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Can't get co2 levels right, advice welcomed

DaveWatkin

Member
Joined
26 Oct 2020
Messages
223
Location
Aberdeen, UK
Currently injecting 1bps to my flex 15g which is way more than it would seem I need based on everything I have read. Using a tropica nano co2 system through a JBL bubble counter with a co2 supermarket bazooka diffuser.

My JBL indicator in the picture looks to be below 20ppm, am I missing something?

Could it be my indicator placement? Currently opposite side of the tank down low near the intake. Could the intake be effecting the reading?
 

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i have the same drop checker mine looks like that as well looks pretty useless to me i found if you shine a torch at it you can kind of make out the colour seems to take for ever to change colour as well... in the end after days of messing around i bought a half decent ph pen from amazon and done a ph profile your looking for a ph drop of 1 so i read at first i had a drop of 0.6 so added more i have a 100 litre now at 3bps green drop checkers and no fish dead seems to be good growth in plants
 
I would move it away from the intake and see what happens. If no change then increase your bubble rate by 1 until you see the color your looking for. As @Zeus. mentioned, bubble rate is different for everyone, and it varies even more depending on how your diffusing it into the tank.
 
Currently injecting 1bps to my flex 15g which is way more than it would seem I need based on everything I have read. Using a tropica nano co2 system through a JBL bubble counter with a co2 supermarket bazooka diffuser.

My JBL indicator in the picture looks to be below 20ppm, am I missing something?

Could it be my indicator placement? Currently opposite side of the tank down low near the intake. Could the intake be effecting the reading?

As mentioned above bubble sizes are different for different systems, and likewise the bubble rate required for different systems can vary depending on a variety of factors including surface movement and exchange, and plant mass etc. For my previous 60 litre high tech, I was at about 2.5bps with only moderate to low surface movement, so I imagine your 1bps rate is probably fairly low.

I use the same drop checker as you, and having tested a few, I think it is one of the best available. In terms of placement you want to try differing placements over time. To start with pick a place giving average flow - not right next to you filter outlet, but probably not right next to the intake either. Once you get the right colour on that via adjusting the CO2, you can then move the drop checker around to more remote positions on the tank - this is more a check on appropriate distribution of the water around you tank than absolute CO2 levels though.

If you have decent control over it, I would slowly increase your bubble rate - maybe around 0.5bps each day until you start to see a colour change. If necessary have the CO2 coming on 2-3 hours before lights on also if you haven't already.
 
I use the JBL reagent although with a different drop checker (a glass one).
As already mentioned, please consider the bubble counter merely in relative terms, in order to have a reference when increasing or decreasing, but never as an absolute measure.
To give you an example, I have a bubble counter next to the regulator and my in-tank diffuser also has a bubble counter. I count at least twice as bubbles in the bubble counter next to the regulator compared to the in-tank diffuser bubble counter! Therefore, when adjusting I simply look at one of them and adjust, either to increase or decrease. I keep a short video of the bubble counter in my cell phone in order to save a reference for future adjustments.

Hope this is useful.

Best
 
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