO3 0
KH 50 ppm
GH 30 ppm
Phosphate 0

After checking the water I added 1/4 tsp of NuSalt (K2SO4), 1/4 tsp of KNO3, and 3 drops of Fleet Enema (KH2PO4) and 5 ML of Seachem Traces. Is this the correct dosage?

How am I doing? I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts & comments.

Thanks :)
 
A quick calculation shows CO2 at ~5 ppm, that is not much more than normal. If you are sure of you readings, then I would increase your CO2 rate.

You want CO2 15-25 ppm (some say up to 30 ppm is good).

I use pressurized CO2 on my 50 gal and last night my readings were:

pH: 6.8
Ammonia: 0
NO3: 0.25
kH: 5 degrees (89 ppm)
gH: 12 degrees

This puts my CO2 at 24 ppm

Dave
 
Thanks for the reply Dave. I need to check it again tonight, but after 24 hours of running the CO2 my PH dropped down below 6.2. I added 1/8 tsp of calcium carbonate which brought my KH to around 60ppm (which is 6 degrees of hardness correct?). I slowed the CO2 down to just over 10 bubbles per minute, but after 12 hours my PH was still ~6.2. So if I'm not mistaken this means my CO2 level is around 112ppm correct?

Running the CO2 into a the canister is very effective.

Do I just keep adding the calcium carbonate until my ph comes back up?

Thank you Dave, I really apprecaite your help.
 
Convert german degrees to ppm by multiplying by 17.9
60ppm=3.35 degrees.
My chart shows your CO2 at 50ppm. Still too high, but lower your CO2 by 1/3 and you should hit your 30 and you can adjust from there. I would shoot for pH of 6.6 which gives a CO2 of 25ppm or so.
good luck
:)
 
poormanisme - i'm in the navy and have quite a lot of expirience with pressurized gasses. once had a full size bottle with (about 2500lbs capacity) with only 450lbs in fall over and break the valve off right above the bottle opening. talk about scary. we took it to a welding supply house to let them bleed it off, just to be safe and it took them over an hour to safely bleed it off. they said that even with that much press. for the size bottle it was enough to send it through your standardconcrete wall. just like a giant bullet!
 
Yikes! I got my PH to around 7.0 which is just fine. I left the crushed coral in there and it went up bit by bit. I can see why people like ph controllers, but I'm not spending another $100 on my tank :p
 
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