Increasing C02 levels properly?

[Mercfh]

So im running 1 BPS on my 75 gallon with my c02 art setup. The drop checker is blue (not surprising). How would you go about raising it as not to gas your fish?

I know it takes like...what 3-4 hours for the c02 dropper to be "accurate". Should I just increase 1 BPS per day or something, or maybe 5?

Also is there an oil or something I can put in the bubble counter? Something that won't evaporate

[JoeQ]

On 9/29/2024 at 9:16 PM, Mercfh said:

So im running 1 BPS on my 75 gallon with my c02 art setup. The drop checker is blue (not surprising). How would you go about raising it as not to gas your fish?

If it were me Id concentrate on getting your 1bps better diffused. Think getting smaller bubbles suspended in the water colum for as long as possible. You can push to 5bps, but if them bubbles just rise to the surface it won't make a lot of diffrence.

On 9/29/2024 at 9:16 PM, Mercfh said:

I know it takes like...what 3-4 hours for the c02 dropper to be "accurate". Should I just increase 1 BPS per day or something, or maybe 5?

Co2 drop checkers are inaccurate. The best/simplest method (IMO) is to log your PH/KH throughout the day along with getting a degassed PH & KH reading

On 9/29/2024 at 9:16 PM, Mercfh said:

Also is there an oil or something I can put in the bubble counter? Something that won't evaporate

I would stay away from oil in the bubble counter. It's advised to degrease the bubble counter and replace lines if you did use oil before using any of the better defussers.

Edited September 30 by JoeQ

[Mercfh]

Any advice on the best place to put a diffuser then? Maybe after the outlet on my FX4?

[Pepere]

On 9/30/2024 at 4:23 PM, Mercfh said:

Any advice on the best place to put a diffuser then? Maybe after the outlet on my FX4?

I like inline diffusers. They fit on the hose from your canister filter to your tank..  I have my outflow feeding in to a spray bar just below water surface directed to front of tank…

 

I have co2 bubbles diffused throughout the entire tank held in suspension from the flow across thetop of the tank hitting the front glass and being carried down toward the bottom of the tank and then back to the rear.  Bubbles that rise to the top without being fully absorbed gets carried back down and around as it gets to that current across the top of the tank…

[JoeQ]

On 9/30/2024 at 4:23 PM, Mercfh said:

Any advice on the best place to put a diffuser then? Maybe after the outlet on my FX4?

I have my diffuser on the back wall a few inches to the left of my 307. The 307 output is baffled & also pointing to the left. This sucks the bubbles in and keeps them in a kind of suspended circular flow. As insurance I also run a skimmer which adds a cross current and hopefully is sucking in & infusing any stray co2 bubbles. I'll try to get pictures tomorrow for you, but basically its trial, watch the bubbles and readjust till you get good bubble saturation throughout the tank

[TAB]

Build your own inline  granted this is way more elaborate than you need

Edited October 1 by TAB

[JoeQ]

Heres a picture showing the nice lil spinning co2 cloud I have going along with arrows showing flow

The orange arrow is my defuser, white arrow is my intake tube, red lines are flow from my baffled 307 and from my skimmer. The red arrow is a return flow to my skimmer from an airstone.