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I am doing a DIY CO2 generator. Reactor is my canister filter. The pH has dropped from 6.8 to 6.4

My kH is sitting at 4

I am using one 1 Gallon and one 2 liter coke bottle. 2 cups sugar and 1/4 bakers yeast

My rams were gasping for air because I had zero surface agitation. All the other fish such as loaches, Otos, and flagfish were fine.

I added a AQ 200 filter to keep some surface agitation on my tank.

So is my CO2 really 48 ppm?? Its pretty high if you ask me. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
FMZ

Anything above 30 is supposed to be toxic. I guess it could be that high.

Watch your pH with the surface aggitation, you may difuse the CO2 and pH may go back up. Plants are not creating enough oxygen or are you just dong this in the evening?

I am doing it constantly. Its kind of hard to believe that DIY can be so efficient without any reactor. My canister filter is acting as my reactor though

Yeah, I heard that it can damage your impellar in your filter that way. That's why I never tried it really. Probably breaks the bubbles up really nicely though. Your KH is right where it needs to be too. What kind of plants do you have? What lighting?

I wish I knew what kind of plants i have. I know I have Aponogentons bulbs(different kind from walmart) 2 Red Lily and 1 Green lily, couple of camboba (dont know the spelling) looking plants, couple of red plants and some small grass that looks like Glossostigma. not entirely sure


I have alot more then that, a plant that looks like a web and one more plant. I just dont know the name, sorry.

its a 75 gallon tank with 260 watts total

[span class="edited"][Edited by FMZ 2004-06-27 02:33][/span]

Did you try slowing your CO2 yet? I beleive if you add baking soda into your mixture it is supposed to slow the CO2 production. It also extends the life of the mix. Try to bring pH up slowly by reducing amount of bubbles per second being added. Keep CO2 level below 30.

[span class="edited"][Edited by dragonfish 2004-06-27 22:13][/span]

Is 6.8 your pH before you started co2 at all?

Yes my pH was 6.8 before i started with CO2 and it was 6.8 because of the driftwood

Then no, you aren't at 48ppm co2.

The co2/KH relationship is off when you are dealing with water with phosphate buffers or peat/driftwood/oak leaves

From Chuck's planted aquarium page:
NOTE: If you aren't adding CO2 to your water, and the CO2 level based on the pH and KH indicates more than 5ppm, then it is very likely that some other buffer (such as phosphate) is present in your water. In an inhabited aquarium, the amount of CO2 produced by the fish will not have an effect on CO2 levels in the water. Any excess CO2 created by fish will dissipate into the air, leaving a fairly constant CO2 level of about 3-4ppm. If you test your pH and KH, and without adding any CO2, the chart says you've got 20ppm CO2, don't believe it.

Good catch Arianwen!

So, the question is, how does FMZ determine the CO2 in the water.

Find your pH out of tap before the driftwood is added. Subtract the same difference (6.8 - 6.4 = .4) from this pH. Look the result up on the chart using your KH and calculated pH and see what you get.

If you pH change by the same amount, with added co2, no matter what your pH is, maybe this will work.

Arianwen, this still is a little confusing though since peat is supposed to adjust your gh and not you kh (as with phosphate buffers). GH can be different from many waters and can change the pH just as KH will. So this table would have to be based on a specific GH as well?

I'm guessing that the pH is about 7.6 - 12 then.

I think I really dont care about CO2 that much since its DIY. I'll switch to 2 Gatorade Gallon bottles. It wont make a much difference but atleast I'll be putting some CO2 in the aquarium.

SOmething is better then nothing

I'm still curious. No one really usnderstands, as far as I can tell, the relationship between pH, KH, and GH. I just try to understand as much as I can about them.

Well, kH seems to have a direct relationship with pH. The higher the kH is, the higher the pH is in general. When the kH is too low, the pH can fluctuate, and often drops to low levels, like 6.0.

I'm just curious about how one can calculate the CO2 in ppm. Is there some sort of device?

Maybe I just missed that part.

You can get a good idea (if you aren't using peat/driftwood) of the co2 concentration using the chart on this page:
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_co2chart.htm

I saw a thing about how to get your actual ppm (or closer to it) when using driftwood/peat, but can't remember it completely now.

I think it involved taking water from the tank, then letting it sit out and periodically agitating it for 24 hours to remove the co2 in it. Then check the pH to find out the pH w/o (extra) co2. Then check the difference between that pH and the initial pH.

Unless you have a *very* low KH the pH drops in a consistant amount for each ppm of co2 added to the water. So you can use the amount of the pH drop + the 3-5ppm present in water with no extra co2 added to determine what your real co2 level is in the tank.

If that made no sense then I dunno.

I do have a kit that is made by Red Sea that tests the CO2. it came in a plant test kit. it also came with a Iron tester.