Red Sea Turbo CO2...any reviews?

[newfound77951]

I have two Red Sea turbo CO2 bottles on my 55 gal, both bottles are hooked up to one venturi diffuser. The packaging states the yeast and sugar mix for one bottle will last for 30 days, so I was planning on changing out one bottle every two weeks. Has anyone else used these and have any experience with how long the CO2 production actually lasts? My house is pretty warm (65 -73 degrees in the winter).

Also, what test kits do people use (and recommend?) for CO2? The pH/KH chart doesn't work if you have other buffering ions in your water.

Thanks for the input!

 

[malkore]

Its pretty much red sea's version of the Hagen CO2 kit, which is just a glorified DIY setup (a small setup) with a diffuser.

The pH/Kh chart is as good as it gets. If you have other buffers present, they will similarly skew a liquid CO2 test kit.

Are you certain you have 'other buffers' present?

 

[Purrbox]

Dskidmore was kind enough to provide me with this link. It provides an alternative way to calculate CO2 levels when other buffers are present.

 

[malkore]

Good link purrbox.

 

[newfound77951]

ok, so if the pH/kH/CO2 chart is correct, at a pH of ~6.5 and a kH of about 7 (about 120 ppm) my CO2 is off the chart almost. ( I got a reading of 8 ppm from the test kit) So according to the chart I don't even need to add CO2 as long as my water parameters stay in this range. Since ambient (equilibrium with atmosphere) CO2 is around 2-5 ppm, and the plants are certainly taking up CO2, this doesn't make sense to me. If anything, my pH tends to drop, and the kH will very slowly decline over time. Are there situations in which your water parameters can provide all the CO2 necessary? Is the carbonate hardness in the water basically acting as a CO2 source? I do add quite a bit of bicarbonate to try and get the pH up. My plants are certainly growing OK right now (I am still nailing down my nutrient levels and fertilizer doses and I have a LOT of light) but they aren't going crazy. Any thoughts?