# Hard water and co2



## xxxxxxxxxxrebirthan1x (Feb 17, 2009)

Hi,

I am a beginner in CO2. We live in a half desert and have very hard water GH more than 300 ppm and KH more than 300 ppm and pH between 8.2 - 8.4. I decide to install a CO2 system against my bba. I have to use very much of co2 (not countabe) to keep the pH at 7.1 - 7.2. I read that most of the CO2 user adjust to 2-4 bps. Is that normal when I beginn to inject CO2, to use that amount of CO2 ? Btw I use reactor 500 with Rino pump installed to dissolve the CO2 and a SMS122 to controll the pH.

Thanks for all your answers.


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

I have more than 2-4 bps in my tank. If you have checked for leaks, your fish are good and your plants are growing then I would not worry about it.


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## ray-the-pilot (May 14, 2008)

rebirthan1x said:


> Hi,
> 
> I am a beginner in CO2. We live in a half desert and have very hard water GH more than 300 ppm and KH more than 300 ppm and pH between 8.2 - 8.4. I decide to install a CO2 system against my bba. I have to use very much of co2 (not countabe) to keep the pH at 7.1 - 7.2. I read that most of the CO2 user adjust to 2-4 bps. Is that normal when I beginn to inject CO2, to use that amount of CO2 ? Btw I use reactor 500 with Rino pump installed to dissolve the CO2 and a SMS122 to controll the pH.
> 
> Thanks for all your answers.


The amount of CO2 you use depends on a lot of things, but more than 4 BPS seems a little high to me. My first guess is that you probably have a leak some place. Check every connection using a squirt bottle with detergent solution in it. Especially check each hose connection. You need to use CO2 resistant tubing and every connection needs to be clamped off with hose clamps or copper wire clamps.

I cannot say what your usage will be but for me I use less than 1 BPS and my controller is not on all the time. I have a 52 gal tank and I set my CO2 level to be dark green when using a standardized drop checker. Even with my drop checker at light green I do not use that much CO2.


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## fordtrannyman (Feb 11, 2008)

I have very hard water too and I'm at almost 4bps in an 80gal tank w/4.8wpg of PCF lighting stepped through a 12 hour period.

The thinner the BC fluid the harder it is to count the bubbles. I use a stop watch and count 60 bubbles and then stop the watch.
Example: 60 bubbles in 20 seconds is 3bps. ect.


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## kimcadmus (Nov 23, 2008)

I've got mine cranked up as well on one 75g I'm guessing 5bps. 

One thing I've really worked at recently is flow and distribution of the microbubbles of CO2 coming from my Hagen Elite mini pump. I was having some algae issues even with the high bubble rate until I rearranged some plants, moved the pump to a more central position, and then added a second power head to create more lower tank flow.


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