Do you bubble off CO2 at night with an air stone

[Scotty Bils]

Due to some poor plant growth, the worst I have had ever I have been “picking some brains” at my LFS’s.

Speaking to my LFS this week the bloke I spoke to was pretty adamant that I should be bubbling off CO2 at night with an air stone.

Currently I have an automatic CO2 system that I let run 24 / 7 . That is I do not have the magnetic valve on a timer to turn off at night.

What has been suggested to me (and also years before) that I –

1. Set my magnetic valve on a auto timer so it goes off at the same time as my lights
2. Set up an air stone in the tank so that it comes on automatically when the lights go off and turns off when the lights come on.

This makes sense to me as plants exhale CO2 at night and the bubbles / O2 would be good for the fish and water movement.

What I am concerned with is a possible PH spike at night harming my Discus…..What are your thoughts and what are you guys doing around this???? Your feedback appreciated.

Cheers
Scott.

[clinny_d]

hey scotty
im only really new at discus,(2 months) but i leave my diy co2 (YEAH GO DIY!!!) on at night, due to if i turn it off it will pressurize. the ph doesnt change all that much for mine tho.
sorry i couldnt help anymore
cheers

[Th0mas]

Although the concept seems harmless to the fish, I really don't think displacing the CO2 after light out is going to be that beneficial to plant growth as they will not photosynthesize during the darker hours so don't expect them to grow.

How many hours does the light run during the day? And how much light? What's the wattage of light, size of tank, etc. And most importantly do you feed your plant (fertiliser)?

[fish_r]

at the moment my pressurized Co2 runs 24/7 "only cause my solenoid is crap" so in this instance as soon as my lights go off an airstone comes on to dissipate the Co2 then when the lights come on my airstone is set to shut off. with a working solenoid i would have it on a timer so it switches the Co2 off when the lights go off and switching Co2 on when the lights come on.

even better if u can afford it get a pH controller to connect to ur solenoid to control ur pH and it will shut off and turn on the Co2 to keep ur pH stable.

as we all know discus dont like pH fluctuations so IMO DIY Co2 isnt good for discus cause of the pH fluctuations it gives.

if u have stem plants, make sure u use plant tabs cause u will notice good growth using them and keep ur fert regime constant...

[fishgeek]

what is your priority planst or fish?

plants need
*sufficent light
*carbon at aconstant and steady level of approximately 25-30mg/l as others have siad this can only be used by the plants when the lights are on, so solenoid on one hou before lights allows carbon to be in water when plants want it
plants use it and keep levels from elevating , the carbon turned off 1 hr before lights and planst use rest up
*macronutrients which are mainly NitrogenPhosphate and Kpotassium, i'm sure you would find it strang adding nitrate to your tank, it maybe needed if other factors were not groth limiting
*micronutrients or trace elemnets

so if you have 2wpg or more and your carbon levels in the rage above
you are needing to sort out other nutrient deficencies
if your light is lower add more
if you dont know what your carbon levels are you need to measure it


andrew

[anti-generic]

i leave mine on 24/7. if you are worried about PH fluctuations, put a bag of shell grit in your filter and set your timer to switch on the air stone for a few hours during the night.
i guess it also depends on how much co2 you are dosing.

Eric

[Scotty Bils]

Thank you everyone for your responses.

Just to clarify I do have my CO2 connected to an electrode which measures the PH and turns it on and off to stabalise the PH.

Fishgeek& Fish_R, would you recommend that I set my magnetic valve to turn on or activated 1 hour before lights on and then deactivate the CO2 by turning off the valve 1 hour before lights off?

I do like the idea of turning on and off the CO2, that is to activate it when it is really required and deactivated when not, but what sort of PH spike am I putting my Discus at risk of if any? I don’t want to have to get up at 3am to check!! I am not even sure if the CO2 comes on during at night but if it does it currently does not bother the discus with CO2 in the water but do appreciate that it is waster CO2 at night – plant wise that is.

FYI –

PH – 6.7
KH - 7
Temperature – 30 to 32
Ammonia – 0
Nitrite – 0
Nitrate – 0
Fe – 0.05 mg/l or less (I am increasing this to 0.15mg/l)

4 x 54w T5 Fluorescent tubes running 12 hours.

No ferts other than Dupla Fe drops daily.

Cheers again,

Scott

[fish_r]

hey Scotty if u have a pH controller u shouldnt have to put ur solenoid on a timer it will switch the Co2 on or off to keep ur pH stable. just keep an eye on ur fish to see how hard there breathing if they are breathing heavy u might need to add an airstone when the lights are off. if u can get away with out using an airstone and ur fish are breathing normally all the better.

u might want to think about using something other than dupla drops cause they only cover macro's. i use a dry ferts mix to cover the micro's and dupla drops to cover the macro's. IE: i dose micro's one day them macro's the next and so on. and root tabs are a good idea too.

[Scotty Bils]

What are some good ferts to cover off my micros then? Seachem Flourish?

Any reccomendations?

Thanks again,

Cheers
Scott

[fishgeek]

i use http://www.chempak.co.uk/product4.html for my trace elements, scroll down

is an english company , basically terrestrial fertiliser seems emminently cheaper than the aquarium variety
obviously you need to avoid nitrogen/ammonia so with trace elements this is not an issue, read the side of the box

i paid 5£ a year ago and am only 1/3rd the way through this 500gram box

with your pristine water i would guess nitrogen is your most likely limiting factor in plant growth
ideally you should be measuring your pH to see you are maintaing steady carbon levels for the plants, you have a pH contrller to do that, leave it running, forgot about the airstone

what i would imagine is happening is the lights turn on > the planst stat photosynthesising> the carbon in water level is utilised> the pH rises> the probe activates the C02 tank> you get a balance> the lights turn off >the plnats start respiring > the C02 levels increase> the pH drops >the probe turns CO2 ank off anyway

or something in that fashion
i just run a solenoid on day, off night, i would leave yours as it is though

if nitrate is alwasy zero adding KNO3 may help, strange as adding nitrate to your tank may sound, if you are uncomfortable with it in the water column then maybe needs to be in root tabs beneath the substrate.. though levels in root tabs are less controllable

andrew