Surface agitation & co2 high tech tank

[Bodul67]

Good morning all. I have a 55gal deep substrate dirted tank with 3" sand capping with a 20gal sump filter. I have CO2 injection. I have a wave maker above diffuser to disperse co2 and on the other side of tank is another wave maker to circulate co2. This circulation does make a shimmering surface agitation. My question is should there be more agitation or no agitation for the o2/co2 balance. I've read so many websites & forums that for my size tank yes I should have more and some say no agitation. At the moment I can't get any pearling on plants. So confused.

 

[Duke Silver]

I'm fairly new to the high tech world myself, I just started injecting co2 not to long ago. From my understanding surface agitation is going to depend on your co2 injection rate. if your injecting a higher rate of co2 you are going to want a lot of surface agitation to allow the co2 to gas off. if you are injecting a lower rate of co2 you are probably going to want less agitation to help keep the co2 suspended in the water column for more time before gassing off. Also are measuring your co2 levels in your aquarium? on my 20 long with level of surface agitation, I'm injecting roughly 2bps to get me at 30ppm co2 at around 10am. 

[Mmiller2001]

You 100% want surface agitation and a good amount of it. You want to gas off CO2 at a good rate as well as allow as much O2 into the system. By gassing off CO2, you can increase CO2 injection; thereby hitting target CO2ppm quicker and not have dips in CO2 once plants begin nutrient uptake. Surface skimming is recommended as well, this will increase gaseous exchange.

[Mmiller2001]

Here's a great resource for CO2 tanks.

https://www.2hraquarist.com/