# CO2 timings



## neilw (Nov 20, 2004)

Hi, I love this site it's fantastic! 

I've a question about CO2 timings, mine has a solenoid and I've had it on the same timer circuits as the lights at the moment, is this right? or should it be turning off before the lights go out?


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## dennis (Mar 1, 2004)

That works just fine. Lots of people leave there CO2 on 24 hours a day.


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## aquatic-store.com (Jun 23, 2004)

The only problem with having your ph click off @ night is it can possibly cause huge co2 fluctuations that your fish may not like. The huge ph swings can be detrimental to all fish and animals


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

Part of it depends on your water too. I had one on the same timer as my lights and with my high KH I realized the pH was really rising over night when the C02 turned off with the lights. Now I have it on a controller and it runs nearly 24 hours and keeps the pH much more consistent.


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## Allthingsaquatic (Nov 20, 2004)

Ive seen timers that will regulate the amount of bubbles per second. Im not sure if its out there...i would imagine it would be, but perhaps you could get a counter that cuts back the amount over night. Just in such a way that the ph doesnt as everyone has mentioned rise. That way you could leave it on all night, but have it decrease to just the point where you arent having such flucations. A drastic increase in a short period of time causes a great deal of stress....a stressed fishie in the morning would probably be about the same as i am without the first coffee...nasty


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## Allthingsaquatic (Nov 20, 2004)

I thought i would just add. Out of curiosity, with the unit on or off at night, how much of a ph fluctuation do you guys see. Im not currently using a co2 setup, i have in the past but scrapped it. Is it a full 1.0, or are we talking 10ths of a ph here? Just your own findings, thanks.


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

Allthingsaquatic said:


> I thought i would just add. Out of curiosity, with the unit on or off at night, how much of a ph fluctuation do you guys see. Im not currently using a co2 setup, i have in the past but scrapped it. Is it a full 1.0, or are we talking 10ths of a ph here? Just your own findings, thanks.


In my case, it stayed around 7.0 during the day, and just before the lights and C02 came back on it had risen to around 8.0. :shock: That's with a KH of around 9. Now with the controller, it hangs at 7.0 and I'm sure my poor fish appreciate it much more. Maybe my Hongsloi's will reward me with a spawning now.... :wink:


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## neilw (Nov 20, 2004)

Thanks for the info, I guess I will have to do some more reading on the matter. I thought the plants would release CO2 when they weren't photosynthesising at night so therefore the ph would drop, if there is still CO2 going into the water during periods where they aren't photosynthesising then that would decrease ph further? Confusing stuff.


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## Nystina (Nov 24, 2004)

That's exactly what i was told... i was surprised to see that people leave co2 running 24/7 without a ph controller. But then again, i'm no expert.


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## JLudwig (Feb 16, 2004)

Aww fish don' t really care about pH... huge swings are very natural, especially for smaller bodies of water (not so much for rivers...)... they don't care about hardness either (altho it may effect development of some eggs)

After finding a few more hobbyists that I respect using this technique, I'm a "squirt-and-dump " guy now, infact one (very very experienced) breeder I spoke to at the AGA had some hard to spawn rasboras go at it after getting fish from a fellow hobbyist and a technique much like this. Absolutely no acclimation, right into the tank:

http://aquaria.info/faqs/ar0002.htm

Take home message is that fish don't care about pH or TDS differences, its written in every book becausae it was in the books before them. The only thing that'll give 'em a good lick is severe temperature shock which is really hard to do as water has a huge thermal interia.

Since I'm soapboxing a bit I'll continue if you'll let me, loads of what we do, and the reasons we do it are based on bad science and poorly thought out protocols and "conventional wisdom". So, if something is working for someone, that is a fact, if someone tells you what you're doing is wrong, that is theory, in the game of science facts drive theory, not the other way around  So all this hypertechnical bickering you see on the mailing lists and books, ignore it, folks are just blowing smoke  Experiment! Find a system that works for you..

Happy Thanksgiving!
Jeff


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