Captainjr
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
I know CO2 injection affects Ph, but I wasn't expecting such a swing. When running my CO2 I can drive PH from 7.5 down to 7. Is that normal, or is my water not sufficiently buffered?
And now a CO2 question
- Thread starter Captainjr
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Reygan2
Aquarium Advice Addict
Perfectly normal. When I ran DIY C02 mine dropped from 7.6 to 6.6. It won't harm your fish.
ejaramillo01
Aquarium Advice Addict
IME the change in the pH with the addition of CO2 doesn't affect the fish. I always heard about how bad the pH swings affect the fish, so for two years I maintained my tank with a pH of 7.4.
Then I started to add live plants and arrived to the point that I needed to inject CO2 to the tank. The pH changed from 7.4 to 6.8 in 3 hours, the fish were perfectly fine. Yes I do have a pH meter which controls the solenoid valve and maintains the pH between 6.8 to 6.9 all the time, but every week I do a 50% water change.
The partial water change moves back the pH of the tank from 6.8 to 7.2 immediately, and the fish are fine, then the CO2 injection dropped to 6.8 again in the next 3 hours.
I have done this every week for the last 6 months, never lost a fish....so far.
Just would like to share my experience.
Then I started to add live plants and arrived to the point that I needed to inject CO2 to the tank. The pH changed from 7.4 to 6.8 in 3 hours, the fish were perfectly fine. Yes I do have a pH meter which controls the solenoid valve and maintains the pH between 6.8 to 6.9 all the time, but every week I do a 50% water change.
The partial water change moves back the pH of the tank from 6.8 to 7.2 immediately, and the fish are fine, then the CO2 injection dropped to 6.8 again in the next 3 hours.
I have done this every week for the last 6 months, never lost a fish....so far.
Just would like to share my experience.
jetajockey
come get me tang police!
The pH swing concern is a nonissue. The reason why people mention this in fishkeeping in general is because pH swings indicate underlying problems like a lack of buffers.
Water pH can change just from adding o2 as well (it raises it).
A good co2 setup has little to no variance in output, so once it's dialed in it's set. A drop checker is a visual cue to know roundabout how much co2 is in the system. And a solenoid turns off flow at night or whenever the timer is set.
Water pH can change just from adding o2 as well (it raises it).
A good co2 setup has little to no variance in output, so once it's dialed in it's set. A drop checker is a visual cue to know roundabout how much co2 is in the system. And a solenoid turns off flow at night or whenever the timer is set.
