Bubbles per hour on DIY CO2?

E

ErrorS

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Dec 29, 2006
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Isn't it suppose to be like 3-4 bubbles per hour with DIY CO2?

I stopped measuring my mixture a couple years back. Comnig back into the hobby I tried just throwing yeast and sugar into a bottle.. now I'm getting something like, a bubble every 3 seconds.

In a 55 is that too much? I'm having a lot of trouble balancing CO2. I run CO2 adn everything looks bad (fish, water and plants) , I turn it off and just my plants look bad.. but at least they grew with CO2

Generally, how many bubbles per hour? The CO2 is running through the intake on a power head and 'misting' into the aquarium, the bubbles rarely reach the top. I'm using non-standard container for my reactor, a smaller one. I don't mind refilling it every few days but the specific mixtures for a large coke bottle isn't going to help me much.. not that I've even looked for a while.
 
3-4 bubbles per mins seems about right however to figure out your best CO2 balance you should looks at a CO2 chart. To figure out where you are in the chart you will need to know your pH and your kH.

Here is a chart.

Another way to figure out your maximum CO2 is to keep increasing it until your fish are gasping for air and then back off some.
 
Oh no, its about a few bubbles per second. Try to get to around 2-3 bubbles per second, not hour, and then you should be fine. In my 20 gallon tank, I use two 1.25 liter bottles. I get a mist of tons of bubbles about every 3 or so seconds. With your 50 gallon, I would go with atleast two 2 liter bottles, maybe even three, depending on what you want. Definetally two though, and switch one out every week so the co2 conentrations stays quite steady.
 
Oh, Ok.. so if anything they're not getting enough CO2.

I need to find a CO2 test kit somewhere. I think i'm going to end up ordering one.. when I was running CO2 I started getting brown algae (on the powerhead that was distributing the CO2), the plants didn't seem so great and my fish were having some trouble, so I stopped. No store in this town carries those CO2 kits, I went all over the place.. couldn't even find Oxygen.. forget about any other nutrient tests.

Oh, Bunny, you have a ZigZag eel? Do you like him? and what have you been feeding it?
I got one a couple of weeks ago and so far he seems alright.. I was worried I was starving him at first but his belly is fat and he's very active, my guess is that he's eating flaked food.. and I was told they would eat live food only.

I did have some trouble with him and my Dragon Goby the other night. It seems the ZigZag Eel thought my Dragon Goby's mouth was a place to hide. The Dragon Goby seems fine but the Eel had half of it's body through the gill on his left side and the other half down his throat (like the Goby was a cave and the gill on one side was an entrance). The eel is far too big for the Dragon Goby to try and eat, I have no idea what happened. Weirdest thing I have ever seen..
The Dragon Goby didn't seem to mind. I turned the lights on, effectively scaring the Eel off, then the Dragon Goby ate a big piece of shrimp out of my hand and went about his business, like nothing had happened. He's been fine all day, no labored breathing, been feeding just fine, very active.. just saw the ZigZag Eel moving about the tank looking as healthy as the day I bought him.

Makes me wonder what these fish do when I turn the lights off.
 
haha fish can be funny!

I love my zig-zag eel and I have always had one in my tanks for about as long as I have kept fish. I feed mine live black worms which he loves but i have gotten him to eat some frozen food. I don't reccomend feeding him flake food, infact I dont think I have ever seen an eel eat flake food. I would switch him over to live or frozen food. Good luck with yours!

Oh, and you don't need to spend money on a CO2 test kit. Just pH and kH. They are not that expensive.
 
Well, because I use RO water I have to use a PH buffer. I've heard they can really screw with the CO2 chart.

For example, KH is 300PPM+ (around 18degrees) and PH is usually 8.4 (I have horrible tap water) or around there.. because those are the highest numbers on the charts.

With the Stabilizer PH is around 7.2.. even after a few water changes with RO KH is still 300ppm+ (bad tank water) ..

With the PH stabilizer and once I straighten out KH and PH, will those charts still help me tell CO2? CO2 doesn't seem to change my PH at all.

edit: Oh yeah, about the ZigZag Eel. He's not huge, about 3-4'' long.. do you think it's possible it may be eating Ghost Shrimp? If not I have no clue how it's has lived otherwise.. I wouldn't expect its mouth to be large enough. I'm going to have a heck of a time finding live worms or shrimp small enough for it to eat but for this Eel I'm willing to try.

I wonder what it has been eating.. I'm really curious now. At the petstore I had noticed this same Eel over the course of a month and I know for a fact they didn't feed him live worms. I wonder if he was kept on frozen? I make sure my fish have an extremely varied diet, there must be something in there it is eating. (Cooked shrimp, ghost shrimp, feeder rosy reds, algae tablets, shrimp pellets, two kinds of flaked food, tubiflex worms, freeze dried krill)

ooh, I have an idea. Blackworms and redworms aren't difficult to ship, I bet I can order them for next to nothing on the internet.
 
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