Co2 Not Gassing Off Overnight

Jro

Lifetime Member
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Feb 14, 2018
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Edmonton, AB
Maybe I just missed seeing it, but what is the size of your tank? If it is a 10 gallon tank, the amount of CO2 you are using could be too much, but if it is a 65 gallon tank the amount is probably too little. Unlike Tom I think a drop checker can give you a good approximation of how much CO2 is in the water. But, it only works if the water in the drop checker is distilled water with a little sodium bicarbonate in it to give you the KH you want in the drop checker. If you try to use tank water the color of the drop checker will mean nothing.

Hello VaughnH,

My tank is a 55 gallon.

I did a quick Google search on adding 4dkh solutions to drop checkers and I realized how little I know about drop checkers even though I have been using them for years.

The drop checker I have is similar to this except it is Chinese:
https://www.amazon.ca/Rhinox-Glass-Drop-Checker-Kit/dp/B005C74ZCA

The solution it came with told me to add 5 drops. I do not know if it is a 4dkh solution.


J
 

Jro

Lifetime Member
Lifetime Member
Feb 14, 2018
27
12
3
Edmonton, AB
At first this sounded like what I just went through... reg not shutting off. The solenoid wound was making noise as if it was closing, but it was stuck open. But if your not seeing anything coming into tank through diffuser it may be something else. As for the bad solenoid, I tried cleaning it, but it was toast. Cheapie aquatek/champion style solenoid. Ended up replacing it with something better


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Hi ninemag,

Thank you for your response.

There were no air bubbles going through the bubble counter nor was there a bubble mist coming out of the diffuser.

I have also switched to a backup power bar timer I had with a mechanical timer on it. Only problem with this one is that I have to have my CO2 and my first set of lights come on at the same time because of the limited functionality of it.

So far, no issues with fish suffocating the next morning.

I have been playing with my CO2 because ever since I cleaned the filter, added more BioMax media to it, and got a new diffuser, it seems I need much less CO2. I was previously at 2.5 - 3 bubbles per second and now I am down to about 1. My previous diffuser was old and producing larger bubbles than the new one that would get sucked up into the FX5 canister. Could it be that the system is much more efficient now?


Cheers

J
 

VaughnH

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Jan 24, 2005
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Sacramento, CA
Hello VaughnH,

My tank is a 55 gallon.

I did a quick Google search on adding 4dkh solutions to drop checkers and I realized how little I know about drop checkers even though I have been using them for years.

The drop checker I have is similar to this except it is Chinese:
https://www.amazon.ca/Rhinox-Glass-Drop-Checker-Kit/dp/B005C74ZCA

The solution it came with told me to add 5 drops. I do not know if it is a 4dkh solution.


J

The solution that comes with that is pH reagent. It may work fine, but you still need to use distilled water, with the KH of that water adjusted to whatever value you want, with nothing else in the water that affects pH or KH. Tank water will not work! With tank water it measures the pH of the tank water, and that is all it does. I suggest reading https://barrreport.com/threads/how-to-use-a-ph-drop-checker.2624/ and http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/general-aquarium-plants-discussions/133058-diy-co2.html
 

Simon Yee

New Member
Apr 3, 2019
16
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55
Klang, Malaysia
Drop checkers are painfully slow to respond to cO2 change.
surface scum layers and lack of water movement can prevent muchy degassign at night, plants also do not consume CO2 at night, only during the day.
Bacteria, fish and plants all respire, but at night the plants do not take it up.

If you have a surface skimmer, or good flow, some slight rippling on the surface, but not enough to break the surface in the day time, then that will help at night.
Some folks raise their outflow to ripple the water at night, then lower it with the light/CO2 gas come on.

I usually turn the output of the filter upward toward the water surface.
 

Simon Yee

New Member
Apr 3, 2019
16
0
1
55
Klang, Malaysia
I used several digital timers and returned back to mechanical. The trouble with digital timer is that programming is not intuitive, and what has been programmed is not transparrent, requiring reading the menual and pressing multiple buttons. Digital is very accurate, but it doesn’t last longer than mechanical, and can run out of battery.

These days they have a coin size battery in the digital ones.
But I still using my Theben timer maybe because easy to see and program it.