New to CO2 - looking for help/advice

[Karen B.]

Greetings!

I purchased the fluval co2 kit (45g) for my planted 20 gallons and the fluval co2 checker.

I started with 1 bubble every 3-4 seconds, the liquid was blue (- ). I then did 2 days with 1 bubbles every 2 seconds. Checker liquid still blue. Today I aimes for 1 bubble per second (a bit more. Stupid kit is hard to adjust), liquid still blue.

I read in many sites you are supposed to aim for 10 bubbles per minutes per 100 gallons... I don’t get it? I also try to read the chart but what I get makes no sense to me. My kh is 4, my ph is 7.6

I don’t want to over dose so I keep a close eye on the checker but I am afraid something is off somewhere?

[johnjohnjohn87]

I’m sure there are others more knowledgeable that will chime in, but a simple way to hit around 20-30ppm CO2 is a 1 pH drop while gassing. There are some excellent write ups over at barrreport that get really deep into the topic and are worth reading. 
 

Just keep in mind that drop checkers indicate where the tank was around 2 hours ago, so go slow on adjustments. Also, pH drop from CO2 injection is non-linear. 
 

Honestly, if you find it’s driving you crazy (like me), pick up a pH pen on Amazon. Instant, accurate results. I really like the Apera pH tester pen I have. 

[Karen B.]

16 minutes ago, johnjohnjohn87 said:

I’m sure there are others more knowledgeable that will chime in, but a simple way to hit around 20-30ppm CO2 is a 1 pH drop while gassing. There are some excellent write ups over at barrreport that get really deep into the topic and are worth reading. 
 

Just keep in mind that drop checkers indicate where the tank was around 2 hours ago, so go slow on adjustments. Also, pH drop from CO2 injection is non-linear. 
 

Honestly, if you find it’s driving you crazy (like me), pick up a pH pen on Amazon. Instant, accurate results. I really like the Apera pH tester pen I have. 

So I need to check my ph if I understand you correctly. Is that what the checker do? 
My checker was blue. Now it changed color but I can’t quite figure out if it’s light green or yellow. Ugh.

[johnjohnjohn87]

2 minutes ago, Karen B. said:

So I need to check my ph if I understand you correctly. Is that what the checker do? 
My checker was blue. Now it changed color but I can’t quite figure out if it’s light green or yellow. Ugh.

You’re shooting for sustained lime green on the drop checker. Blue is not enough CO2 and yellow is too much. Relies on gas exchange and a known solution (the drop checker solution). The drop checker functions on pH fluctuation too, but the CO2 rabbit hole is sort of deep if you want to dive in. 

[Karen B.]

2 minutes ago, johnjohnjohn87 said:

You’re shooting for sustained lime green on the drop checker. Blue is not enough CO2 and yellow is too much. Relies on gas exchange and a known solution (the drop checker solution). The drop checker functions on pH fluctuation too, but the CO2 rabbit hole is sort of deep if you want to dive in. 

Yeah, this whole CO2 thing was maybe too much for me. But I was trying to get my plants to grow nice and healthy.

I can’t quite figure out if this is green or yellow! 

[johnjohnjohn87]

1 minute ago, Karen B. said:

Yeah, this whole CO2 thing was maybe too much for me. But I was trying to get my plants to grow nice and healthy.

I can’t quite figure out if this is green or yellow! 

I’ve never used a drop checker like that (I’m used to the glass ones). But don’t give up!!!

 

Green Aqua on YouTube has some really excellent videos about CO2 and break it down well. It’s really complicated to learn about, but actually doing it is pretty simple. 

[Streetwise]

I messed around with several of those kits for a couple of months. The single-stage regulator is very hard to fine-tune, and I didn’t trust starting and stopping it manually, and getting consistent output. I tuned it for the absolute minimal trickle output, to run continuously.

It was cool to see what CO2 was like, but I removed mine to concentrate on my soil, lighting, and plant selection.

If I were to try CO2 again, I would use a dual-stage regulator, with a solenoid controlled by timer and pH.

[SWilson]

I am pretty new to CO2 as well, so just regurgitating research here but I read on a number of other forums that the liquid CO2 checkers were generally inaccurate (but good to have as a quick way to tell if anything is really out of whack -- so I'm not saying you shouldn't use it), but a better way to know how much CO2 you should be using is to measure the pH before you start Co2, then then measure it again the pH after your Co2 has been running for at least 4 hours -- you are aiming for the pH to drop by 1.  If your pH is dropping more than 1 you may risk Co2 poisoning to your livestock.  

There are great writeups and tips on the 2 Hour Aquarist website, and I'm sure there are AC blogs and videos on this too -- I followed Cory's video on how to set up the CO2 system in the first place.  There is a section in George Farmer's Aquascaping book on it too that's pretty helpful, including a chart that shows roughly how much CO2 you're getting based on that pH difference.  And you'll wanna observe for plant growth/health too. 

I have been running my CO2 for about 2 and a half weeks (my partner got it for me as an xmas gift - one thing I probably wouldn't have splurged on myself).  I started out slow becuase I was paranoid about CO2 affecting the fish.  I found that 1 bubble per second gets my pH to drop by about .8.  I also found that putting the diffuser on the opposite side of the tank as my HOB created better dispersion of the CO2 bubbles.  And I run the CO2 for about an hour before my lights come on, and I run it for about 5 hours a day.  At first, I had the lights going for only 6 hours a day (i.e., shutting off one hour after the CO2 was done).    

My goal is to go back with tinkering with the CO2 and lights this week (I have been distracted the last two weeks with one of my fish being sick and been busy at work), so I'd be happy to report back anything else I learn.  Feel free to message me, and I can share those resources I mentioned.  

Good luck!  

[SWilson]

2 hours ago, Karen B. said:

Yeah, this whole CO2 thing was maybe too much for me. But I was trying to get my plants to grow nice and healthy.

 

You can do it! We can learn together and try not to kill anything in the process lol! 🙂

[Karen B.]

4 hours ago, Streetwise said:

I messed around with several of those kits for a couple of months. The single-stage regulator is very hard to fine-tune, and I didn’t trust starting and stopping it manually, and getting consistent output. I tuned it for the absolute minimal trickle output, to run continuously.

It was cool to see what CO2 was like, but I removed mine to concentrate on my soil, lighting, and plant selection.

If I were to try CO2 again, I would use a dual-stage regulator, with a solenoid controlled by timer and pH.

I hear you about the regulator being about impossible to really fine tune. I am home right now so I don’t mind turning it on in the morning and spending like 5 minutes trying to get the right flow 🤪

I am not sure how long I will use co2 - not sure I am hardcore enough for that. It’s mainly to speed up the growth  of my plants to be the best environment for my fish that requires heavily planted tanks. And control algea. Kinda losing that fight. Will have to read more about that.

I am with you however - if I ever decide to continue on the long turn, it will be a system with a solenoid for sure!!!

[Karen B.]

2 hours ago, SWilson said:

I am pretty new to CO2 as well, so just regurgitating research here but I read on a number of other forums that the liquid CO2 checkers were generally inaccurate (but good to have as a quick way to tell if anything is really out of whack -- so I'm not saying you shouldn't use it), but a better way to know how much CO2 you should be using is to measure the pH before you start Co2, then then measure it again the pH after your Co2 has been running for at least 4 hours -- you are aiming for the pH to drop by 1.  If your pH is dropping more than 1 you may risk Co2 poisoning to your livestock.  

There are great writeups and tips on the 2 Hour Aquarist website, and I'm sure there are AC blogs and videos on this too -- I followed Cory's video on how to set up the CO2 system in the first place.  There is a section in George Farmer's Aquascaping book on it too that's pretty helpful, including a chart that shows roughly how much CO2 you're getting based on that pH difference.  And you'll wanna observe for plant growth/health too. 

I have been running my CO2 for about 2 and a half weeks (my partner got it for me as an xmas gift - one thing I probably wouldn't have splurged on myself).  I started out slow becuase I was paranoid about CO2 affecting the fish.  I found that 1 bubble per second gets my pH to drop by about .8.  I also found that putting the diffuser on the opposite side of the tank as my HOB created better dispersion of the CO2 bubbles.  And I run the CO2 for about an hour before my lights come on, and I run it for about 5 hours a day.  At first, I had the lights going for only 6 hours a day (i.e., shutting off one hour after the CO2 was done).    

My goal is to go back with tinkering with the CO2 and lights this week (I have been distracted the last two weeks with one of my fish being sick and been busy at work), so I'd be happy to report back anything else I learn.  Feel free to message me, and I can share those resources I mentioned.  

Good luck!  

This is an awesome reply, thank you so, so very much!!!! I will dive in these info and advices for sure. And yup... you can expect a few DM/question in the futur!

[johnjohnjohn87]

9 hours ago, Karen B. said:

I hear you about the regulator being about impossible to really fine tune. I am home right now so I don’t mind turning it on in the morning and spending like 5 minutes trying to get the right flow 🤪

I am not sure how long I will use co2 - not sure I am hardcore enough for that. It’s mainly to speed up the growth  of my plants to be the best environment for my fish that requires heavily planted tanks. And control algea. Kinda losing that fight. Will have to read more about that.

I am with you however - if I ever decide to continue on the long turn, it will be a system with a solenoid for sure!!!

You know, the funny thing about this is that I’ll compulsively check mine for a few days dialing things in (thanks, covid). But once it is set (on a Kasa timer), I won’t check it for weeks unless I’m troubleshooting something. One tip is to wait 5 minutes between adjustments to make sure everything doesn’t move because the adjustments are so tiny. 
 

You can absolutely get this working!!! Don’t give up!

 

The other thing is that CO2 expands the range of light intensity useful to the plants (Denis Wong), so if you’re not blasting everything with light and your fish aren’t gasping... You are doing just fine! Lower light plus CO2 is an awesome place to be. I didn’t start finding algae problems for myself until I cranked the lights up. I’m Ok with working through these issues because I want a specific result now. 
 

edit: the sources I trust for high-tech information are

2hraquarist (Dennis Wong)

barrreport (Tom Barr) 

Green Aqua on YouTube 

Edited January 11, 2021 by johnjohnjohn87