# Newbie, struggling to attain green drop checker colour



## Jack G (2 Mar 2018)

Hi all,

New here! but have been reading this site religiously for the last few months as I set up my first planted fish tank. I would just like to say a massive thank you to everyone who contributes to this site as it has been my primary source of both information and inspiration.

I am having a slight issue with my Co2 injection and am unable to get my Co2 Drop checker fluid to turn to anything resembling green. I have double checked the fluid by blowing into the checker which turned it green within a minute. However, when it sits in my tank it remains blue throughout the day.

My set up is a 60L Tetra Aqua Art (why did I chose this tank shape!?!) with an external tetratec ex800. I'm currently using a DIY Co2 citric acid system with an in tank glass diffuser placed directly under the filter intake. I've been steadily increasing the bubble rate and had it at 1.5 BPS yesterday with no visible change in fluid colour.

My spraybar is placed along the back of the tank angled slightly towards the surface so I have a reasonable amount of surface agitation. 

Any advice on what I might be doing wrong or how I could improve Co2 injection and distribution would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

(P.S eventually I will upgrade to a FE Co2 system but money is a bit tight at the moment and I have copious amounts of citric acid to use  )

All the best
Jack


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## Tim Harrison (2 Mar 2018)

Hi Jack, and welcome.
Just keep increasing the bubble rate steadily until the drop checker turns lime green, and perhaps reduce surface agitation, if it's too strong it'll degas your CO2.
The drop checker needs to be lime green at lights on and all the way till lights off.


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## ian_m (2 Mar 2018)

Try using a FE CO2 system . You will, as you have found out, stuggle to get any decent amount of CO2 into the water.
Increase the CO2 rate as clearly not getting in the water.
Angle the spray bar down to reduce CO2 loss.
Place the generator in a heated bucket of water to improve output.
Make sure CO2 is off at night, as plants don't consume CO2 at night. An air stone on at CO2 off times is another way to gas off excess CO2.


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## Edvet (2 Mar 2018)

Jack G said:


> Co2 citric acid system


This will be used best in a "low light, low tech"kind of setup. It will help in that situation, but lightlevels can't be that high 1) to little CO2 production, 2) risk varying CO2 levels.
You can make a beautifull planted tank with it but treat it as a non CO2 tank to avoid algae.
If you can afford the FE system you can gradually add more light and iuncrease CO2 levels

Btw tell more about your DC fluid. Is it 4 KH?


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## Jack G (3 Mar 2018)

Thanks for the advice guys!

I'll adjust the spraybar to reduce the surface agitation as well as increasing the bubble rate. Hopefully this will have an effect. 

Hi Edvet, I think my tank would definitely qualify as low light its currently fitted with the LED light included in the tetra set. Its an 8W lamp and is pretty dim! I emailed tetra asking for some more info on light quality (umols etc.) but they were unable to provide me with anymore info.

Drop checker is filled with 4dKH solution and 2-3 drops of Bromothymol blue liquid.


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## Edvet (3 Mar 2018)

Okay, so not getting a green/yellow Dc won't harm.


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