Shai Posted February 7, 2010 Report Share Posted February 7, 2010 (edited) I have the Red Sea CO2 standard kit (no solenoid). This is my first time using pressurized CO2 so I'm starting out slow--1 bubble/2.5sec or so for the time being. I don't have a whole lot of light so I don't need a whole lot of CO2; I'm just tired of dosing Excel in my 55g and watching certain plants melt. Anyway, since I don't have a solenoid, I see from the instructions that I can use the needle valve to stop the flow of CO2 at night. My question is this: Should I also unplug the reactor pump at night? If there is no CO2 flowing I don't see any reason to keep it going, and the bubble counter has a check valve. But, I did have to briefly unplug the reactor today and when it started up again there was a huge cloud of bubbles. Is this bad? Edited February 7, 2010 by Shai Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
werner Posted February 7, 2010 Report Share Posted February 7, 2010 I'd just let the whole thing run all of the time rather than mess with the needle valve twice a day. You should have the little drop checker to help you find the right amount of CO2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shai Posted February 7, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2010 I do, but since the pH in the tank is 8.0 I don't want to drop it too quickly. I'm also a fan of not wasting electricity and CO2 that won't get used at night anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaykit Posted February 7, 2010 Report Share Posted February 7, 2010 Instead of adjusting the needle valves on mine to turn it on/off, I just turn on/off the bottle that way everything is dialed in to the right amount and a quick 1/4 turn gets everything going/stop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shai Posted February 7, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2010 Hmm. That's a good alternative I think. Less monkeying around with the valve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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