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Re: Re: CO2
Dan Dixon:
> I have let the pH go from 6.8 to 7.8 when CO2 ran out or was
> otherwise shut
> off numerous times with no apparent harm to fish (tetras, barbs,
> cats, otos,
> danios). If it stressed them they didn't show it.
>
> Dan Dixon
>
> > From: Neil Frank <aquarian.subjects at mindspring_com>
> > Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2002 06:50:52 -0500
> > Subject: Re: CO2
> >
> > HERE IS A RELATED QUESTION for everyone. When the CO2 tank stops
> (say, when
> > the tank is finished), the pH will go back from where it came. So
> pH 7.0
> > jumps back to 8.0 and fairly quickly. Not too bad for the plants
> (except
> > some like Bolbitus which thrive on CO2 and turn black and hard and
> even
> > crusty (biogenic decalcification) when they try to get their carbon
> from
> > bicarbinates (this has happened to me, and was the way that I
> finally
> > noticed that my CO2 tank was finished), but HOW DOES THE RAPID JUMP
> IN pH
> > (and return to higher pH) AFFECT SOME FISH.
>
What about when one does a large water change? It takes a while for
the CO2 be absrobed in the added water. And presumably, if you have
added a buffer to your tank, you add more when you do a water change.
In a perfect world, with a perfect buffer, the buffer holds the pH
until the CO2 level returns to the desired level. Has anyone acheived
that perfection?
I have less of a problem with a CO2 tank running out. When they get
low, I switch to another tank and the near empty one becomes the
spare-on-hand. However, once when I wasn't paying enough attention to
a 30 gallon aquarium for a few weeks (shame on me), and the CO2 tank
ran low but not empty, the regulator allowed higher output -- way above
what I would intentionally put into the aquarium. The algae in the
tank disappeared. I have since lowered the CO2 back to "normal"
levels, but I have had to scrape algae off the glass only twice in the
last five months. It helped that I was using one of Tom Barr's CO2
reactors, so that all the CO2 going out of the CO2 tank was going into
the aquarium water.
BTW, the tank was loaded with platies and couple of angel fish, and
they didn't mind the very high CO2 levels at all. I estimate the CO2
was up around 50 ppm.
Scott H.
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