GOT CO2 - Celebrate with me!

[Old Scales]

Old Scales has gas! Ha, bet that got your attention.
I've been saving up a little each month for five months and finally took the plunge to pressurized CO2. I didn't get the cheapest, or the most expensive. After much looking I got a good solid middle of the road system. I did splurge on a 20 thread per inch needle valve instead of the 12. And I went with a GLA 55mm tube shaped ceramic diffusor. The set up was pretty straight forward and pretty easy. No leaks first try. I put the diffusor where part of the fine bubbles go into the intakes of both my canister and my HOB with part floating out into the tank.
I couldn't believe it, but 3 hrs later my Ambulia and Wisteria were pearling O2. Today was the first day of full CO2 and pearling was on all the plants except the AR mini. I'm only dosing 1 bubble every two seconds(drop checker barely off dark blue) so fish can get adjusted. I'll up it slowly over the next week until drop checker gets to reference color. I'm so excited to watch what the plants will do now! Many thanks to Rivercats for her help and tips.
Attached are some pics.

 

[Old Scales]

Two more pictures

Had to make another post for these pics. OS.

 

[foster53]

Congrats on your new system!! You will be amazed at the difference in plant growth, and health. Gonna need more ferts Once you get the tank balanced you will really like having CO2.

 

[Old Scales]

Thank you Foster.

 

[Dallascowboys16]

What regulator is that? I'm going to get the Aquatek and what size tank?

 

[flitabout]

Awesome!!!!!! Congrats!

 

[Old Scales]

Its on a 29g. It a Smith regulator by GLA. I was going to go with an Aqua Tech but got a deal on this brand new set up on E bay. Just regulator and tank. I got the diffusor and drop checker from GLA. OS.

 

[Fresh2o]

Congrats on the gas!
Are you diffusing directly into the tank? Are the bubbles in the path of the filters outflow (to extend contact time)?
First Rivercats then you. Into the dark side.
One day I will get there (DYI at the moment).

 

[Old Scales]

Yes I'm diffusing directly into the tank just underneath both filter intakes. So funny that the tiny bubbles spread out and make little shapes similar to how clouds make shapes. It's hypnotizing to watch. Seeing my plants pearl for the first time was a real thrill! OS.

 

[Fresh2o]

Yes I'm diffusing directly into the tank just underneath both filter intakes. So funny that the tiny bubbles spread out and make little shapes similar to how clouds make shapes. It's hypnotizing to watch. Seeing my plants pearl for the first time was a real thrill! OS.

I was adding CO2 directly into the filter intake tube but decided to pipe it into the hole next to the impeller in one of the HOB filters (Fluval Aqua Clear). Bubbles are not getting churned up by the impeller but it is much, much quieter now. I figure most are getting trapped in the double layer of sponges in there, increasing the contact time.

Pearling is nice. When you shut off the filter you can really see how much is actually going on. I also see it right after water changes (I suspect gases including CO2 are supersaturated in the water coming straight out of the tap).

 

[Old Scales]

I've heard the pearling right after a WC called false pearling. Mine always did it at WC's.
My HOB is an Aqua Clear also.(AC50)
We're having a real mild spell of weather here. Supposed to get really cold Saturday. How's your weather there? Looks like we hit the plant shipment just right. OS.

 

[Fresh2o]

It might be false but its real to me! Haha

We are a few days behind you. High temps:
Fri 57
Sat 64
Sun 70
Mon 52
Tue 37

I think the timing is perfect. Especially for this time of year.

 

[Old Scales]

I agree, when I see bubbles coming out of the actual plant's stem, That can't be false. lol.
Its different than the bubbles from the tap water. I want to see some pics when you get all planted. OS.

 

[Fresh2o]

I agree, when I see bubbles coming out of the actual plant's stem, That can't be false. lol.
Its different than the bubbles from the tap water. I want to see some pics when you get all planted. OS.

The bubbles are definitely coming from the stems, leaves and sometimes the roots.

What I am thinking is that the gases are supersaturated due to the pressure in the plumbing/tap. They are in surplus when introduced to the tank and readily accessible to the plants (thus the pearling response).

 

[aqua_chem]

I did splurge on a 20 thread per inch needle valve instead of the 12.

Good choice on where to spend money.

 

[Old Scales]

Thanks Aqua.

 

[Old Scales]

Update on CO2

3rd day with CO2. Now have count at 1 bps. Drop checker still shows a little blue from green, which means still slightly low. Added some extra Potassium as per Rivercats and watching NO3 & PO4 levels closely. Hoping to catch any algae problems ahead of time. Sweat,sweat.
All plants pearling now after 3 hrs. AR mini pearled for first time today. The new leaves on my Ludwigias are really getting bigger than before. Fish not having any problems so far. Thanks to all for tips and help. OS.

 

[RobbieHadley]

Hey OS, you are helping me in another thread about ferts, but doing a search I found a thread you actually created last month when you got your CO2 setup. I had a question after reading your through the thread. From the sounds of it, you were running a planted tank without a complete CO2 setup before, so I was wondering with this being such a small setup to begin with, can I just supplement CO2 by using a CO2 booster liquid? I really don't want to spring for a full setup until I decide Ive got the hang of a planted tank and then redo my 55 gal with live plants.

 

[Old Scales]

Hi Robby,
I ran a high-tech, highlight, very advanced plant tank using just glut as my carbon source. It worked pretty darn well. The only reason I went to pressurized CO2 is because I'm wanting to try some really exotic plants. Order the Metricide 14 by the gallon from Amazon.com. You dilute it 50-50 with distilled water to make 2 gallons. Store in a opaque, like proof container. I keep my big bottles in a dark closet. I painted the dosing bottle with black plastic friendly spray type. I keep it in the cabinet under the tank. I got a medicine dropper from Walgreens that's marked from 1 to 5 mL. Every morning before the lights came on I would dose one milliliter of glut for 2 gallons of water. The nice thing about glut is that it helps fight algae as well as provide carbon for your plants. It is about 60% as effective as pressurized CO2. One gallon of glut is from $17-$21 on Amazon. And 2 gallons of the diluted 50-50 mix will last a very long time. Much cheaper than Excel. You can tell when you've reached the limit of how much glut your tank can handle because it will cloud the water a little. This cloudiness will go away in less than 24 hours. Glut will only stay in your water for about that long. That's why you have to dose every morning. Rivercats is the plant tank guru here in AA. She has helped me tremendously. She ran a highlight 220 gallon extremely advanced planted tank for over a year just using glut. Her tank won tank of the month in December 2012. It is awesome. So glut will work for 99% of all plants. Are you aware of using dry fertilizers instead of the expensive liquids. Check out Green Leaf Aquariums.com and see the information about their dry ferts. For $30 plus the cost of pre-dosing bottles you can be set up for about two years and be able to customize your fertilizer program as far as nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus and traces. The ratio between nitrogen and phosphorus, as well as the light period is critical for algae control. Hope this gives you some information to research. If you have anymore questions please feel free to ask me anything. Good luck, Old Scales.

 

[RobbieHadley]

Thanks, that actually helps tremendously. I was reading about glut in another thread, just wasn't so sure about it until I read a little more about people using them on planted tank.com so Ill for sure check it out. Thanks again