Re:Increasing CO2 mystery

To: Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
Subject: Re:Increasing CO2 mystery
From: krombhol at felix_teclink.net (Paul Krombholz)
Date: Tue, 17 Dec 1996 14:07:54 -0500


>From: RicCooney at aol_com

>Subject: Mystery Tank
>
>Hi all, hopefully you all can shed some light on this mystery. We have a 52g
>tank set up over a year. Two weeks ago we noticed that the co2 level was
>50ppm. Quite high we thought so we cut off the DIY yeast engine. We are doing
>weekly  15% water changes with DI water enhanced with trace
>elements(Electro-Right)and pH adjuster. The co2 has always been in the 5ppm
>range. This week we also added PMDD enstead of the Kent fertilizer we were
>using. Yesterday we got the following:
>
>        CHEMISTRY
>CO2     >100ppm
>Fe       1.5ppm
>NO2     0
>NO3      0
>Nh3     0
>pH           6.7
>dGH     4
>dKH     5
>Temp 79f
>We measured the co2 with both a LaMotte and a Tetra test kit.
>Can anyone suggest what is going on with the CO2. The bioload consists of the
>following:
>TIA  Ric
>
My guess is that your tank is being acidified by something other than CO2.
If it really is CO2, then you should be able to blow nearly all of it out
of the water with aeration.  Try this:  Take about a quart of water from
the tank and put it in a container with an airstone from an air pump and
run air through it for several hours.  Then do your CO2 test and see what
you get, compared to what you get in your tank.  It might be interesting to
aerate some of your tap water and test it, too.  Let us know what the
results are.  If there isn't much difference, then your tank is being
acidified by some non volatile acid.  If there is a big difference, then
there has to be some other, rather large source of CO2.

Don't forget,  Let us Know!

Paul Krombholz                  Tougaloo College, Tougaloo, MS  39174
In chilly Jackson, Mississippi.