Setup: 125g, freshly light - medium planted, CO2 comes on w/ actinic 45 mins before the 8,000k lights, and stays on with actinic 45 mins after 8,000k lights before it turns off and air bubbles turn on. pH before lights/CO2 on 7.22 w/ KH of 3
Okay, I've only been running my pressurized CO2 w/ my newly build DIY CO2 reactor for a few days now, but... I was expecting my CO2 to increase for a number of hours and then at some point level off and stay fairly constant. Instead, it increases faster at first, and slower later, but just keeps going until it shuts off. My reactor is 100% efficient to the naked eye, and I'm dosing about 1 bubble per 1.25 seconds (medium sized bubble?, 48 bpm). Last night my pH got down to 6.55 before lights/CO2 went out, which is a drop of 0.67. Unfortunately my current drop checker will not stay stuck to the wall and is pretty much useless when it floats away, so I'm approximating my CO2 levels based on pH. I would surmise that my CO2 was getting to somewhere around 25 ppm, maybe less since my Phosphates are still a bit high. I increased my CO2 a little more today, trying to go slowly, to just a tad over 1 bps (67 bpm) so we'll see what that does. But...
Regardless of the specifics, the main thing is it seems to me like my CO2 never reaches a constant. Do others experience this, is this normal? Maybe its not really the CO2, but until I fix my drop checker issue I would assume that it is. Starting tomorrow I also plan to have things setup on 3 separate timers instead of just the 2, so that the CO2 can come on and go off even earlier. Maybe set to come on 1.5-2 hours before the full lights?
Any thoughts would be appreciated, thanks!
David
Okay, I've only been running my pressurized CO2 w/ my newly build DIY CO2 reactor for a few days now, but... I was expecting my CO2 to increase for a number of hours and then at some point level off and stay fairly constant. Instead, it increases faster at first, and slower later, but just keeps going until it shuts off. My reactor is 100% efficient to the naked eye, and I'm dosing about 1 bubble per 1.25 seconds (medium sized bubble?, 48 bpm). Last night my pH got down to 6.55 before lights/CO2 went out, which is a drop of 0.67. Unfortunately my current drop checker will not stay stuck to the wall and is pretty much useless when it floats away, so I'm approximating my CO2 levels based on pH. I would surmise that my CO2 was getting to somewhere around 25 ppm, maybe less since my Phosphates are still a bit high. I increased my CO2 a little more today, trying to go slowly, to just a tad over 1 bps (67 bpm) so we'll see what that does. But...
Regardless of the specifics, the main thing is it seems to me like my CO2 never reaches a constant. Do others experience this, is this normal? Maybe its not really the CO2, but until I fix my drop checker issue I would assume that it is. Starting tomorrow I also plan to have things setup on 3 separate timers instead of just the 2, so that the CO2 can come on and go off even earlier. Maybe set to come on 1.5-2 hours before the full lights?
Any thoughts would be appreciated, thanks!
David