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CO2 dumping
At 03:48 AM 9/15/00 -0400, Steve Dixon wrote:
> I cranked up the CO2 full blast
>resulting in an outpouring of bubbles from the overflow hole. The pH
>dropped slightly over the course of an hour, but not by very much. The
>excess CO2 just bubbled off in large bubbles and escaped to the air.
I don't doubt that this happened to Steve, but try the following experiment:
In a small aquarium (a 1 gallon plastic cookie jar such as biscotti and
some candies come in at warehouse stores would be cheap and effective)
filled nearly to the top with water place a fish you are willing to lose
and an airstone. Bubble in pure CO2 at 1 bubble every 10 seconds in the
presence of a plant and bright light for a few minutes. The plant will
probably pearl and the guppy (or whatever) seem fine. Then place a piece
of plastic wrap over the top, turn up the rate to 4 bubbles a second (big
bubbles). And exclude the light. This represents a CO2 dump at night in
your covered tank. In less than an hour the fish will be gasping at the
surface. To rescue it, remove the plastic wrap, and replace the CO2
injection with regular air from an air pump. The fish will soon
recover. The second setup resembles your closed top tank with a CO2 dump
at night. In the AM your fish will likely be dead. BTW, this event is not
real tough on the plants.
--
Dave Gomberg, San Francisco mailto:gomberg at wcf_com
NEW Planted Aquaria Magazine: http://www.wcf.com/pam
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