Re: [APD] CO2: How Much Is Too Much?

["S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>]

If your water temp was around 77-80F, then that sounds
about right. If you are going to maintain these levels, let
me know and I'll make you an extended version of the chart.
;-)

Good lesseon, though: Whenever you move the probe from the
aquarium, turn off the controller. IF you forget it, the
worst that happens is you go low on CO2 levels inthe tank,
which is not so bad as far as the fish are concerned.

Don't feel like the Lone Ranger, though. I once
accidentally dosed about way more than the usual large dose
of phosphate -- so about 10 ppm. I was dosing the tank just
before I went out the door on my way to work and couldn't
hang around to do a water change. Everything seemed fine
when I got back home. So, instead of a waterchange, I
waited to see some effect. I waited for days, but nada.
Finally, after a week, I gave up and did a water change. 
Very high doses of phoshpate, just like CO2 can be a waste
of chemicals at best.

Sorry to hear that you lost some fish -- glad you didn't
lose them all. If the probe dried out, it's possibly
unreliable so you might have lost that too -- did you
recalibrate? 

High tech, more stuff, more risks, more fun,
Scott H.
--- "John T. Fitch" <JTFitch at fitchfamily_com> wrote:
> I recently replaced my 30-gallon tank with a 50-gallon
> tank.  When the 
> initial bits of algae had disappeared, I decided it
> looked good enough to 
> take some new pictures for my web site.  I didn't like
> the looks of the 
> bright yellow pH probe sticking down into the tank, so I
> pulled it up out of 
> the way.  Most of the pictures turned out O.K., and you
> can see them if you 
> wish at www.fitchfamily.com/aquarium.html.
> 
> BUT, when I was done taking pictures, I forgot (well, I'm
> 79) to push the 
> probe back down into the tank.  And so to bed.  When I
> sat down to breakfast 
> the next morning, I noticed that some of the fish were up
> at the surface. 
> Then I realized the pH probe tip was probably completely
> out of the water 
> and measuring the pH of who knows what.  I looked at the
> controller and saw 
> that the pH had dropped overnight from 6.7 down to 5.9! 
> So, all night the 
> probe was telling the controller that the pH was above
> 6.7 and to keep 
> pumping in CO2.
> 
> A pH value of 5.9 is off the chart and the table I have,
> so I used the 
> formula:
> CO2 = 3.0 * KH * 10^(7.00-pH).  If I did the math
> correctly, that means 
> that, with a KH of 5, the CO2 concentration was about 189
> ppm!  I think I've 
> read that anything over 40 ppm can be lethal to fish.  As
> fast as I could, I 
> siphoned out water at one end and pumped in water at the
> other. It took 
> hours to get the pH back up where it belonged. 
> Meanwhile, some of the fish 
> were doing barrel rolls and otherwise behaving rather
> poorly.
> 
> Well, the upshot was that I lost four Neon and/or
> Cardinal Tetras and one 
> Harlequin Rasbora.  But, to my amazement, the other 15 or
> so Neons and 
> Cardinals, the one other Rasbora, the Clown Pleco, the
> Albino Cory, and many 
> Amano and Cherry Shrimp seemed completely unaffected --
> not even swimming up 
> the surface.  And, now, a week later, they're still
> apparently as healthy as 
> ever.
> 
> John T. Fitch
> www.fitchfamily.com/aquarium.html
> ><((((º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸><((((º>¸.
> ·´¯`·.¸. , . .·´¯`·..
> ><((((º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸><((((º>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
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