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Observations of CO2 dissolving in water
Hi,
I was looking at the bubbles coming out of the airstone in my
DIY CO2 system, when I noticed something fairly curious. I have
the stone all the way at the bottom of the tank (it's a 29 gallon
tank). When the bubbles come out, they are relatively large,
but as they move up, they visibly shrink in size! A nice consequence
is that they slow down (since they aren't as big anymore), which makes
them dissolve even more, and slows them down... By the time they get to
the top, they are extremely small; smaller than the O2 bubbles put
out by the plants.
If I interpret that correctly, it means that most of the CO2 is
dissolving in the water. Of course, on the other hand, it means
that my CO2 concentration isn't very high. Roughly, by pH and KH
measurements, I estimate it to be around 10 ppm.
I was wondering if this is normal and if it happens to other people
also. The reason I was particularly surprised is that this just started
happening a couple of days ago (after I've had the CO2 running for over
a week), right after I added some sodium bicarbonate to increase my
KH.
I thought of posting it since someone else might have some insight
as to what's going on. It really doesn't seem worth to setup
a reactor if the CO2 is indeed dissolving.
--Noel