It's a good idea to start your CO2 roughly an hour or so before your lights come on. The reason for this is simple.
When your lights come on, you want your plants to hit for floor running. What I mean by that is you want your plants to begin growing instantly. As the CO2 build up over the 60 minutes before the lights are on your levels begin to rise (remembering the carbon dioxide has been off for maybe 16 hours) and your plants take complete advantage of this. Good levels of CO2 and lighting (don't forget your fertilisers) = happy planted aquarium.
By contrast, having your CO2 come on when your lights start up, you delay the growing process as it takes roughly 1 hour for CO2 levels to hit that perfect 30ppm level.
In addition, turn your CO2 off 1 hour before your lights go off. There will be sufficient CO2 in your tank for that time for your plants to continue growing.
When do you turn your CO2 on and off?
36 comments
4. I want to know whether when should I on / off my filter , light and co2
Totally agree! I got trashed on a FB group for having 2 bubbles /sec in a 50l tank DESPITE having zero algae, great plants, spawning fish AND a green dropchecker!
I left the group!
running CO2, i have read you don’t need to run it four 8 plus hours as long as it is steady running i run mine for five hours a day seven days a week, drop checker is reading blue. i do use a bubbler thingy in hour after the CO2 goes off. and it runs the rest of the day and into the night and cuts off one hour before my CO2 comes on, is this right ?
CO2 starts two hours before the lights come on and goes off five hours after that, 6:00 am to noon. plants are ok could be better i dose fertilizers to . thank you for any help you can give me.
Randy
How long should I have my CO2 diffuser on? And this should be turned on when there is no light, for example when its dark. Should this be turned on for a couple of seconds, mins, hours? Does it make a difference if I have a bubble counter connected to it.
Hi Richard, how are you? Came across this blog searching for how much CO2 should I dose to a 372 LTR tank and how often should I leave the lights on.. is 20 watts sufficient for the tank? On my plants the leaves grow about an inch distance from each other on a stem.. what could be wrong? I am a newbie :) I also put 10ml KNO3 solution to the tank twice a week.. this is my first planted aquarium using DIY CO2 diffuser, sterilized garden soil, KNO3 and some 25+ varieties of aquatic plants on individual pots at the moment later I want to create an aquascape out of it.. at present there just one Betta fish in it to keep control over any unwanted creature in the tank.. your input will be appreciated.. thanks :)