# bubble count for 37g?



## w0348740 (Feb 17, 2014)

I've made a basic DIY CO2 diffuser to add to my 37 gallon but not sure where to start with the mixture.. How many bubbles per minute would you suggest be a good starting point? Not sure if you'd consider the tank "moderately planted" but the following is a list of the plants currently..

adult plants: 

2 amazon swords
6 rangeri swords
2 anubis nana 
4 java fern
roughly 1 sq. ft of dwarf hairgrass


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## TropTrea (Jan 10, 2014)

w0348740 said:


> I've made a basic DIY CO2 diffuser to add to my 37 gallon but not sure where to start with the mixture.. How many bubbles per minute would you suggest be a good starting point? Not sure if you'd consider the tank "moderately planted" but the following is a list of the plants currently..
> 
> adult plants:
> 
> ...


There are numerous variables to how much CO2 the tank can safely handle besides the plants in tank. However another big variable is the pH range the fish in your tank can survive in. With little information on the hardness of the water and other factors I would start running about 1 bubble every 10 seconds or 6 per minute on a tank that size. Start with an initial accurate pH measurement then measure it in 24 hour intervals during the morning just before the lights come on. This is the point where the CO will be at maximum concentration and the pH the lowest. In most cases you would want the pH to be in the 6.8 to 7.2 range at this point. If it is higher simply increase the number of bubbles slightly each day until the level is in that range.

If you want to more accurate and run at the peak levels you need to do hardness tests on your water and there used to a calculation as to how low you can run your pH safely but generally your plants can handle much lower pH's from CO2 than your fish will be able to handle.

I used to have a tank with liquorish gourami's that I ran on CO2 with the tank as low as a 5.8 pH which they loved. However many other fish cannot even survive in that low of a pH. My plants also grew uncontrollably with the amount of CO2 I was pumping into that tank.


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## w0348740 (Feb 17, 2014)

Happy to say I have played with the water testing and bubble count from my DIY setup and somehow I achieved what I think to be a very good equilibrium! Although by what you were saying, my bubble count sounds very high.. I realize. But, it seems to be doing great for the fish and the plants. I really think it could be because this water is very soft with a high alkalinity... Which comes out of the faucet at around 7.8 ph, a hardness of 0-10 ppm on average, and alkalinity of about 210 ppm. 

After several weeks of 1 bubble/2 seconds, the following are the current stats of the tank water..

7.1 ph
20 ppm hardness
165 ppm alkalinity

At 1:00pm, which is just before my light timer comes on for 10 hours, the ph reads 6.9-7.0

How awesome is that!? From everything I've read and researched, I feel pretty good about those numbers. The plants are growing like crazy and the fish seem perfectly fine


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## w0348740 (Feb 17, 2014)

oh and it's 5 juvenile angelfish and 8 neon tetras TopTrea


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