Co2?

[Whitechicks7]

Hey every been into low tech planted for quite awhile now.
Keeping shrimps / oto/ dwarf crayfish and some tetra in a mild planted tank.

Few stalks of sword plants
Few stalks of tiger lotus
Nana on dws
Mini nana in ceramic rings
Bucep super blue/ brownie pixy/ thie blue...

Light - aquazonic 2 tubes
16w per tube 12000k

Dosing excel one cap per day
Dosing flourish one cap per week.

Running on 2 sponge filter
Wc regiment - just top every week. Unless I wanna wash the filters - 10% wc

Fan on when lights are on.
Usually 4-6hours
Weekends will be on for 9-12 hours
Excel dose only when light is on..

Anything I miss out ?
Was thinking of converting to small co2 system...need advise from pros out there !!

[felix_fx2]

change filter 1st.... sponge filter add more o2 due to how it operates.

if you want try it out, diy co2...
before having more plants.

is your tank 2 feet? aquazonic 32w t5??? (16w x 2)

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[bennyc]

i am curious, how are your buces? in my non co2 tanks, Buce fair badly. coloration as well as health lose out to CO2 injected tank.

[Whitechicks7]

i am curious, how are your buces? in my non co2 tanks, Buce fair badly. coloration as well as health lose out to CO2 injected tank.

They are doing relatively fine...
Not great but good enough... New leaves sprout every few weeks..
Roots growth also not bad... Can see diff every few days..
I guess maybe because I dose excel..

Colour wise... Maybe not as great

[bennyc]

Any reason for going into pressized co2? Looking at your plant list, they might not required intense Co2. Although you will widen the choice of plants you can go for and better color/health for buce. High co2 works with high light and high nutrient. The flood gate of things you need to buy/ change will open once you decide to go to the dark side. Hahaha.

[Whitechicks7]

Any reason for going into pressized co2? Looking at your plant list, they might not required intense Co2. Although you will widen the choice of plants you can go for and better color/health for buce. High co2 works with high light and high nutrient. The flood gate of things you need to buy/ change will open once you decide to go to the dark side. Hahaha.

Haha true , but as u said once I start I would have a wider range of plants to go into.
But most of my plants now don't root . So does it matter ?

[bennyc]

Do not root? All of your plants root, the growth might be slow. But most aquatic plants can take in nutrient from the water column too. So it does not really matter.
Hope i answer your concerns, because i do not really understand your question.

[Whitechicks7]

Do not root? All of your plants root, the growth might be slow. But most aquatic plants can take in nutrient from the water column too. So it does not really matter.
Hope i answer your concerns, because i do not really understand your question.

Actually all I am trying to ask is weather or not should I add co2 with my current livestock to promote the growth?
They are currently growing okay. But not great.

[erwinx]

I suppose your concern is that if you already have a stable no-Co2 system, will suddenly adding Co2 cause an 'imbalance.'

Maybe what you can do when adding Co2 is to add a small amount at the start like 0.5bps to see whether there is a positive difference, then slowly increase to 1bps.

Another concern is that the Sword plant (depending on species) and Tiger Lotus may grow to 'monster size' when Co2 is added, so the question is whether your tank is big enough. (Which is also another reason not to add too much Co2 at the start).

[bennyc]

What is your tank size? A capful is 5ml of excel seems good enough for a small tank.

[Urban Aquaria]

I agree with erwinx, adding Co2 injection, even a small amount, will benefit all your plant's growth in general. Even slower growing plants like anubias and buceps will grow abit faster and look nicer with Co2 injection. Its basically like lifting the current limit "cap" on their growth rate during the active photoperiod.

You could still maintain your current light and nutrient dosing with Co2 injection, just inject a smaller amount of Co2 in the start to help the plants grow, it would be sort of like a high tech but still low maintenance setup. Eventually when you decide to progress to a higher energy faster growth setup, then you can look at increasing your lights and fertilizer dosing accordingly.

[thebaldingaquarist]

My Motto... when it comes to established tanks..

"If it ain't broken, don't fix it."

Of course.. this is a hobby.. so there must always be an element of discovery and experimentation.

So, ask yourself.. you want to try new stuff for this tank? if yes, just get the CO2 and whack it in. its all part of the hobby!

[qngwn]

CO2.. it's like a drug. once you start, hard to stop!

[Dodofish]

CO2.. it's like a drug. once you start, hard to stop!

Yes its very true. Like what most bro said, open up the gates to all aquatic plants.

Only thing i dont like is cleaning the diffuser once every two weeks. Haha.

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[Urban Aquaria]

Yes its very true. Like what most bro said, open up the gates to all aquatic plants.

Only thing i dont like is cleaning the diffuser once every two weeks. Haha.

Use an inline Co2 reactor... will never clog, gets 100% dissolve rate and is pretty much maintainence free.

[bennyc]

Slowly, become posionous thread and we will be discussing to addition of chillers. Haha.

[Dodofish]

Use an inline Co2 reactor... will never clog, gets 100% dissolve rate and is pretty much maintainence free.

Hmm this is something that i have been considering. I already invested in a solenoid and have more time to enjoy my tank instead of dipping hands every few days. Haha. Which brand offers the largest diameter for hose adaptor?

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[Dodofish]

Slowly, become posionous thread and we will be discussing to addition of chillers. Haha.

Luckily i have my antibiotics. The poison dont hit me as bad. Hahaha.

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[Whitechicks7]

Haha thx for all the advise bros.
This thread slowly becoming poisonous haha.
My tank is only 1.5 feet.
And my lotus and sword sort of stop growing where they reach certain height.. They grow new ones instead.. Started with like 4 stalks.. Now got like 8-9 stalks. Most of them are mini one 2-3 are larger ones..

Will they eventually grow above water lvl?

[Urban Aquaria]

Hmm this is something that i have been considering. I already invested in a solenoid and have more time to enjoy my tank instead of dipping hands every few days. Haha. Which brand offers the largest diameter for hose adaptor?

The reactor choice will depend on your flow rate and bubble count, so you need to make sure you get the right reactor size to fit your setup (ie. reactor too small or flow rate to high, end up Co2 doesn't get dissolved properly... if reactor too large and flow rate to low, end up it slow down flow even further and big pocket of Co2 accumulate in the reactor).

You can look at the Sera 500/1000 reactors or the ISTA turbo/mix max reactors.