# Jbl M603 with ph control has anyone got any experiece with o



## lindacoates80 (18 May 2009)

Hi ,I have treated myself to one of these as  i wanted to get myself a pressurised co2 system. I have a Juwel rio 240 tank, which is filtered using an Eheim 2026 external filter, and i have an Arcadia ot2 luminaire  4x54w providing lighting.The substrate is fine 1-3mm dorset pea. It arrived this morning and i have it installed i have calibrated the probe and done as  the book says but no co2 is coming through and my ph is reading 8.5. I dont want to have to get rid of the ph controller if possible and would like some help in what to do, the controller is flashing, the instruction manual is double dutch to me!!! Will it start putting co2 into the tank when my ph levels drop to nearer 7? Any help would be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance Linda.


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## aaronnorth (18 May 2009)

hi, generally the pH drops by about 1pH, then rises agin when turned off at night (if you have a solenoid). This isnt a problem and fish are subject to this in the wild.
this thread might be useful:
viewtopic.php?f=37&t=3701&hilit=ph+controller


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## JohnC (20 May 2009)

Hi Linda,

You sent me a PM but it seems to have deleted itself from the inbox on these forums. In the thread aaronnorth pointed out you can see i've just taken my ph controller off my jbl setup because frankly the whole thing works better without it. Plus the probe is very annoying to calibrate and setup properly.

Plug the solinoid into a timer which puts the CO2 on for the duration of your lights and your plants will get a more consistant CO2 supply. This will give you a constant supply of CO2 during the part when the plants are using it, then during the night when they absorb O2 and give off CO2 you dont over gass them. 

When i first put my CO2 on my tank i had all manner of issues and confusion about how to use it. Asking many questions helped me out.

If you have not already invest in some KH4 solutions for your drop checker... This will give a better colour reading for the target 30ppm CO2 then the chart which is in the books JBL supply.  The KH/PH relationship can be inaccutate as other things in your tank can effect your PH, i think you mentioned something about your gravel raising your ph? if so don't use this as as be all and end all of what your CO2 levels are at...

more info here and other places...
http://www.aquascapingworld.com/magazine/July-2008/July08/Understanding-the-pH-KH-Relationship.html

The JBL kit i got and you probably have came with a spiral CO2 reactor, this is where u count the bubbles, but it does take a while for it to "run in" so you can read them properly, so adjust the small silver dial on the from of the value till you see bubbles coming up the ladder, for the first couple of days of use keep this turned down, so that just the occasional bubble comes through. After a while a film builds up on the path of the bubble up the reactor and the whole thing becomes more predictable. From the brief read of the mail on my phone email (which got deleted by accident) you mentioned bubbles coming through about half the size of a 5p, was that from the spout at the top or coming up the spiral? if it is the second one of those that is a direct result of the spiral not being run in yet.

In summary, adjust the CO2 on the dial on the front of the value, turn it down to almost off for the first day or so to run the reactor in so you can count the bubbles accurately or at least see even size bubbles going up the spiral. Get the KH4 solution for your drop checker (assuming you havnt already) and use that by turning the CO2 up slightly over a few days to hit the target level of CO2.

I've replaced my reactor (spiral thingy) with a ceramic diffuser now as i think it give better CO2 economy.

Couple of last points....

How planted is your tank?
Can we see some piccys?   

Best regards,
John

p.s Hope i don't sound patronising at all, i only got a brief read of your message and it sounded like you were a touch lost. I'm happy to answer questions from my experience, and so are many more here with much more indepth knowledge then me.  8)


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## JohnC (20 May 2009)

lindacoates80 said:
			
		

> I dont want to have to get rid of the ph controller if possible and would like some help in what to do, the controller is flashing, the instruction manual is double dutch to me!!! Will it start putting co2 into the tank when my ph levels drop to nearer 7? Any help would be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance Linda.



On some specific points here...

The manual is rubbish...
I don't have a clue what it means when it is flashing, how often and at what screen?

The general way of using it is to set the dosing limit it injects CO2 down to. On my tank, the tap water was PH 7.2, since the relationship between ph/kh was being sqewed by the huge amounts of phosphate in my tap water i ended up setting it to dose down to 6.2. This made my drop checker go green and the fish were ok with it. But this did happen in two stages over a few months. And my tank was heavily planted so there was alot of O2 in the water so they didnt gasp.

I took the controller off a couple of weeks back as it broke, but also the CO2 was only coming on for a few hours a day, as the PH controller was being missled by other acids in the water. So my CO2 supply wasnt constant and that promoted some algae and slower, poorer plant growth. The plants are much happyier now i just turn it on for 8 hours a day, off at night.

Best Regards,
John


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