Nutrafin Co2

[jakester]

Hi, I set my Co2 kit up last night and it has now been over 10 hours and it says in the instructions that bubbles will appear between 2 and 10 hours. There are a few large bubbles on the ladder but they arn't coming out? Are the bubbles even meant to come out or are they meant to stay in the ladder?

Thanks Jakester

 

[Jer-]

If there are bubbles comming out of the tube ending then the mixture should be fine. But i dont understand how the bubble can just stay there if theres a constant flow of bubbles from the tube... so Im guessing the mixture aint working? Are there bubbles coming from the end of the tubing?

If there are no bubbles coming out from the tube, then you may have either made a mistake in preparing the mixture, or the temperature of the mixture may be a little too cold. Is your room heated? Did you follow the instructions on the manual exactly? or maybe theres a leakage of CO2 somewhere?

The CO2 bubbles are suppsed to travel UP the ladder, getting smaller and smaller in size as it ascends. By the time it gets to the top of the ladder, it should be very small as most of the gas would have dissolved in the water due to the friction between it and the water. If you've just started using the ladder, the bubbles may have some problems running up the ladder because the plastic surface of the ladder is not yet "lubricated". Over time, the ladders would become covered by...um... very thin algea or whatever (u know how u can feel a slimy-ness to the surface of things that have been submerged in water for a few days? yea that) and the bubbles would have no problem sliding up the ladder.

oh and make sure the ladder is stuck on vertically, but im sure u know that already.

Jeremy

 

[jakester]

Hi, Thanks for your quick reply Jeremy. There is sort of one bubble in the end of the tube but none other and definetly none flowing out and up the ladder. I think its just pockets of air caught in the ladder. I have a check valve about 10 cm from the canister.(could this be a problem) also i did't put bi-carb in the mixture because my water is quite hard. What should I do now? How frustrating just when things were going well!

Thanks so much for your help Jakester

 

[gowing238]

Hi,

Pop over to the plants and planted tanks forum and the first pinned topic is a topic posted by george farmer. He is top dog on plants and he has posted an easy to use guide for the Nutrafin Co2 kit.

Hope it helps

 

[Jer-]

make sure the valve is on the right way yea. not sure which way that is, but make sure its correct. I dont kno the qualiy of those hagen bottles... but if it is the valves problem, pressure might make it burst!!!

um. bicarbs dont really add more effect to the bubbling, but it makes the mixture last longer.

so check the valve, check the tubing, and check that u have the lid of the mixture bottle on tight (never owned a Hagen kit, just did DYI, but its all pretty much the same), and if all checks out ok then try warming up the mixture. In Georges guide it tells u about the best room temperature. If the temp checks out ok too then you will have to redo a mix i think.

btw, I would HIGHLY, and by HIGHLY i mean EXTREMELY HIGHLY recommend a pressurised CO2 system if you have some money in ur pocket. They are Very stable, and are much easier to set up.

Jeremy

 

[ibbledibble]

Hi, I set my Co2 kit up last night and it has now been over 10 hours and it says in the instructions that bubbles will appear between 2 and 10 hours. There are a few large bubbles on the ladder but they arn't coming out? Are the bubbles even meant to come out or are they meant to stay in the ladder?

Thanks Jakester

hi, only just recieved my nutrafin co2 system through the post this morning so not had a chance to try it out yet. will start playing soon
but from reading the thread on how to make your own mix up, lots of people have said that the mix that came with the kit didn't work. seeing as its basically yeast, maybe its just too old? try buying some dried yeast from a supermarket and making your own batch. maybe something fresher will work better

 

[jakester]

Thanks for your replys. I removed the check valve and placed canister on top of the tank which is warm due to the lights. Now a bubble comes out every few seconds, most escape the diffuser but apparently for the first 24-48 hours this is normal so I will just have to wait and see now!
Thanks again Jakester.

 

[radioman]

if the bubbles are getting stuck on the ladder it might not be level move it around while suctioned to the glass until the bubbles start to flow up it.