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29g tank, light - med planted right now but will eventually go towards med - heavy planted tank. running 3wpg 5500k lights. how many bubbles per second of CO2 should i have it set at? i am currently doing 0.5 bps right now simply just because i want to give the tank more time to adapt (ph and softness drop)...

i was told 1bps is a pretty good place to start, but if i am not that heavy on the plants yet should i just stay at 0.5bps?

Hi,
You are looking at this kinda backwards.
Before starting check your pH and KH readings and
write them down.
Start at 1 bubble/second for about an hour and watch
your pH reading. As the CO2 saturation increases the
pH will drop. As time goes by keep an eye on the pH
and check it on a chart against your known KH reading.
This will give you your CO2 saturation reading.
W/O injection, it should be around 5mg/l and as the
pH drops, the saturation will rise.
You want a CO2 saturation between 15 and 30mg/l for the
most growth.

Here is a link to the chart and more information:
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_co2chart.htm

Watch the tank, off and on, for several hours. If the
initial setting of 1 bps does not take you to 30mg/l,
then increase it to, say two bps.
If it is more than 30mg/l then decrease the bps slightly.

Don't worry about the quantity of plants, or the fish as
far as the CO2 VS Oxygen is concerned. The way to tell
when there is not enuff O2 in the tank, is to look at the
tank, early in the morning, just before the lights come on
after being off all night long. IF your fish are all
gasping at the surface then your CO2 saturation is too high.
Cut the bps back a bit, and add an air stone or something
to rile up the surface of the water for a while till the
fish stop gasping at the surface.

Hope this helps...
Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

oh yeah, forgot about the chart. just did the readings got a 11.6, so i cranked it to 1bps now... will test again in an hour

thanks

o00o0 just noticed, my algae on the walls started bubbling (pearling) /:'