I'm curious what everyone runs on average for bubbles per second. I have a 75 gallon plus a sump. There is a homemade wet dry in the sump so I'm likely losing quite a bit of co2 there. My bubbles/second are probably close to 10 (too fast to count) and I only get a ph drop off around 0.7. My plants are responding so even if I blow through my 5# tank every month or so it should work.
I think I'm confused. This is not a hard thing to do to me, however. What do you mean your bubble count is close to 10? 10 per minute? 10 per second would be extraordinarily high, unless your 75 gallon was a jungle with a low stock. When you say your bubble count is 10, are your referring to a bubble counter or what is emitted from your diffuser? One bubble every 2 seconds (from your bubble counter) would probably be a safe starting point for a low to moderately planted 75 gallon (this is a very rough estimate), but It's difficult to say because it is really based off a lot of different factors. How many plants, what types of plants (different types respirate and photosynthesize at different rates), how many fish are in the tank, even the size of the bubbles that your CO2 diffuser emits, etc, etc. So there is really no hard set rule. With CO2, you just need to closely monitor the plants and fish behavior. After the first few weeks, you begin to get a general idea about what your tank benefits from.
The reason Chris99 is running 10 bubbles per second is because of the sump. Water is exposed to the air and has more oxygen in it in some sump systems. Not all sump systems are like this, but apparently his is. I run around 4 bubbles per second in mine. My Co2 is around 40ppm in my tank. I dose a lot of ferts, and have a lot of growth.
Sorry. I am talking about 10 bubbles per second in my bubble counter. I've read others that had a similar stream of bubbles in their counter but most talk of a bubble every second or so like you mention. I started with only a bubble every few seconds and never saw any change in ph. It was only after I got to around 5 bubbles per second before I saw any change in ph. I've been running at this rate for a few days now and the plants are really starting to perk up. The fish are all doing fine. My tank is not heavily planted. I have 3 swords, a ludwigia, java fern, and some anacharis and bacopa. These are new plants so they shouldn't be using a ton of co2. I'm using an diy inline reactor to diffuse.
I didn't realize that about a wet dry sump, but it make sense considering surface area and overall disturbance. Learned something new!
Going off the ph/kh chart I'm currently running around 20 ppm CO2. I assumed I was probably degassing quite a bit in my sump but wanted to see if anyone had similar experience. I could probably cut down on the amount of turbulence I get in my wet/dry filter and cut back on the co2.
Might not be a bad idea. A little bit of cautious and well educated expirimentation may be in order. I want to know what you find out!
I did a minor redesign a have more of a sealed system. It probably cut down my co2 usage close to half. I still have a bubble rate around 4-5 bps but I'll take it. The convenience of a sump is worth the extra co2. Sent from my Nexus 7 using Fish Lore Aquarium Fish Forum mobile app
