Hi
I am injecting my CO2 via a in tank ceramic diffuser, I'm now cleaning it each week and its producing a fine mist. The whole tank looks fizzy now, I'm even now getting a film of CO2 bubbles on the surface, which is odd as I do have good surface agitation.
My tank is 200 litres, low light I presume, moderately planted, I'm just waiting for the plants to take off properly as there all quite small still.
So the problem is around the last 2-3 hours of the photoperiod my fish start acting strange, they either hide in a corner, or they seem to stay in one spot and just gasp, there mouths move rapid, its not natural behaviour I can see there obviously having problems breathing right. I know how to fix the problem, I just turn CO2 down... but I have never ever achieved a green drop checker in this tank and after going through a brown diatom mess I am now concentrating on flow and most importantly CO2 which is now why I'm facing this issue again. My safe level for the fish is 1BPS. When I go to 1.3 or 1.5 my fish don't like it. I guess different ppm levels can be more toxic to fish in different tanks as there are many things that play a role? so maybe using the green drop checker as a guide is not a good guide for me, until my plants spread out more, then maybe I should try to increase.
Is it worse to have CO2 bubbles everywhere in a tank? aka do the fish struggle more because its not dissolved and the bubbles are more concentrated? Someone please help me with that question as I'm paranoid.
I know many people on here use inline so maybe its more safe for the fish as the bubbles have dissolved before it reaches the output, and there for the CO2 is now dissolved so its not covering the fish in loads of concentrated CO2 bubbles.
I've always had this problem since the beginning of my tank, its been planted differently at certain times but always been a issue. when I had a 90l my drop checker was always green at 1BPS. 2BPS on this 200l, my fish would die, I've already lost some fish to this and enough is enough now, that's why I'm thinking of just using liquid carbon instead.
I've also tried the diffuser in my filter, I see quite a lot of CO2 was getting trapped, and all night the filters were making a noise, also the fish still acted strange with that method. ( 2x internal filters )
I'm sure I read 30ppm of CO2 is safe for fish and inhabitants, so if my drop checker is still a light blue and not green, but yet my fish act odd, and Its still blue, something is either wrong with my drop checker, or the co2 bubbles are more deadly to fish, or my plants are not big enough to produce enough oxygen to keep a balance in the tank.
I'm also using a pre mixed 4dkh solution which use to work great on my old tank, so I think its the real stuff. Hope someone can just let me know on why I'm having this problem.
I am injecting my CO2 via a in tank ceramic diffuser, I'm now cleaning it each week and its producing a fine mist. The whole tank looks fizzy now, I'm even now getting a film of CO2 bubbles on the surface, which is odd as I do have good surface agitation.
My tank is 200 litres, low light I presume, moderately planted, I'm just waiting for the plants to take off properly as there all quite small still.
So the problem is around the last 2-3 hours of the photoperiod my fish start acting strange, they either hide in a corner, or they seem to stay in one spot and just gasp, there mouths move rapid, its not natural behaviour I can see there obviously having problems breathing right. I know how to fix the problem, I just turn CO2 down... but I have never ever achieved a green drop checker in this tank and after going through a brown diatom mess I am now concentrating on flow and most importantly CO2 which is now why I'm facing this issue again. My safe level for the fish is 1BPS. When I go to 1.3 or 1.5 my fish don't like it. I guess different ppm levels can be more toxic to fish in different tanks as there are many things that play a role? so maybe using the green drop checker as a guide is not a good guide for me, until my plants spread out more, then maybe I should try to increase.
Is it worse to have CO2 bubbles everywhere in a tank? aka do the fish struggle more because its not dissolved and the bubbles are more concentrated? Someone please help me with that question as I'm paranoid.
I know many people on here use inline so maybe its more safe for the fish as the bubbles have dissolved before it reaches the output, and there for the CO2 is now dissolved so its not covering the fish in loads of concentrated CO2 bubbles.
I've always had this problem since the beginning of my tank, its been planted differently at certain times but always been a issue. when I had a 90l my drop checker was always green at 1BPS. 2BPS on this 200l, my fish would die, I've already lost some fish to this and enough is enough now, that's why I'm thinking of just using liquid carbon instead.
I've also tried the diffuser in my filter, I see quite a lot of CO2 was getting trapped, and all night the filters were making a noise, also the fish still acted strange with that method. ( 2x internal filters )
I'm sure I read 30ppm of CO2 is safe for fish and inhabitants, so if my drop checker is still a light blue and not green, but yet my fish act odd, and Its still blue, something is either wrong with my drop checker, or the co2 bubbles are more deadly to fish, or my plants are not big enough to produce enough oxygen to keep a balance in the tank.
I'm also using a pre mixed 4dkh solution which use to work great on my old tank, so I think its the real stuff. Hope someone can just let me know on why I'm having this problem.
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