Carbon Dioxide canister

whiteshadow

Hi,

Thought this might be the best place to ask
but I need to get my hands on a small gas canister
for CO2 for a planted aquarium.

Know anywhere in Ireland (Dublin) that could sell me
a canister and refill?

thanks

Evil Phil

I'll move this over to the pet forum as you'll probably get a better answer.

hardtrainer

whiteshadow wrote:

..... I need to get my hands on a small gas canister
for CO2 for a planted aquarium.

Whatever for?
If you want to bubble it through the water then it wouldn't be adviseable to use 100% CO2 as this will alter the pH radically. If you are wanting to add more CO2 to the water to support plant life, then you can do it with a normal air pump and pump air through the water. Air contains enough CO2 to keep plants more than happy. There is always gaseous exchange going on anyway, with CO2 entering the water as the available CO2 there is used by photosynthesising plants. A diffuser on the end of an air pump line helps to mix up the water in the tank and makes sure you get enough rotation of the water layers so that gaseous exchange is optimised.

hope that helps. If there is some other reason for the CO2 then you can always check with one of the gas supplies, like BOC, who may be able to help you.

whiteshadow

Whatever for?
If you want to bubble it through the water then it wouldn't be adviseable to use 100% CO2 as this will alter the pH radically. If you are wanting to add more CO2 to the water to support plant life, then you can do it with a normal air pump and pump air through the water. Air contains enough CO2 to keep plants more than happy. There is always gaseous exchange going on anyway, with CO2 entering the water as the available CO2 there is used by photosynthesising plants. A diffuser on the end of an air pump line helps to mix up the water in the tank and makes sure you get enough rotation of the water layers so that gaseous exchange is optimised.

hope that helps. If there is some other reason for the CO2 then you can always check with one of the gas supplies, like BOC, who may be able to help you.

Ive a few delicate aquarium plants that don't survive without adequate
CO2 in the tank, the madascar lace plant is one, and my favourite.

Without CO2 injection your plants don't really do that well.
You can add baking soda or alter the pH manually to make sure the
Co2 doesn't affect the pH in the tank.

I read somewhere that having an airstone/pump in a tank will actually
remove CO2 rather than add it.. it diffuses it and removes it from the tank.

The idea is to supply CO2 during the daylight hours and make the plants
flourish as apposed to just keeping them alive.

There are diy co2 systems you can make with sugar yeast and water bottles as seen here....
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/diy_co2.php
but you can also use a presurised CO2 canister to make life easier
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/diy_pressurized_co2.php

this is the kindof thing im after...

I'll try BOC, thanks

fluval

Aquatic plants in a freshwater aquarium will not do well without CO2 injection, the optimum level is about 12ppm, that does not affect fish and gives lush plant growth. Tap water has about 2 or 3ppm, f you can get aquatic plants to prosper in that theres something funny going on.

I have a beautiful 50L tank with dwarf cichlids, the acidity is regulated by a probe that reads PH and controls a solenoid valve on a gas cylinder to target PH 6.5. I also use phosphate acid buffer to bring the water to 6.8 for water changes, so that theres not too mush CO2 injection. A drop checker can be used to measure CO2 in the water. Also I mix with mineral water as my tap water is like RO water with almost no hardness. Its the best set up in my 25 years keeping fish. No substrate and no rocks, just plants bogwood and fish.

If you want to source CO2 kit try:

www.aquaessentials.co.uk
www.fish-street.com
www.charterhouse-aquatics.co.uk

Make sure you have the right connectors for the solenoid. Also use plumbing tape on the connector screw threads as the CO2 will leak otherwise and the cannister won't last long.

More power to fiskeepers! (the ones that know their arse from their elbow that is)