# co2 circulations?



## mfcphil (24 Nov 2009)

Forget the lack of plants as I am trying to get the flow correct before adding more plants

Full Tank






Tank Right

Hydor Koralia used to send the Co2 on its way araound the tank....The Juwell filter is to be removed and I have bought a Eheim Compact 2000 to place in that corner






Tank Left

I Had flow problems around this area so I have added a Spray bar to my Fluval 305 to give a little better circulation around that side...the fow seems to be better going in a loop all the way around.






I will always listen to your advice


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## andyh (24 Nov 2009)

Hello

Looks good in principle and you are right to be concerned about flow in a planted tank.

However, at this early stage its relatively easy to get the flow/co2 traveling round your tank, its once you fill it with plants, rocks and whatever else takes your fancy, that the challenge really begins as all these things will inevitably will reduce flow.

I normally have my external filter return say in the back right blowing from right to left, then my powerhead on the front left blowing left to right. This creates a good circular flow as a start point, however may not be ideal once you have tall stems in.

You will be constantly tweaking it, to eliminate dead spots  

Hope this helps :?:   

andyh


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## ceg4048 (24 Nov 2009)

I think it's a really bad idea to mount a spraybar vertically. Looks like you got BGA up front except along the axis of the spraybar. Flow from the bar on left conflicts with flow from the right where the Koralia is. Try mounting the spraybar horizontally along the back and play with the Koralia's position so that it's flow is either additive or at least complimentary. Are you dosing enough NO3? What total flow rating to have relative to tank size? How much light do you have?

Cheers,


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## mfcphil (24 Nov 2009)

What do you mean by 





> additive or at least complimentary



Tank Juwel Vision 180 litres bowed front

Potassium Nitrate & Potassium Phosphate (SAME BOTTLE)
Potassium Nitrate 39g to 500ml for the solution
Potassium Phosphate 30g to 500ml for the solution

dosage = 25ml 3 times per week

Trace
18g to 500ml for the solution

dosage = 25ml 3 times per week


Mon â€“ Trace
Tue - Fert
Wed - Trace
Thur -Fert
Fri â€“ Trace
Sat - nothing
Sun - 50 % water change THEN Ferts


Light 2 times Juwel T5 about 8 hours a day...Co2 on 1 hour before lights come on and goes off 1 hour before they go off.


As I said I am listening to all your advice so I will move the spray bar. Thounght it was moving the Co2 away from the plants and there was a dead spot in the bottom left front corner


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## ceg4048 (24 Nov 2009)

Well, additive means the the two sources of flow are pushing in the same general direction so that their energies combine to move water in that direction. If one is pushing water to the right while the other is pushing water to the left, you just have a collision and the two flows tend cancel each other's energy out, so they subtract from each other. You want to create a flow like that in a river, where the majority of the flow is along the same direction.

In the case where you mounted the spraybar vertically, can you imagine what happens when the water impinges on the front glass? Some flow squirts out to the left and stalls against the left wall, some squirts out to the right, but it collides with the flow from the Koralia and stalls. Some flow squirts above or below and collides with the flow coming from the holes above and below. So in general the movement of water coming from the vertically oriented  bar is incoherent, because water squirts out in every direction and weakens the total energy, especially if it conflicts with the movement coming from the Koralia.

A better idea is to aim for uniform flow, where all the energies are headed along the same path. If you mount the bar horizontally and point the holes level or very slightly down, you are creating flow distributed along a greater section of the tank. The water impinges on the front glass and most of the energy heads downward to the bottom. A little escapes off to the left and right but generally in the same direction from each hole. The downward flow the hits the gravel and has a greater tendency to be deflected to the back. Again, you do lose some to the left and right, but that's OK. If the flow is strong enough it then hits the back wall and rises up along the back wall.

It's by no means perfect and you need a strong flow rating from the filter but you can, for example mount the Koralia on the back wall pointing diagonally or pointing forward in the same direction. If your filter is strong enough you can add a second bar to give greater coverage along the tanks length and this will lower the velocity of the jets as they exit each hole.

You really have to play around with positioning of each pump/filter outlet, and don't forget that you should experiment with different placement of the diffuser, depending on aesthetics as well as effectiveness. If this is a 180L tank then the 10X rule says you need 1800LPH of flow "rating" ideally.

I've never had a bow front so I can't say how this affects the flow distribution. The bottom line with flow is that a majority of the plants should gently sway in the current. As biomass increases the flow becomes more critical.

Shouldn't the dosing be 40 ml 3X per week? You may want to double check that.

Cheers,


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## mfcphil (24 Nov 2009)

Thanks very much for the great input I will change it around before I get any more plants.

The Ferts are at 25ml 3X per weeks...this was taken on advice also, do you thing I should up them to 40 ml 3X per week?

I would like to keep the ferts at 25ml simply because its easier...so what do you think would be the recomended amount of powders to the 500ml bottle?


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## mfcphil (24 Nov 2009)

Juwel corner filer removed joint spray bar added horizontally.
 Eheim Compact Pump arrives this week and will be added for more flo, although not sure where to put it


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## ceg4048 (24 Nov 2009)

mfcphil said:
			
		

> Thanks very much for the great input I will change it around before I get any more plants.
> 
> The Ferts are at 25ml 3X per weeks...this was taken on advice also, do you thing I should up them to 40 ml 3X per week?
> 
> I would like to keep the ferts at 25ml simply because its easier...so what do you think would be the recomended amount of powders to the 500ml bottle?


Well really, you know, you ought to get more plants in there as quickly as possible instead of waiting for everything to be just right. Waiting for things to be just right is really is having the cart before the horse. More plants help to stabilize the tank faster. If the dosing strategy is easier for you then stay with it but watch out for deficiencies. Since you're still playing with the flow we might assume for now that the BGA is flow related but if it continues after that then you have to look at increasing the NO3 levels. I see dark spots on two leaves of the foreground crypt. Is that algae or just debris?

I think the mixture is OK since we can call this a 40G so that's double the reference tank dosing numbers. It's just that normally, for EI, that 500ml should be for 12 servings, so 500ml/12 is around 40ml per dose.

Cheers,


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## mfcphil (24 Nov 2009)

Ok will up the dosage to 40ml 3x a week   

My Eheim Compact 2000 Pump has just arrived any nice tips as where to put it?

Oh and just waiting for plants to come


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## Mortis (24 Nov 2009)

Point the Koralia down a bit so that when it pushes the CO2 bubbles left, it also pushes them down so that they take longer to reach  the surface, giving them more time to dissolve


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## mfcphil (24 Nov 2009)

moved it to the corner is that better


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## ceg4048 (25 Nov 2009)

Yeah, that looks like a good baseline configuration. Play with the angles; straight ahead, slightly down, slightly inboard and so forth. Make sure all the plants sway a bit. Leave it for a bit and make another change. We can only tell you _theoretically_ what ought to be. The solution in that particular tank might be different in the end. I'll crumble up small amounts of flake food, throw them in, and see how they particles move and where they end up. That helps you to visualize the flow if you get cross-eyed watching the bubbles.   

Cheers,


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## mfcphil (6 Dec 2009)

One alteration needed!

The Fluval 305 really was not working with enough pressure to use the full length spray bar so I replaced the normal Fluval end and added the Eheim Compact 2000 Pump and attached the spray bar to that

I will work on the flo direction as you advised.

Many Thanks again


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## mfcphil (6 Dec 2009)

Think the new flow is a big improvement...Still getting the smelly Blue-green Smear algae in the substrate   
I am picking it out before water changes....on-going battle!


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