Unsolved CO2 Mysteries

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I've been using CO2 injection on my 75 gallon tank for several months
now. I noticed today that every plant was just covered with bubbles
which normally would be a good thing except that it started happening
all at once. I also noticed that I'm getting a continuous stream of
bubbles from the Co2 tank. The gauge which was up at 900PSI is now
down to 500PSI. When I checked the water parameters, I have a Kh of 16
and pH of 6.6. Here are my questions:

1) Even though the pressure in the Co2 tank has only dropped 40%, I
seem to recall that the drop to 500 means it is almost empty. Is that
correct?
2) I have an Azoo Co2 Indicator which is showing green (OK), but
according to the charts, my Co2 is 115 PPM which is very high... are
the Azoo indicators worthless?
3) My tap water is natively about Kh 20 so I use exclusively untreated
RO water for water changes. My plan was to bring the Kh down to about
7 and then start mixing tap water in with the RO water. After six
months or so, I would have thought the kH would have been lower by now.
Any idea what's going on here?

Thanks

[George Pontis]

wrote:

> I've been using CO2 injection on my 75 gallon tank for several months
> now. I noticed today that every plant was just covered with bubbles
> which normally would be a good thing except that it started happening
> all at once. I also noticed that I'm getting a continuous stream of
> bubbles from the Co2 tank. The gauge which was up at 900PSI is now
> down to 500PSI. When I checked the water parameters, I have a Kh of
> 16 and pH of 6.6. Here are my questions:
>
> 1) Even though the pressure in the Co2 tank has only dropped 40%, I
> seem to recall that the drop to 500 means it is almost empty. Is that
> correct?
> 2) I have an Azoo Co2 Indicator which is showing green (OK), but
> according to the charts, my Co2 is 115 PPM which is very high... are
> the Azoo indicators worthless?
> 3) My tap water is natively about Kh 20 so I use exclusively untreated
> RO water for water changes. My plan was to bring the Kh down to about
> 7 and then start mixing tap water in with the RO water. After six
> months or so, I would have thought the kH would have been lower by
> now. Any idea what's going on here?
>
> Thanks

It does sound like you have an excessively high CO2 level, confirmed by
the KH and pH readings. Don't know what could be up with the Azoo. If
you have fish in his tank you should control the CO2 immediately.

Your recollection about the tank being near empty is correct. Once all
the liquid CO2 has evaporated, the remaining pressure in the tank will
drop quickly. If you look carefully on the tank you will see a marking
of the empty weight of the tank. You can weigh the tank, without
regulator of course, to how much is left.

Maybe someone else can come up with an explanation of why this is
happening.
--

[fusQ]

sorry for the newbie question, but what does Kh stand for? and is there
a site that tells you all about planted tanks and what levels evertyhign
should be at? and how to achieve those respective levels? thanks

[Curtis]

You might look at some of these sites...

http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_co2chart.htm
http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/CO2/kh-ph-co2-chart.html
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/articles.htm

[Daniel Morrow]

Kh stands for carbonate hardness - also known as alkalinity. A relatively
high Kh means your ph should remain stable and not crash (i.e. drop
drastically and suddenly). Good luck and seasons greetings!

--
You can find my public key at https://keyserver1.pgp.com
"fusQ" > wrote in message
...
> sorry for the newbie question, but what does Kh stand for? and is there
> a site that tells you all about planted tanks and what levels evertyhign
> should be at? and how to achieve those respective levels? thanks