Setting up Co2

Hi all,

Got my CO2 F/E today and im setting the system up, just a few things wanna be sure i have it right

1) I have to place the diffuser near a power head so the c02 get moved around the tank...?

2) Placement of the check valve....?

3) Turing on the c02 what do i set it to..?

I have my gauge on already, have my c02 piping everything, so any help would be great.

Alan

Hi there

1) that would definitely help, have the diffuser somewhere near flow anyhow.

2) I usually put my check valve near the water side of the tank as opposed to near the CO2 regulator, although you could do both/either if you wanted, the idea of the check valve is to stop water creeping back up the CO2 tubing when you switch off the CO2, water creep will happen if you dont use a check valve and potientially you could damage the regulator, so better to stop the water near the source.

3) with a duel guage regulator the top dial is usually for the cylinder pressure, this guage is usually marked in increments of 0 to 250, when the cylinder is full the guage should read about 55 and it will drop in time as the cylinder empties, less pressure.

The bottom guage is for the regulator pressure this is the one you will regulate, about 1.5 bar pressure is good, it will flucuate with temperature over time, gradually mind, atm mine is reading just under 2 bar, so it flucuates gradually between 1.5 bar to about 2 bar, any more than this is not really recommended, but in the normal course of things it wont really go above 2 bar, above 2 bar is usually marked in red for good reason (danger). So start with 1.5 bar and that will give you good pressure to get a stable bubble rate, around 1 bar and the pressure is too low and the bubble rate will be irregular, so 1.5 bar is about optimum.

Keep an eye on things for a few days until you are more comfitable with the whole setup but tbh its not that difficult and should be smooth sailing for ya.

Cheers zig,

Just on the drop checker, can i use the kh test kit for my drop checker with a few ph drops to check the level of co2 is right, or do i have to use something else....?

Alan

You use a low range ph kit (API ph kit is fine) along with pre calibrated 4dkh solution if your using the drop checker method, personally I dont bother with that and just count the CO2 bubble rate instead, it depends on the size of the tank though and how well you distribute the CO2 that will determine the bubble count for any given tank, small tanks usually 1 bubble per second (bps) larger tanks say 150-200l maybe 2-3 bubbles per second that usually gives me enough CO2 to avoid algae in a highlight tank, your tank may be different though, flow has a good deal to do with it along with the diffusion method, but you could experiment like that as well, once you find the correct bubble rate for your size tank you can ditch the drop checker, but the drop checker may give you a bit more peace of mind. I have a good few years experience at this stage so its easy for me to say ditch the drop checker:dry:

The ph/kh method is sort of old at this stage, its thought to be unreliable, best to use the ph and 4dkh solution for more reliability along with the drop checker.

Ill see can i get some 4dkh 2moro, thanks very much zig thats given me piece of mind now.....

Have the co2 up and running there is around 2 bubbles a second getting diffused into the tank the funny thing is i dont have the handle on the F/E pushed down and there still c02 running into the tank........?

and there are very fine bubbles getting pushed round the tank i guess that is what happens....?