CO2 - Cellar gas

[michaelwgroves]

I've always used cellar gas from pubs for my CO2. But every now and then my gas bottle lasts for ages, and my plants pearl less, and hence my plants don't look as healthy.
Then I put another bottle on, the plants pearl and are noticeably more healthy.
What could be happening?

 

[MaloK]

If the tank are not emptying, I would think that there is some kind of obstruction in the bottle valve.

There might be also a variance in quality of the gas in the tank.

Make sure you get the right kind too, There are 3 available 100% Co2, half & half Co2 and N2 and 100% N2.

 

[michaelwgroves]

Mechanically everything is fine, all three I currently have are labelled 100% CO2.
It's just a mystery........

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Do you have a needle valve and a bubble counter?

One controls the co2 flow rate into the tank on the post regulator side of thngs and the other shows you the rate in the bubbles per minute going through the counter.

These two things allow one to fine tune the flow rate and the other gives you visual look at the flow rate.The latter would let you know if the flow rate is changing.

If you use a solenoid and pH controller then that would adjust the flow rate according to the pH. It can even stop the CO2 flow when that is appropriate.

 

[michaelwgroves]

I have a ph controller, mechanically everything works as expected. It's just the plants don't thrive as much, and the bottles lasts much longer. It happens once every several bottles. it's been going on for years, but I've never put any effort in to investigate

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I ran CO2 on one tank for almost a decade. The regulator and bottle Ibought from a beer supply company. But I ran no solenoid. But what you describe doesn't make sense, I can offer an idea, but I doubt they will provide the answer.

Maybe when you get the bottle refilled they do not put the same amount of CO2 into it? I never saw this in mine. So maybe some bottles are overfilled or else most are underfilled and the longer lasting one is the true fill. Also, when using co2, one normally should increase the fertilizer dosing. Of course the choice of plants also matters. Tou can accellerate the growth of plants, but something like an anubias can only grow so fast.

I gave up my CO2 and tore down the tank. It had such rapid plant growth that I spent more time doing weekly maint. reelating to the plants than I spent on several other tanks combined. I used to have to pull up all the stems and cut them in half and replant the tops about every 2-3 weeks. Every few months I had to pull up the baby tears and throw out 95% and replant anew. I had to give up sword plants as they outgrew the tank too quickly. Only the compacta variety pictured below in the CO@ added tank would work. Those baby tears needed to be pulled up and replanted. They started as just a few stems.

I use plants first and foremost for how they help keep the water clean and provide cover for the fish. So spending so much time on plants seemed to me to be taking time and energy from the fish. I still did planted tanks but not using CO2 and not using the same plants. Today I have anubias, ferns, crypts and long leaf Hygro. I use low to moderate light and my tanks are jungles but the plants take way less time in terms of maint.

 

[michaelwgroves]

That could explain why some last longer, but to me it's like the CO2 is not as good in some way, but also seems to reduce PH without using as much gas.