sajata

i assume that it is blue?
sounds like time for a leak test on you CO2 setup.

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onefang

Ok, did you use 4dKH water in your drop checker?

Water hardness in the tank doesn't effect your drop checker. In fact, the purpose of the drop checker is to use a solution with a known KH so that we can use the CO2/pH/KH relationship to read the dissolved CO2.

If you are using a known 4dKH solution in your DC, and you are still not getting a change then I would do a leak check on your co2 system.

The other potential problem, is that your filtration is a wet/dry sump. This agitates the water which causes loss of dissolved CO2. You may not be able to maintain ~30ppm of CO2 without considerably higher bubble counts because it's gassing off in your sump system.

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Wings516

Whatever GLA provides is the solution I use. I don't remember the rating

The wet/dry makes sense, so I probably have to bump up the BPS to compensate. I currently have the Co2 running from 2 hours before lights on to 2 hours before lights off. I bumped the co2 bps up just a tiny bit to about 5bps, and had it turn on an hour earlier. I am dipping into the green now that I turned it up a little bit.

I have two check valves in the setup, and upon initial start up the bubbles come out fast until pressure is built. The diffuser in the tank exudes quite a bit of bubbles, so I don't feel like there is a leak, but I would be ignorant to not say it could be there.

I had my dwarf sag oxygenating for a little while today which was cool. It has been a while since I have seen it. The Riccia is almost gone thanks to my fish eating it.

More crap pictures of my tank :sigh:


I got this color about 2 hours before the co2 shut off... Do I need to start it earlier, end it earlier?

AquaZilla

Your wet dry is your out gassing monster. You will need to completely seal the filter, like a large canister filter. Your out gassing co2 faster than you can get it in. Also, do you use Durso Stand Pipes in your over flow? The goal in your system is to minimize agitation going to the sump and out of the sump. If you cam mange to fix those 2 key elements then you will save yourself tons of co2. You should not need more than 2-3 bubbles per second.

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Wings516

Durso Stand Pipes? Probably not since I don't know what they are

So... Something like putting saran wrap over it? :P

PatrickW

Overflow designs:

Durso & Stockman

Hoffer Gurgle Buster

BeanAnimal

And my personal favorite Herbie

Read at your leasure.

Pat

Wings516

None of these are recognizable to me. Though I do enjoy the design of the beananimals.

I just have an in tank overflow with what could be considered a durso. Three holes at water level, a hole up top to get air, and a big elephant nose with a cone on it for more water intake leading to my wet/dry. Then a pipe leading up to my loc-line nozzles.

PatrickW

It's the amount of air drawn into the flow path that's of concern with CO2 out-gassing. Yours sounds like a Durso variant which does reduce the air to some extent (or at least the turbulence) which should help. I'm with O on sealing the trickle chamber at the minimum. That will tend to trap the out-gassed CO2 and eventually work toward some sort of equilibrium which should reduce CO2 usage. Once the water works its way to the sump you shouldn't see as much loss. Try to find a way to get as much of an air tight seal as you can to capture a pocket of CO2 in the trickle chamber. Duct tape may be your friend here.

Pat

Wings516

Thanks for the advice. I can't really think of anything off the top of my head. I have to get into the trickle chamber once-twice a week for filter pad cleaning and into the pump section 1-3 times a week to clean out the filter floss. Its also a pain because of the pump plumbing that comes out. Blah.

Would you say that if I sealed it to about 50% airtight that it would be better than not at all? I'll take some pictures tonight.

PatrickW

I'll have reserve comment till you post some pic's at this point. Cleaner is better but that seams like a little much. Are you seeing a noticeable drop in flow through the sump?

Pat