# Going from timed to 24/7 co2



## hotweldfire (14 Aug 2012)

Hello all,

I have a lunapet solenoid that has been working fine for the last few months until today. I.e. power is off to it and co2 is still running. I have plugged in, waited, unplugged, waited, repeated. No change in bubble rate. Perhaps or perhaps not coincidentally I swapped JBL co2 bottles this morning. Those of you who use them will know that they have their own  valve. I didn't turn off the main valve on my reg before turning on the jbl bottle valve so possible that the sudden burst of pressure broke something in the solenoid. Unlikely though as power to solenoid was on so it was open.

Anyway, whilst waiting for a new solenoid from lunapet I have no choice but to go 24/7 co2. Problem is I don't know what rate to set it at. Tank was running at exactly 3bps (according to tmc bubble counter) on a 125l tank using UP inline diffuser. Had co2 come on at 11am, lights on at 2pm, co2 off at 4:30pm, lights off at 8pm. So 6hr photoperiod and 5hrs of co2.

Can anybody give me an educated guess as to what an equivalent 24/7 co2 rate would be that won't be gassing my fish in the middle of the night? Obviously that's my main concern but don't want to melt all my plants by starting uber low to be safe either. Anybody running 24/7 on a similar size tank tell me what their bubble rate is?


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## chump54 (15 Aug 2012)

hey, try a little monkey magic and give it a sharp tap with something hard... mine gets stuck occasionally and giving it a light whack gets it going again.

sorry I can't help with the bubble rates...

Chris


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## MisterB (15 Aug 2012)

i cant really help with the bubble rate. 

my lunapet solenoid broke after a day, and for a few days till i bought my aqua medic one i was just shutting off the main valve on the bottle. are you able to do that? or wont you be present to do so? just an idea.


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## hotweldfire (15 Aug 2012)

Thanks both. I approached the solenoid with a spanner in my hand this morning aiming to teach it a lesson but it had already decided to sort itself out and was working again. Bizarre. Let's hope it doesn't die again when I'm at work tomorrow.


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## Antipofish (16 Aug 2012)

Hope Lunapet are still sending you a replacement  ? They are a very good company and they sorted me out very quickly.


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## chump54 (16 Aug 2012)

you should keep an eye on it to make sure its turning off... 

Chris


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## geoffbark (17 Aug 2012)

The bubble rate you have should be fine for 24hr running, depending on how much surface agitation you have. When we inject co2 with a timer the idea is that the co2 concentration rises quickly to around 30ppm and then levels off. It  will then maintain this level, the only way to change the level is to either inject more co2, shut off solinoid (night time) or agitate surface let more oxygen in.

There are some benifts to not having co2 on at night.


For me you can do 1 of several things

-1 24/7 running as you suggested.
-2  pop to my local lfs and pick up a new solinoid, this way you will always carry a spare should this happen in the future.
-3  manually turn co2 tank on and off. ( this may mean dissconnecting connecting, depending on co2 bottle)
-4  keep lights off until replacement comes (no co2).

I would do point 2

and remember if you go with point 1 check your fish every hour


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## Nathaniel Whiteside (17 Aug 2012)

True Geoff,
That feeling when you see All your fish gasping at the top! Thinking about it makes me shudder.


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## hotweldfire (17 Aug 2012)

I'm confused. Surely if it's running 24/7 then the level will end up much higher? Surely it only levels off when using timed co2 because the plants are using what you pump in for the few hours you pump it in. If you're injecting at the same level for four times the duration aren't you adding loads more co2?

Sent from my GT-P7310 using Tapatalk 2


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## tim (17 Aug 2012)

i would say yes much more drop the bubble rate and try to find a bubble rate that keeps plants and fish happy im running co2 24/7 on my edge at the moment to compensate for natural light the tank recieves took a bit of tweaking dc stays green algae receded fish happy


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## geoffbark (17 Aug 2012)

hotweldfire said:
			
		

> I'm confused. Surely if it's running 24/7 then the level will end up much higher? Surely it only levels off when using timed co2 because the plants are using what you pump in for the few hours you pump it in. If you're injecting at the same level for four times the duration aren't you adding loads more co2?
> 
> Sent from my GT-P7310 using Tapatalk 2




I cant say for sure that you would have to reduce or increase your co2 rate.

Many people use yeast co2 and therefore are on 24/7

They dont adjust their bubble rate they find the balance between co2 and o2 and leave it there.

I cant explain it very well but if you ask one of the experts they will.

If you are set on dosing 24/7 and are worried about gassing fish over night. Drop a power head in on a timer to kick in and produce oxygen while lights are off to over come the co2 injection


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## Antipofish (17 Aug 2012)

Don't forget Saj, the CO2 does not stay in the tank, it gasses off by gaseous exchange at the surface. So as geoffbark said, you can run a powerhead to move the surface.  Personally I would imagine needing to reduce the input level but not by direct proportion.  IE If you are tripling the duration you would not cut the input back to a third.  Not much help but hopefully you get the gist of what Im on about lol


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## tim (18 Aug 2012)

We add much more gas using a soleniod before lights on to reach that lime drop checker if this was run 24/7 I would expect fish deaths reason yeast runs 24/7 is it'd be hard to come close to required co2 levels to gas fish and keep a yeast mix running for any length of time I've cut my bps by half to run 24/7 hope this is of use


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## hotweldfire (18 Aug 2012)

Yeah, started by reducing down to about a quarter and it was woefully inadequate. Lots of melt. Slowly upping and currently at about a third. Will crank up again tomorrow.


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