Bubble per second seems quite high?

[fishbro]

Hey guys, recently got a gas system set up on my 200L aquarium. It's moderately planted at the moment, nothing too crazy yet.

I have been tweaking the co2 rate every day and trying to get it juuuust right, but it seems that whatever I do the drop checker never goes beyond dark green. I've moved it around the tank a few times and it doesn't really make a difference. The other day it did seem to lighten up near the end of the day and all the plants started pearling nicely, but today it's still on dark green etc (annoying because I thought I had it just right in the end). A few of the plants are pearling slightly but I know the co2 isn't right yet.

The bps currently is at 4 which seems pretty high? The diffuser is located underneath the spray bar so as the bubbles rise they get pushed around the whole tank, distribution seems ok. It turns on about 2 hours before the lights come on. I have a reasonably high stock of fish in the tank, all seem perfectly fine so I am confident I am not overdosing it.

Is there anything I should be looking out for that will help the co2 dissolve in the water better? The pressure going to the diffuser right now is about 30 psi, it's a Aquario Neo Air Diffuser (large). Maybe I should try a different diffuser, psi or location for it?

If anyone has any advice it would be much appreciated!

 

[Zeus.]

BPS only gives an indication of the injection rate not the amount of CO2 being injected.

A BPS of 4 isnt high for a 200l tank, my 500l has an insane BPS

You may also find 2hrs pre lights on isn't enough to get a decent pH drop.

Investing in a pH pen or some decent pH testing papers is the best way to get the pH profile right. Need to take pH pre CO2 on every 30mins till CO2 off.

Aims of profile, which is hard to get right.
1. Get 1.0pH drop before lights on
2. pH stable once lights on till CO2 off.

 

[ian_m]

Is there anything I should be looking out for that will help the co2 dissolve in the water better?

Without using a inline diffuser or CO2 reactor you are probably the best you are likely to get using an in tank diffuser. In tank diffusers typically will require a lot higher injection rate than inline diffusers or reactors, possibly x2 or more the rate. Most of the gas just gasses of before it has a chance to dissolve, which looks like it is clearly true in your case.

Ways forwards are:
- Carry on as, accept high gas usage rate as a fact of life from in tank diffuser. (get a bigger CO2 bottle ?).
- Perform a pH profile, using pH probe to see how much pH drops when CO2 is injected. A drop of 1pH corresponds to about 30ppm CO2.
- Observe the plants, are they OK ?
- Weigh your CO2 bottle before CO2 on and after CO2 off, to determine how much CO2 you are injecting. I roughly use 0.015gr per litre tank water per hour CO2 on.
- Change to inline diffuser.
- Use/make a CO2 reactor.

Zeus beat me to it posting a replay, but see the post on his journal about his CO2 reactors.
https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/olympus-is-calling-broken-pump.43046/page-5#post-496893

 

[fishbro]

Thanks for the responses guys! That's quite reassuring to know. I was just a bit worried about gassing my fish as 4bps appeared a lot to me initially, but wow Zeus that is a lot of bubbles

I nudged the needle valve up a little bit at lunchtime and I see the drop check is showing a paler / yellower green now (might be perfect actually). I'll try and get a ph tester to profile the tank, taking the guesswork out of water conditions is always good in my eyes!

The other day I did purchase the new inline diffuser from co2art (https://www.co2art.eu/collections/c...quarium-atomizer-diffuser-system-16-22mm-hose), but I haven't used it yet. Was a little wary of putting something inline in case of leaks. I've had a filter dump the contents of my previous 60L tank before many years ago, so for the longest time I didn't even touch canister filters. I have its monthly clean on my to do list for the weekend so perhaps I will add the diffuser on the return line and see how it goes.

Right now I am using a 1.5kg bottle of co2, but I hope I can squeeze a 3kg in next time. Space under the tank is very tight though (just added an auto doser for ferts so even less space now!)

Thank you

 

[ian_m]

Was a little wary of putting something inline in case of leaks

I replaced the filter pipe locking nuts on my Up inline atomiser with stainless steel jubilee clips. This was after I accidentally pulled the pipe out whilst fiddling once and caused a minor flood, behind and under my tank . Been like that since 2013 odd and fine.

 

[Majsa]

Just wanted to add that bubble rates are relative even in the same tank I have the JBL Proflora inline diffuser and a "regular" bubble counter connected and the regular one gives a way slower bubble rate than the Proflora one. I count only these bigger bubbles.

 

[fishbro]

Thanks for the replies I just switched to a bazooka diffuser and it seems to be far more effective at dissolving the co2 into the water. The co2 bubble are so fine they are difficult to see and it's making barely any noise compared to my old one which is a bonus. My plants started pearling pretty soon after lights on compared with only starting a couple of hours before the lights go off. I have also been able to get the bps just right, it's somewhere between 3 and 4 per second which for the size of tank actually seems ok from what I've seen now

 

[Chris Tinker]

BPS only gives an indication of the injection rate not the amount of CO2 being injected.

A BPS of 4 isnt high for a 200l tank, my 500l has an insane BPS

You may also find 2hrs pre lights on isn't enough to get a decent pH drop.

Investing in a pH pen or some decent pH testing papers is the best way to get the pH profile right. Need to take pH pre CO2 on every 30mins till CO2 off.

Aims of profile, which is hard to get right.
1. Get 1.0pH drop before lights on
2. pH stable once lights on till CO2 off.

care to show us how you have linked the CO2 to the outlet pipe from the filter? looks tidy!

 

[Chris Tinker]

Thanks for the responses guys! That's quite reassuring to know. I was just a bit worried about gassing my fish as 4bps appeared a lot to me initially, but wow Zeus that is a lot of bubbles

I nudged the needle valve up a little bit at lunchtime and I see the drop check is showing a paler / yellower green now (might be perfect actually). I'll try and get a ph tester to profile the tank, taking the guesswork out of water conditions is always good in my eyes!

The other day I did purchase the new inline diffuser from co2art (https://www.co2art.eu/collections/c...quarium-atomizer-diffuser-system-16-22mm-hose), but I haven't used it yet. Was a little wary of putting something inline in case of leaks. I've had a filter dump the contents of my previous 60L tank before many years ago, so for the longest time I didn't even touch canister filters. I have its monthly clean on my to do list for the weekend so perhaps I will add the diffuser on the return line and see how it goes.

Right now I am using a 1.5kg bottle of co2, but I hope I can squeeze a 3kg in next time. Space under the tank is very tight though (just added an auto doser for ferts so even less space now!)

Thank you

did this not work well then? got a link to what you bought and found worked?

 

[Zeus.]

care to show us how you have linked the CO2 to the outlet pipe from the filter? looks tidy!

Full details in Journal Olympus is calling

 

[Chris Tinker]

Full details in Journal Olympus is calling

wow just wow

 

[Jayefc1]

That looks insane lol

 

[ian_m]

Really simple really, just make sure any fittings you put in "loop" do not reduce the cross sectional area of the 25mm pipe. No point spending £££ on monster FX6 filter then clobbering its monsterous flow rate squeezing through 16mm pipe.

25mm pipe cross sectional area is (25/2)^2 * π = 490mm2

16mm pipe cross sectional area is (16/2)^2 * π = 200mm2

So will (within reason) a 16mm pipe will reduce flow to 200/490 -> 40%.

So any time a 16mm diffuser, 16mm reactor or 16mm heater is to be used, you need to at least double up 16mm piping and more. This is why Zeus has parallel CO2 diffusers and a suitable bypass so as to not lower the total cross sectional area below 490mm2.