# Co2 & Bba



## abcemorse (May 28, 2008)

Just curious, I recently (about a month ago) added pressurized CO2, on 1 hr before lights in, off 1 hr before lights off, to a 2 wpg moderate to heavily planted tank, dosing ferts on a slightly decreased EI schedule due to not real high light and not super heavy plant mass. It took about 2-21/2 weeks to get CO2 stabilized at about 30 ppm. Just yesterday I noticed several small tufts of BBA on some driftwood. I know BBA generally stems from low or fluctuating CO2. Could those few tufts be due to the increasing CO2 for those couple weeks? I plan to spot treat with excel and leave things otherwise alone as they have pretty much stabilized. Not real worried about it, more wanting to understand the mechanism....Thanks!


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## Nevermore (Mar 26, 2007)

Most definitely those few tufts are from increasing the CO2 over those few weeks. Whenever I mess with the needle valve on my regulator, I know I'm going to see at least a little bit of bba accompanying it. I try to make those changes slowly just for that reason.


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## jazzlvr123 (Apr 29, 2007)

Nevermore said:


> Most definitely those few tufts are from increasing the CO2 over those few weeks. Whenever I mess with the needle valve on my regulator, I know I'm going to see at least a little bit of bba accompanying it. I try to make those changes slowly just for that reason.


agreed whenever you change or vary your amount of co2 from day to day or week to week its a clear trigger for bba bloom try and find the ideal co2 injection rate and keep it as consistent as possible it also tends to grow on hard scape materials such as wood and rocks when there is an excess of light (wattage) or too long of a photo period. you can use flourish excel to get rid of the bba that is there and keep your co2 consistent to keep it from coming back


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## Sunstar (Sep 17, 2008)

I'll jump in this thread to ask a question about Co2 Myself. How does one determine what is enough CO2 for a tank? I don't have a system yet, but I intend to get one.


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## jazzlvr123 (Apr 29, 2007)

ideal amount of co2 is 30 ppm you can get a drop checker to measure the co2 in your tank


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## Sunstar (Sep 17, 2008)

I am getting one of those. As long as its green and not yellow it's okay?


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

If you have only the smaller fish, like guppies, you can get away with going a little higher on CO2 concentration, so I'm finding that a yellow green doesn't harm anything. Unfortunately, in order to do something like that, you tend to keep adjusting the bubble rate. Stability can be a difficult goal.


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## abcemorse (May 28, 2008)

I have discus, blue ram, appisto. and some others, and keep my DC at light green, also did a degassing test (24hrs) and registered a drop of about 0.9, both of which indicate about 25-30 ppm, and no fish have real issues. I do have a couple swords/platys that hang near the surface but they always have, even before CO2, but I attribute that to the fact that they don't really like 83F water (I think I might move them to the other tank, lower temps). Long story longer, 30 ppm doesn't seem to cause any issues with even fairly sensitive fish.


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## xtremefour (Sep 30, 2008)

If you have a DIY CO2 setup is there a way for me to make sure I am getting enough Co2?

I have two 2 liter bottles on my 75 gal tank with only a couple of plants. I change my bottles every 1 1/2 - 2 weeks. I have been making my mixes strong so that I am getting more C02 but it does not last as long. I change out 30 to 50% of the water once a week. 

I have just a little bit of algea on the glass but I have started to get what i think to be the BBA on some of my leaves. My red tail shark goes around and is constantly cleaning the plants so I think that is a good think. I had 2 plecos but they died within a couple of days.


Matt


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## abcemorse (May 28, 2008)

You can use a drop checker or the degassing test to check CO2, but the real problem with DIY is the stability. Fluctuating CO2 can induce BBA just as quickly as low CO2.


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