Co2 Dissolving in Water

Greetings Brian,

You're welcome. It sounds like your new light system will help.

Perhaps you're right that the sand has contributed to your plants' malaise -
I don't know. Consider getting a bottle of the sera florena to experiment
with. I think you will find that it is helpful.

Great idea to heat the yeasty beasties! Really good creativity.

Keep us posted.

David

"Brian S." wrote in message
news:lmCkd.19327$V41.8327@attbi_s52...
Hey Dave,

Thanks for the info. I currently have a 65 watt compact fluorescent light
which has a 10,000K and 460nm Actinic side to it.

Since I used this in my 29 gallon, I have it sitting on top of my 55
gallon
right now, but will be getting the 130 watt 48" light tomorrow by UPS.

Regarding fertilizer; I never was much one for wanting to fertilize
plants.
I was hoping I could get away without using fertilizer because it is
already
pretty costly to keep this tank up and running. I haven't used fertilizer
before and my plants really seem to do good, but only lately they have
really slowed down. That is why I didn't know if it was because I am
using
sand now instead of rock (harder for the plants to get nutrients since
everything stays on top of the sand).

I did go home on my break a little bit ago. When I left, the bell was
about
half-full with Co2. When there on my break, it had reduced to about 1/4
so
it does seem to be taking it in.

I think I found the reason why my Co2 isn't making too much.. and it is
because I keep my house at about 68 degrees (heating is expensive).
Because
it is cool in the house, the yeast isn't producing much at all. I placed
both bottles in a gallon bucket filled with really hot water, and the rate
of bubbles went to about two per second. So, I just need to get a big
container (like my 10 gallon tank sitting around), fill it with water, and
put a cheapo heater on it.

Brian S.

Hey Dave,

By doing this idea, it dramatically made a difference!

Instead of a bubble every 30 seconds or so, I now get a bubble of Co2 about
every five seconds. Quite a big increase, all because of the temperature!

I set the temp so that it wouldn't put out too much Co2 where it would
overflow the bell and leak out; trying to conserve and make the mixture last
longer. The bell container gets pretty close to filling up and then really
slows down and gets sucked into the water.

I've also noticed that it seems like the more Co2 in the bell container, the
longer it takes to go down a certain amount. When I only have, say 1/2 inch
of Co2 built up, it tends to dissipate into the water fairly quickly.
However, when I have 2 inches of Co2 built up, it doesn't seem to move at
all.

I would think that being I have a 55 gallon tank, it would dissipate quicker
than it did in my 29 gallon, but it doesn't seem to be the case. I would
understand if the water was filled with Co2, but I don't believe it is (no
testing kit to tell).

Anyways, the heating seemed to have fixed the problem with output, but still
experimenting with the dissolving issue.

Brian S.

"David Erickson" wrote in message
...
Greetings Brian,

You're welcome. It sounds like your new light system will help.

Perhaps you're right that the sand has contributed to your plants'
malaise -
I don't know. Consider getting a bottle of the sera florena to experiment
with. I think you will find that it is helpful.

Great idea to heat the yeasty beasties! Really good creativity.

Keep us posted.

David

"Brian S." wrote in message
news:lmCkd.19327$V41.8327@attbi_s52...
Hey Dave,

Thanks for the info. I currently have a 65 watt compact fluorescent
light
which has a 10,000K and 460nm Actinic side to it.

Since I used this in my 29 gallon, I have it sitting on top of my 55
gallon
right now, but will be getting the 130 watt 48" light tomorrow by UPS.

Regarding fertilizer; I never was much one for wanting to fertilize
plants.
I was hoping I could get away without using fertilizer because it is
already
pretty costly to keep this tank up and running. I haven't used
fertilizer
before and my plants really seem to do good, but only lately they have
really slowed down. That is why I didn't know if it was because I am
using
sand now instead of rock (harder for the plants to get nutrients since
everything stays on top of the sand).

I did go home on my break a little bit ago. When I left, the bell was
about
half-full with Co2. When there on my break, it had reduced to about 1/4
so
it does seem to be taking it in.

I think I found the reason why my Co2 isn't making too much.. and it is
because I keep my house at about 68 degrees (heating is expensive).
Because
it is cool in the house, the yeast isn't producing much at all. I
placed
both bottles in a gallon bucket filled with really hot water, and the
rate
of bubbles went to about two per second. So, I just need to get a big
container (like my 10 gallon tank sitting around), fill it with water,
and
put a cheapo heater on it.

Brian S.