My 1st New fish tank with DIY C02. Need advice

[dna9179]

Hi i'm new to this forum and hopefully i post this thread in the right place. (Dear Mob kindly move my thread if it's not suitable here, thanks )

Hi everyone, this is the 1st time i started with my very own little aquarium and taking it up seriously as a hobby. As i'm still newbie, i really need the advice of many Aquarius here.

After setting up my 1st tank like 3 week ago, i decided to fully focus in planting and Aquascaping to make it look better as well for a better living place for my fishes.

After google online and searching through forum, i know that in order to maintain and successful in reaching my goal, there are many changes that i need to make. But i'm doing it with no or little experience.

This is the tank i started with, it's pretty simple and the detail of my aquarium is here:
45x30x30
36.45 litres
Boyu SP-602F QMAX： 340L/h
Lighting: the box said 9W

Inside my tank i got like
5 guppy
2 algae eater (Gold colour type of xiao jin lin)
3 Malayan Shrimp (still alive)
and neon.


And i'm determine to make it look like at art examples:


Lol pretty much changes to do right?
But i'm gonna try, at the same time need advice.

Continue next posting

[dna9179]

I decided to take steps by step instead of spending on everything without knowing will it works or not.

Step1: I want to grow Hemianthus callitrichoides Cuba and let it cover the foreground and spread eventually. this step is the most challenging step as it's not easy for Hemianthus callitrichoides to grow and spread. I bought the plant and i planted them onto the foregound already


I know the lighting and c02 is vital to the grow of this plant and the current problem i having is the lighting.

Lighting: the box said 9W

I believe not enough right?
bcoz of my little 9W lighting is low and i dun intent to change right now so i position the light right next to the HC temporarily to provide more lighting strength.


Question: If i would like to change the lighting, how many W of lighting and which brand are good and i hear those term like T5 T6, what does that mean?

C02 next part

[dna9179]

C02 setup

I decided to set up a DIY C02 bcoz of budget.
Again i google it and finally i did one of my tank.



the c02 reactor is done but after doing more research i decided to make changes to it by adding a bubble-counter/trap to prevent the c02 to dirt the tank




Diffuser

BUT i do not know if it fail bcoz of the counter/trap.
after i connect the tube to the counter/trap, i notice the different between with the trap and without it. without the trap and directly to the diffuser, it take a while for me to see tiny bubble coming up the glass up.
When i connect to the trap be it the jar or the syringe tube, i can almost never see the tiny air comes out from the glass diffuser.

currently i removed the trap and direct it to the diffuser and it's work with tiny bubble coming out.

But then as i do more research, i realise the C02 dissolve in the water is NOT THE TINY BUBBLE coming out from the diffuser, they slowly dissolve through the glass and those excess gases will then come out from the diffuser thus forming the tiny bubble rising up. Is this ture?

[boxedfish]

i think u should use a stone diffuser rather than a ceramic glass diffuser. you need more pressure from your source to drive a glass diffuser and your DIY co2 container will not be able to maintain the pressure to drive it over time, maybe possible in the first 2-3 days only.

[dna9179]

i think u should use a stone diffuser rather than a ceramic glass diffuser. you need more pressure from your source to drive a glass diffuser and your DIY co2 container will not be able to maintain the pressure to drive it over time, maybe possible in the first 2-3 days only.

Hi thanks for been the 1st to reply me in my thread.

Having heard alot of bad comment using stone diffuser as it will create white foam and the result of diffusing by stone diffuser is not as good. therefore i chose the glass diffuser. currently the diffuser is still running and i do see tiny bubble coming out from the top and rise to the top of the tank, does this mean those bubble rising up is the extra gases that haven't been absorb by the tank water?

[boxedfish]

Hi thanks for been the 1st to reply me in my thread.

Having heard alot of bad comment using stone diffuser as it will create white foam and the result of diffusing by stone diffuser is not as good. therefore i chose the glass diffuser. currently the diffuser is still running and i do see tiny bubble coming out from the top and rise to the top of the tank, does this mean those bubble rising up is the extra gases that haven't been absorb by the tank water?

no matter u use stone or glass diffuser, will have bubbles. The difference is that bubbles from the glass diffuser is more fine. the co2 will not be immediately be absorbed by the water in such a short time. what i do is place the stone or glass diffuser under the outlet of the filter and let the current from the filter blow the tiny bubbles to the other parts of the tank, thus having better co2 distribution. U will still see bubbles using this method. I would advise just get a cheap second-hand co2 tank/unit. really saves you a lot of trouble in the long run. i myself got fed-up by DIY co2 after a week that i bought myself a co2 tank.

[green palette]

yea when i did my DIY last time and fitted a diffuser, i realised that the gas was trapped in the bottle instead and it looked like it was going to explode because the pressure is not strong enough for the diffuser. I switched to the air stone instead..worked pretty well but the down side is that you can't control the CO2 and it is very tedious! hehs..hope it works out for you anywayz. =)

[Wahlin]

I decided to take steps by step instead of spending on everything without knowing will it works or not.

Step1: I want to grow Hemianthus callitrichoides Cuba and let it cover the foreground and spread eventually. this step is the most challenging step as it's not easy for Hemianthus callitrichoides to grow and spread. I bought the plant and i planted them onto the foregound already


I know the lighting and c02 is vital to the grow of this plant and the current problem i having is the lighting.

Lighting: the box said 9W

I believe not enough right?
bcoz of my little 9W lighting is low and i dun intent to change right now so i position the light right next to the HC temporarily to provide more lighting strength.


Question: If i would like to change the lighting, how many W of lighting and which brand are good and i hear those term like T5 T6, what does that mean?

C02 next part

You should be able to get 32W PL which is about 1.5FT.

32W on 1.5FT tank for HC may be enough but not too sure. 9W can be very challenging.

[dna9179]

oh thanks again for all the advice.

Ok let round them up.

second-hand co2 tank/unit: I'm kind of worry that second hand stuff will some how have abit of problem here and there as for new set is pretty expensive and seriously 2nd hand also quite expensive cost $80-100++ as i seen. Another issue i'm worry is the co2 tank is pretty big in size right? i'm having a small tank haha. I may need to source out the 2nd hand c02 tank and small tank if possible. Anyway what to do what the tank get empty? where to fill and how much does the filling cost again?

ok the lighting i will take note, may change the lighting when i get pay the next month.

Do u recommend me which kind of plant supplement from seachem to dose for my HC. currently with the C02 and upcoming new light, i think the last pointer is plant supplement. Which model of seachem product is best to provide my HC what it's short of? thanks every1 for your time and advice, should my HC success, i will post the picture out and share my newbie experience

[boxedfish]

new co2 tank, i think 2 litres with manual regulator and bubble counter cost $69. empty tank can bring back to some aquarium for 1 to 1 exchange plus pay around $15. maybe need to refill once in 6 months to 1 year depending on usage. imagine no need to brew new co2 concoctions for months!!! no need to smell that awful smell and chances of accident much lowered.

[dna9179]

no matter u use stone or glass diffuser, will have bubbles. The difference is that bubbles from the glass diffuser is more fine. the co2 will not be immediately be absorbed by the water in such a short time. what i do is place the stone or glass diffuser under the outlet of the filter and let the current from the filter blow the tiny bubbles to the other parts of the tank, thus having better co2 distribution. U will still see bubbles using this method. I would advise just get a cheap second-hand co2 tank/unit. really saves you a lot of trouble in the long run. i myself got fed-up by DIY co2 after a week that i bought myself a co2 tank.

Ok i change the position of my diffuser as what u suggest.
Like this right? so my filter will blew the tiny bubble when it rise up
[IMG][/IMG]

[dna9179]

new co2 tank, i think 2 litres with manual regulator and bubble counter cost $69. empty tank can bring back to some aquarium for 1 to 1 exchange plus pay around $15. maybe need to refill once in 6 months to 1 year depending on usage. imagine no need to brew new co2 concoctions for months!!! no need to smell that awful smell and chances of accident much lowered.

Serious? care to tell me which model and where got sell? i stay at hougang east side so i may go see see, if really at $69 i think it worth it ba, haha. thank thanks, i only remember ppl selling 2nd hand like $80-$100 assume new 1 will be expensive.

[boxedfish]

do u see the bubbles get distributed to other parts of the tank? if yes, then it;s working. adjust a few times to get the optimum results..

[boxedfish]

check your email about where to buy, i cant pm you.

[dna9179]

do u see the bubbles get distributed to other parts of the tank? if yes, then it;s working. adjust a few times to get the optimum results..

ya the outlet blew the tiny bubble rise from the diffuser around.

thanks!

[dna9179]

check your email about where to buy, i cant pm you.

ya can;t PM because i got less than 30post.

my email did not have your mail. i give u my email here.

[email protected]

once again thanks thanks

[dna9179]

yo i received your email already thanks.
i upload an video of the C02 in my tanks. Do take a look, Wonder will the amount C02 get too much or not. haha

YouTube - C02 fish tank

[dna9179]

Do anyone recommend me which kind of plant supplement from seachem to dose for my HC. currently with the C02 and upcoming new light, i think the last pointer is plant supplement. Which model of seachem product is best to provide my HC what it's short of? thanks every1 for your time and advice, should my HC success, i will post the picture out and share my newbie experience

[diazman]

Question: If i would like to change the lighting, how many W of lighting and which brand are good and i hear those term like T5 T6, what does that mean?





There is a variety of lighting equipments available at the LFS. the term T5 T6 refers to the diameter of the fluorescent light tube. you can use the aquarium calculator located at the top of this forum to find out how many liters your tank hold before buying. remember, HC requires quite a decent amount of high lighting. hope this helps

[diazman]

Do anyone recommend me which kind of plant supplement from seachem to dose for my HC. currently with the C02 and upcoming new light, i think the last pointer is plant supplement. Which model of seachem product is best to provide my HC what it's short of? thanks every1 for your time and advice, should my HC success, i will post the picture out and share my newbie experience

correct me if im wrong. im using sachem flourish and trace for my tank. looks well for me.