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CO2 controlled



I  was in the process of setting up my new CO2 controller. I found some
interesting facts.  I have 9 34 wattT-8 lights over a 75-gallon tank-for
just a little over 4 per gallon.  The lights run on 3 ballasts and come on
separately, one hour apart and go off in the evening the same.  The solenoid
used to switch the CO2 on with the second light an hour after the first
comes on and off an hour before the last lights go out.  I ran the
controller as a monitor for a couple of days to see how the old setup ran.

What's  interesting, to me anyway, is that the CO2 dropped a significant
amount in the night.  My daytime injection held the 7.6 tap water pH down to
7.1 at it's highest evening pH but the tank ran it down to 6.8 at night with
no injection at all.  I was very surprised that the fish and plants
generated enough CO2,even with my modest load, to keep it down like that at
night.  I figured the tank would rise in the night with the CO2 off.  It
didn't.   I am also impressed with how much CO2 the plants use all that is
getting injected (I do have the valve choked way down) and all the fish
respiration too, and the pH still rose continuously during the day!

The controller is now set to turn the CO2 on at pH 6.9.

Adam