Re: [APD] Re: CO2 off at night

["Tomoko Schum" <tomokoschum at knology_net>]

During 2001 convention Takashi Amano told me to check if my
fish is breathing really fast early in the morning when he
found out I was injecting CO2 24/7 (targeting 30ppm).  This
stuck to my mind because he looked so humorous pretending to
be fish breathing fast with his eyes rolling.  I found my
neon tetra breathing extremely fast in the middle of plants
like he predicted.  So I started using a solenoid valve,
although I could have used an airstone on a timer.  He told
me I didn't need any fancy equipment like a solenoid valve
or a separate reactor, etc. (I wonder what his sales manager
thought of this), but I happened to have a freebie on hand.
He also told me to inject CO2 on the "output" side of my
Eheim filter by punching a tiny hole and sticking my CO2
line into the green Eheim tubing. (His reason of bypassing
the filter was to protect delicate tiny rotifer like
microorganisms that live in the filter environment from the
acidifying effect of CO.) He said that the compression
strength of the Eheim tubing material should be able to seal
around my small drip irrigation connector to which I
attached my CO2 line.  This worked really well.  After a
year or so when I twisted the connector (I don't remember
why I did this), a tiny leak sprung.  I could not get the
hose to seal back around the connector due to a compression
set.  I could have tried a different spot on the hose, but
then I found Tom's reactor, which works very well.

Incidentally, my tap water contains a high amount of CO2
(the local utility company lists it to be 50 ppm or higher
depending on the source wells/treatment facilities in their
drinking water report.)  Not knowing this, I did a 50% water
change around 10:00 pm one night.  The next morning (around
6:00 am)  I found all my fish floating belly up (luckily not
dead.)  My cardina japonica were all getting out of the tank
climbing up a heater line, some lined up single file on the
ledge, some already hopping on the floor to the delight of
my kitty.  An emergency water change revived my fish and
shrimp immediately.  Actually it took me a couple of times
of this before I started checking on my tap water for an
extra source of CO2.

Tomoko

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