eyring2210
Aquarium Advice Activist
Should I be thinking about CO2 injection with a 10 gallon tank that is lit by 2 26w 6500K spiral CF bulbs? The tank is at work so I am worried about PH swings over weekends / vacation weeks.
Should I do CO2?
- Thread starter eyring2210
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
BigJim
Aquarium Advice Addict
That's a lot of light for a 10g. I'd either look into CO2 or switch to smaller bulbs.
I think without CO2, you are going to have trouble. I would agree with Jim, either reduce the lighting, or start looking into CO2. If you have a selenoid setup on the CO2 system, you can easily control the CO2 injection to prevent any chance of massive pH swings.
Even if you decide a pressurized system is too much of an investment, you could do a DIY system for just a few dollars and put an airstone in the tank and run the air pump opposite the lights by using a timer. This will off gas the extra co2 not used at night when the lights are off and keep your pH up a bit. The good news is, pH swings from CO2 injection are not nearly as detrimental as a pH swing caused by addition and subtraction of buffers.
Even if you decide a pressurized system is too much of an investment, you could do a DIY system for just a few dollars and put an airstone in the tank and run the air pump opposite the lights by using a timer. This will off gas the extra co2 not used at night when the lights are off and keep your pH up a bit. The good news is, pH swings from CO2 injection are not nearly as detrimental as a pH swing caused by addition and subtraction of buffers.
eyring2210
Aquarium Advice Activist
OK. I'm gonna rig up a DIY CO2 system. Anything I should start testing for beyond the normal ammonia, trites, trates and PH?
You might want to look into adding a KH and GH test kit. Depending on your water hardness, CO2 can cause your ph to crash if your water is overly soft.
While fish will tolerate the usual drop in ph that comes with CO2 injection, but not an outright crash.
While fish will tolerate the usual drop in ph that comes with CO2 injection, but not an outright crash.
You will want the KH test for sure if you are interested in determining how much CO2 you are getting dissolved into the water. CO2 injection shouldn't cause a pH crash even with soft water. Injecting CO2 does not effect the amount of available buffers or alkalinity of the water. Even at very low KH values, addition of CO2 has a linear effect on the lowering of pH.
