# C02 and bubble wands or bubble discs



## flojan (Mar 10, 2008)

I was wondering, we would like to try out C02 first in our smallest tank, and it has a bubble wand at the back, is co2 and the bubble wand good together? Just curious


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

Well, the extra csurface agitation that is created by the bubble wand will probably allow more of the CO2 to escape, which is undesired. You may want to remove the bubble wand so that you are not wasting CO2.


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

Might as well not bother unless you remove the bubble wand or only run it at night.


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## flojan (Mar 10, 2008)

Thanks, we just have the bubble wand in the tank because we just like the effect it has on the tanks...but if we want to use C02 in the tanks soon, then we will remove the bubble wand.. I am guessing the C02 will be on all the time for the most effectiveness for plant growth. Thanks.


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

If it is a yeast/sugar based system, it will be on all the time. Pressurized you can add a solenoid and have it on a timer.


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## dekstr (Oct 23, 2007)

Plants only use co2 during the day with lights on.

At night time they have no use for co2 and take in oxygen to release co2.

One risk in running co2 at night time is that it may hurt your fish when the co2 levels become too high and have nowhere to go--affecting their respiration.

This is why some people use an airstone to run at night-time--to gas out any excess co2. This is effective for DIY co2. So you can still run an air stone/bubble wand at night.

If you have pressurized co2, a solenoid comes in handy as it saves co2 from being wasted at night-time when it's not used.


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## flojan (Mar 10, 2008)

Has anyone used the Red Sea C02 kits, are you able to use it only during the day and turn it off at night, we are all new to this so any help would be appreciated.


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

flojan said:


> Has anyone used the Red Sea C02 kits, are you able to use it only during the day and turn it off at night, we are all new to this so any help would be appreciated.


Pressurized or yeast based one? They make both.

Pressurized, if it has a solenoid attached you can have it turn off with your lights.

Yeast based, it is all natural so it will run all night. It should be fine to run all night though, it produces a lot less co2.

A yeast based system consists of a container filled with sugar and yeast mainly, with a tube coming out the top that goes into the aquarium (and can be attached to any diffuser). The yeast eats the sugar and produces co2. When the co2 pressure gets high enough, it will go through the tube and then into the aquarium. Once the yeast has used up all the sugar, it will stop producing co2 and you must add more sugar and more yeast. Pretty simple.


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## flojan (Mar 10, 2008)

Likely we will try the yeast method.....We have 4 tanks at the moment, and can't afford the expensive pressurized c02, so we want to buy the kit and see how it will go.
The red sea kits, says it is good up to 40 gallon tanks. I am hoping so because our other 2 tanks are both 29 gallon tanks and we also have a 55gallon with plants in it as well.. We can only do one thing at a time..But for the meantime we would like to try it on the 20 gallon and see how it works...


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

Well, to do all your tanks (4), is like 120 bucks for all those kits or so.

You can get a pressurized system for 200-300, add a manifold and run all your tanks off one system. 

Just so you know


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## flojan (Mar 10, 2008)

Um that would be hard since all 4 tanks are not even close together? They are all in seperate rooms of the house?

What is a manifold?

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

A manifold allows you to split your CO2 tank into multiple lines, so theoretically, you could feed CO2 into all 4 tanks, depending on how far away they actually are.


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## Calmer (Mar 9, 2008)

Here is some manifold pics.

http://www.bestaquariumregulator.com/CO2.html#manifold

You can also use Seachem's Excel to get carbon into the planted tank. It is a liquid and not co2. It isn't cheap but does work well and it can also be overdosed to get rid of certain types of stubborn algae. Surface agitation does not lessen the effectiveness.

http://www.seachem.com/products/product_pages/FlourishExcel.html
http://www.seachem.com/support/FAQs/FlourishExcel_faq.html


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