New planted tank questions

[bulldog]

Hi,

Will too much CO2 kill the fishes? How can I achieve the kind of effect where the plants give out the oxygen? My fishes have gotten white spot and nearly 80% have died, How? To put medicine or not?

[tawauboy]

too much co2 will kill your fishes.
for bubbling effect you need sufficient lights, co2 and nutrients.
maybe you can provide your tank dimensions and plants that you are keeping.
only then more precise advice can be provided.

for white spot, use 1 tablespoon of salt for every 5 gallons.
keep this treatment for at least 2-3weeks.

[juggler]

> Will too much CO2 kill the fishes?
Yes! But if using DIY CO2 and a simple reactor, it should be very safe.

> How can I achieve the kind of effect where the plants give out the oxygen?
For this effect, I should say lighting is the most important plus having the right nutrients. And not too many fish. Certain plants seem to bubble more. eg. Riccia, Glosso. So can try those plants.

[bulldog]

Hi, Well the tank is a 3 ft by 2ft tank with 2 UV light 36W
I have set the CO2 to 2 bubbles per second. Not too sure what
plants they are actually. But i have a log with Ricca tied to
it, 2 bunches of some red leaf plant and 1 green leafy one...
will get the name of the plant and maybe take a picture to show
also.

[Vican]

2x36W is way too little light. You should be looking at 4x36W or maybe even 5x36W. If you go for the 3W/gal ratio, you should be looking at 275W

[NinjaFly]

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Will too much CO2 kill the fishes? How can I achieve the kind of effect where the plants give out the oxygen? My fishes have gotten white spot and nearly 80% have died, How? To put medicine or not?
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Terrence,

As I said, once there is cases of diease outbreak in your tank, you should do water change more often.

[roy]

Wouldn't too much light promote algae?

[DEA]

it's a matter of balance
if you have enough co2, nutrients and some algae control crew, strong light isn't a problem

[bulldog]

At last after changing the water, some @#$%#@ put in 10 Discus into the tank with white spots...Have to redo the whole cycle again. []

[NinjaFly]

I would feel that if there is too much light and the nutrients or NO2/NO3 are unable to control well, it will promote algae growth. In that case, it will be more of a headache!

[acidjc]

In the end, the Discus will die because the PH level is too high.....

[DEA]

bulldog
i think you're too impatient
ok, let's do this step by step
your first goal is to eradicate the white spot
depending on the size of your tank, 10 discus can be too many for the tank
how big's your tank?
regardless, use salt (1 tbsp per 5 gallons or 20l) for a wk and a half to be completely sure that all the ich is removed
while doing this, it's good to do water changes, but be sure to top up the salt
ie you remove 20l, u add 20l of freshwater with 1tbsp of salt

next is the plants
strong light is a double edged sword
if you can control it well, along with good nutrition, there will be no problems
this also depends on the plants you intend to keep
some plants cannot grow well with very strong light, like java fern and anubias barteri var nana due to algae problems
what plants you want to keep will determine the oxygen content in the water
bubbling in the water will occur when there's a lot of oxygen in the water, and fast growing plants usually produce more oxygen
also, to achieve this effect, you will need a lot of co2, which belongs in the nutrition factor

so before we can help u sort this out, you will need to tell us your tank setup etc, the plants you're keeping
but first sort out the white spot problem
one thing at a time

[bulldog]

you are right...it was a bit impatient. The plants i have are :

1)Blyxa japonica
2)Hair Grass
3)Didiplis diandra
4)Hottonia inflate
5)Riccia on a Log
6)Rotala wallichii

It is a 4 feet tank with external filter, surface skimmer. The CO2 system is set to 2 bubbles a second. I also have 2 lights(36watts, 7200K).

[hwchoy]

----------------
On 7/24/2002 10:38:27 PM

you are right...it was a bit impatient. The plants i have are :

1)Blyxa japonica
2)Hair Grass
3)Didiplis diandra
4)Hottonia inflate
5)Riccia on a Log
6)Rotala wallichii

It is a 4 feet tank with external filter, surface skimmer. The CO2 system is set to 2 bubbles a second. I also have 2 lights(36watts, 7200K).


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I think perhaps you're pushing the limit with difficult and slower growing plants like hair grass. These tend to catch algae easily and so should be avoided for a new tank. You need some very fast growers to stablise the tank while the slower plants take root.

In any case, your lights (2×36W) are way too low for riccia and hair grass. I think also the hottonia needs cold water, but I could be confused here. Just for reference, my 2.5ft has 108W.

[bulldog]

i will try to send a picture of the tank tomorrow. i think it will be clearer to see it then. When i bought the light, it showed on the cover of the lights, Arcardia, 36watts. But surprisingly the riccia is growing pretty well.

[bulldog]

how do i put a picture inside here?

[acidjc]

just Copy / Cut and Paste lah.... []

[spilopterus]

Wait a minute, you got UV lights over your tank?! Its not safe for UV lights to be out in the open and how in the world is your tank looking now? Really purple?

You're using the wrong lights and not only that but placing yourself in danger. Its radioactive. [:0]

[budak]

i dun think he's really using UV lights. It's just another one of those marketing things touted by dumbos who dun know anything. Just becos a fluorescent tube has a purplish tinge doesn't mean its UV. Real UV light can't be seen by human eyes, and if it's really UV, you and your fish will be getting skin cancer in no time. Bulldog, methinks these purplish tubes dun do justice to fish tanks, the colour is horrendous. Change to those daylight tubes (available at most hardware stores for less than $10 a piece, check on the tube end that their colour output is 6500K) and you should see a big difference.

[hwchoy]

yeah, agree with Budak. Forget the Kelvin, spend the money on wattage. So true for planted tanks.