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Re: CO2 system with/without pH controller
I thought the point of running an airstone at night was not in an attempt to
increase oxygen levels of the water, but to dissipate the CO2 present in the
water. The amount of oxygen in the water is actually a moot point when you've
got too much CO2 in the water, as the fish are unable to utilize the oxygen.
Further, since the plants put out CO2 at lights out, rather than oxygen,
there is a greater chance of detrimental amounts of CO2 accumulating in the
water at night time, which gives merit to the idea of running air at night.
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> receive outstanding help from everyone. My big fear was getting up in
> the morning and everything gasping at the surface. Sounds like Dave's
> system is just fine as is, there just needs to be an airstone on a timer
Well, a couple minor things...
The possible problems CO2 causes (when there's too much of it) aren't
caused by the excess CO2 resulting in too little oxygen. CO2 and O2 levels
are completely independent in the water. The problem with too much CO2
would be a very low pH.
In my tank, my CO2 level stays around 25ppm, day and night, without
any timer/solenoid/airstone. For two days, I manually turned the CO2
off at night, and back on in the morning. This resulted in a noticable
pH swing (.4+), while leaving it running at night results in a very small
pH shift (about .2)
Your mileage may vary.
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