bubble rate..

[Giag]

In a high light tank what should be the bubble rate??

Let me put it this way, today i will stop the connection between my ph controller and CO2 and i will use a solenoid during photoperiod...

for start, how many bubbles per minute?
and slowly i will raise it looking at my fish and plants and Drop checker. But for the beggining? is 90 bubbles per minute ok?

 

[Dmaaaaax]

I base it on the color of the drop checker with DI water at kH 4. I shoot for a solid green then increase slowly from there as you see fit based on your fish and plants.

The bubbles rate is not a good way to measure the CO2 because it depends on the tank size, the reactor size and type, flow in the tank and other factors like the amount of light you have and if CO2 is limiting or if nutrients are...etc.

 

[ccLansman]

I have to disagree with dmaaaax, i dont bother with the drop checker, other than i make sure its yellow all day. If it stays green the plants dont pearl and algae starts up. Shoot for a few bps depending on your tank size and slowly increase hour by hour until you see the fish are gasping then back it down. Or slowly increase and monitor the plant response. Co2 is a tough one to get right.

 

[Giag]

And how many hours before the lights turn on should i set the solenoid to turn on?

two hours? one hour?

 

[ccLansman]

depends , i do 1 hr, some 2, i guess its personal preference. I guess with a larger tank i would do sooner to get a better mix.. then again i dont think the plants are ready to rock and roll the second the lights come on.

 

[Dmaaaaax]

I believe pearling is a sign of O2 saturation. Your water has reached maximum O2 due to photosynthesis of your plants or from a large water change that your plants begin to pearl off excess O2. I used to get pearling when my tank was set to 76F but now that I have increased my temp to 85 for Discus I no longer get pearling.

Higher temp water contains less O2 but I am not sure if the higher temp also makes it harder to reach saturation. I have decided to just keep my CO2 the same since my plants seem happy. Plus I'd rather not have to prune every other day so I actually shoot for a slightly lower growth rate. Anyone else have higher temp tanks that can verify this?

 

[shoggoth43]

What is your bubble rate now? Is the solenoid normally open most of the time? Half the time? Barely ever? I'd probably just hook it up to the timer and see where things go. Unless it was only ever barely open in which case I'd drop the rate down a bit just so you don't blast the tank with a massive increase of CO2. It won't hurt to back way off and then slowly bring it back up. That kind of paranoia at least won't harm your fish and you might find that the lower CO2 rates are better for where you want to be in terms of growth rates. No sense burning through a bottle of CO2 for no reason...

 

[ccLansman]

I run 80-degree water and get pearling every day. I don’t understand how higher temperatures make it harder to reach saturation can you elaborate dmaaax? Also are we sure that pearling is only when saturation has occured? If that were the case, if i ran an air stone into my korala all night and turned it off when co2 came out shouldent the tank be pearling as soon as the plants wake up?

 

[VaughnH]

Pearling means the plants are producing O2 faster than it will dissolve into the water. Warmer water will hold less O2 in solution than cooler water. So, it looks like pearling would occur quicker in warmer water.

The bubble rate needed for any tank depends on the size of the tank. 100 gallon tanks take much more bubbles per second than 10 gallon tanks. For a 30 - 50 gallon tank I suggest starting at about one bubble per second, and increasing it every hour until the drop checker is green. Then, watch the fish every half hour as you increase the bubble rate a little bit every day. You should be able to get pearling before the fish all run to the water surface looking for relief.

If you have an effective way to get the CO2 into the water, you can turn it on as the lights go on. If your diffusion method isn't that good you can help the plants by having the CO2 come on a half hour or so before the lights come on. With an external reactor, the 2 inch diameter PVC pipe type, a bubble of CO2 probably collects at the top of it during the day, so the water still picks up CO2 from that for some time after the CO2 is shut off. In that case, turning off the CO2 an hour before the lights go off should work. Otherwise, you might as well turn it off with the lights.

 

[osnapitseric]

when i started this hobby i was confused as hell. But to be honest its all about experience. I would invest ina drop check just to make sure i'm not too low on CO2. My current color on my drop check is yellow. I adjusted it to the "right" color one time and i had algae such as thread algae and staghorn. I raised CO2 back up again and the problem seemed to be gone. Right now my bubbles are bubbling so fast i can't accuratlly count and i have a 60g T5HO at 54x2.