# Drop checker green???



## newfyman (17 Apr 2008)

Hi all 
 My Co2 system has been up and running for 2 weeks and set at 1 bubble per second, I thought I would set it low to start with as I didnt have a drop checker . I got the jbl drop checker Tuesday from aqua essentials, with some 4Dkh water to set it up and after 3 hours, hey presto, nice and green! I then moved it to the opposite end of the tank, away from the Co2 and its still green!
 Question is, is it possible that my German Co2 kit , off ebay, with the 3000ltr diffuser being driven by an Ehiem pro 2, capable of putting enough Co2 into my 600ltr tank?
 The tank does have glass covers which will help but stil is 1 bubble per second enough?


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## daniel19831123 (17 Apr 2008)

That's useful to know. I don't have a drop checker at the moment but I'm running my 70 litre at 2 bps. Hopefully when the drop checker comes along it won't be showing yellow.


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## Ray (18 Apr 2008)

The reactors should be up to it.  The general advice is to start at 1bps and move slowly up from there until you get the lime green.  600L is a big tank so will likely need more than 1bps, but each bubble counter is different, its not a precise measure.  You need to allow a couple of hours between adjustments for things to stablise - you can watch the PH drop to see if things are moving.  Clive's article on CO2 http://www.ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=467 is essential reading for this.


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## GreenNeedle (18 Apr 2008)

And of course there are other things that come into play here:

Plant mass
Type of plants
Lighting
Fert Regime.

In other words a tank running full EI with high lighting using high light plants will use much more CO2 than a lean dosed tank with low light and low light plants.

Thus meaning that les needs to be 'replaced' each day.

Even on a large tank it is the 'replacement' amount that give you your bubble count because some CO2 wil remain in the water overnight.  If your tank setup requires less CO2 and some is still in the water then 1bps may be enough to 'replace' the missing amount to reach 30ppm.

Limeade would be 35-40ppm.  grass green to light green is 30ppm.  Hard to tell the difference enough to get accurate but I tend to keep mine dark to grass green as I prefer a little less than 30ppm.  Its not too much of a problem where your CO2 is as long as it isn't too low and is consistently at the level you choose.

Andy


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## Themuleous (18 Apr 2008)

I guess it could be, but I'd be surprised I have to say.

Sam


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## newfyman (19 Apr 2008)

Thanks for all your replies.
The lighting is 3 x 54w,T5  HO's with reflecters. The tank is heavily planted with the 72" collection from Greenline, they seem to be growing ok but I still haven't used any ferts. Could this be problem, the plants aren't using any CO2 as they are being limited by the lack of nutrients? The drop checker is constantly lime green ,night and day, even though it is switched off at night.
I will try to post a pic to show the amount and type of plants in the tank.


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## Garuf (19 Apr 2008)

Odd, its worth washing out your drop checker and using a fresh mix if that's the case, it should drop rather drastically over night provided your surface agitation is good and there's nothing decaying in there.


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## newfyman (19 Apr 2008)

The drop checker was put in the tank on Tuesday so it should still be ok. I've just put a new glass checker in now anyway, which I have placed deep, to see if co2 levels are good near the bottom as tank is 30" high. 
Dont have any surface agitation though as this would drive off the Co2. I think my tank holds Co2 well because of the glass covers, this gives a high air saturation of Co2 at the water surface providing a cushion between normal air co2 at the corners where it can escape and high co2 content of water ,hope this makes sense and is correct.The trade off though is that it will lose light efficiency through the cover glass.


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## newfyman (19 Apr 2008)

Hope this pic works, The drop checker I added 3 hrs ago near the bottom of tank is now also green


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## Themuleous (20 Apr 2008)

I do find I have to wash out my DC a couple of times with the 4dKH water.  If I use tap it seems to affect the concentration as when I add the reagent it runs green not blue like it should. Cleaning with 4dKH water a couple of times and the water turns blue like it should.

Sam


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## newfyman (20 Apr 2008)

Thanks Sam I didn,t rinse the jbl one but i did rinse the glass one but then dried it before putting the 4dkh water and two drops of the jbl regent in. Does everyone use the jbl regent, could it be this that is giving a false reading?


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## daniel19831123 (20 Apr 2008)

is it necessary to use 4 kH solution in the drop checker? And does the solution in the drop checker need to be change everytime you perform a water change?


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## ceg4048 (20 Apr 2008)

daniel19831123 said:
			
		

> is it necessary to use 4 kH solution in the drop checker? And does the solution in the drop checker need to be change everytime you perform a water change?



Yes, otherwise the other acids in the tank water affect the reading in the dropchecker. It's more accurate to say that you need distilled or RO  water adjusted to 4 kh. It's standard practice to change the solution at water change time but this is not set in concrete.

Cheers,


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## Themuleous (20 Apr 2008)

I change the water in the DC once a month when I clean out the external filter.  I don't think its necessary to change it more often.

Sam


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## GreenNeedle (20 Apr 2008)

I change 3 weekly (when I remember) and like Sam I rinse it a few times in the 4dKH so that I don't end up with 1ml of tapwater/3ml 4dKH as this gives out some funny colours sometimes.

Andy


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## Ed Seeley (20 Apr 2008)

newfyman said:
			
		

> Thanks Sam I didn,t rinse the jbl one but i did rinse the glass one but then dried it before putting the 4dkh water and two drops of the jbl regent in. Does everyone use the jbl regent, could it be this that is giving a false reading?



I use the JBL reagent and it has always been fine.  I don't tend to clean mine out as regularly as most people (generally I wait until the colour of the solution fades), but you do need to make sure you have rinsed out the drop checker well with 4dKH as otherwise, as has been said, you will effect the concentration of the solution.  This would apply even if you had been using RO water to rinse the drop checker as I have in the past.


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## Themuleous (20 Apr 2008)

I actually tried the reagent that is supplied with the CD from Aquaticmagic, and it seems to be the right stuff.  AQ bit dilute perhaps so you need more like 10 drops to get a decent colour but it gave exactly the same readings as the bromo blue from my API test kit.

Sam


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## daniel19831123 (20 Apr 2008)

Yikes so the stuff from AQ is off no good? I just bought one from them and it's on it's way here. So I will need to sourcefor another bromoethel blue?


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## Themuleous (21 Apr 2008)

Oh no you miss understand.  The stuff from AQ is fine, you just need to use more.  You'll see what I mean when you try it.  I needed 10 drops to get the same colour as the bromo blue.  That's not an issue I don't think 

Sam


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## JamesC (21 Apr 2008)

I'm not sure on this but adding indicator solution may affect the KH. The JBL drop checker I have uses 1ml of solution which is approximately equivalent to about 18 drops so adding another 10 drops of indicator will dilute the solution bringing the KH down to about 2.5 - (18/28 * 4 = 2.57).

The more KH solution used and the less indicator added the more accurate the test is likely to be.

Only a thought. Somebody else may know different.

James


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## Themuleous (22 Apr 2008)

Good point James, perhaps best to use as little as possible.

Sam


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