Need guidance

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confusion

AC Members
Jun 3, 2006
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I have a few questions:

How can I improve my CO2 levels?

Do I need to dose with any other ferts, like trace or macro nutrients whilest using root tabs?

Do I need to add laterite or some other substrate, particularly for microswords?

Here's my situation:

I have a 30G cube tank with an 80W sattelite fixture (standard actinc and daylight bulbs) and an 18w daylight fixture that came with the tank. The lights are on about 12 hours per day. Also, this tank gets about 1 to 2 hours of direct sunlight per day. I have a sheer curtain in the window, but it still makes the 93W of lights I have look like they're turned off.

I have normal gravel as a substrate and am using the seachem root tabs. I dose 1/2 cap of flourish every other day and perform about 30% weekly water changes. About 8 days ago, I added the hagen CO2 ladder system, and I'm using the DIY mix of sugar and yeast, getting about 1 bubble every 2 or 3 seconds. The bubbles don't completely dissolve, and I have an older "bell" system catching the remnants of the bubbles for further absorbtion.

I been testing my CO2 levels, and haven't seen them get about about 9ppm. I also have a red sea real-time CO2 indicator that has never been in the "green" zone. Yesterday, I realized that my air stone was probably causing a problem and turned it off. I had hoped that I would wake up and see the CO2 indicator in the green, since the air stone was off and CO2 was being added over night, with no absorbtion by plants with the lights off, but it was still showing low. Now, I'm starting to wonder if my HOB bio wheel (marineland 350) filter is disturbing the water enough to cause the CO2 to gas out of the water.

Before I added the CO2 system, I had a HORRIBLE BBA problems. The BBA seems to be dying back now, so I think it is having some effect.

My plants haven't been doing that well, though part of it was that I was unknowingly buying non-aquatic plants. I've switched over to mostly ferns, amazon swords and micro swords. The micro swords are really doing nothing.
 

djlen

Fish?.......What Fish?
Aug 19, 2002
3,515
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Somerdale, New Jersey USA
The air stone was gassing off the CO2 and is not a good option when injecting. The least amount of surface disturbance that you can have is the best. Take a piece of filter sponge and cut it to the width of the return ramp on the HOB, put a slit in it and fit it over the lip on the return. This should almost completely alleviate any disturbance and will help a lot with your ppm.

I would suggest considering another bottle of CO2 mix daisy-chained to what you are already using for more BPM which will increase the ppm in the water table, or going pressurized if affordable. Your tank size puts you on the upper edge of what most consider DIY CO2 more trouble than it's worth for maintaining 25 - 30 ppm.
Either way, IMO it's a good idea to dose Seachem's Excel in conjunction with the gas when BBA is occurring. It will do wonders on that particular red algae. I dose Excel as a matter of course along with pressurized CO2 because it seems to give my plants a boost.

Again, I personally don't like or use root tabs and find them unnecessary even for my 'root feeders'. They can cause serious algae issues if disturbed before spent (60 - 90 days). So if you've got them in the substrate don't disturb them.

Sunlight can cause issues as well so I would monitor the tank to see if you need to do anything to darken what's coming from the window. I've had tanks in that circumstance that did just fine and some that were a real problem. The thing is that light from the sun can not be controlled and changes in intensity with the season in some cases. So if it's not an issue currently, it could become one down the road. I would keep and eye on it.

You've got just over 3 wpg (not including what ever you're getting from the window) over the tank and will need all the carbon absorption you can get to keep up with it.
Also, you will need to balance your nutrients and supply all the necessities (N,P,K and micros) to push the plants to grow. My suggestion would be to lose the root tabs(when they are spent) and start using the Macros and Micros in powdered form (more cost effective) as opposed to Flourish N,P,K which will cost you in a big way for your tank, over the long haul. Micros are best dosed daily IME, because some of them do not have a long shelf life in the water table. The most important of those that don't hold up well is Fe.

Len
 

GirlieGirl8521

Planted Tank Collector
Dec 21, 2006
883
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Alabama
I agree with what's said above. :) I'd get another bottle going because if you are using the Hagen cannister for the CO2, its not enough for your size tank. They are only rated for 20g. I'd get a 2 liter bottle going along with what you have. That should increase your CO2 levels. It was a good idea to turn the airstone off because it was most likely outgassing what CO2 you were getting. With that light you really need more ferts. You should pick up some Potassium, Nitrogen (or Nitrate in the form of KNO3), and maybe even Phosphorus depending on what your phosphate level in the tank is.

Check out http://www.gregwatson.com for dry ferts. I bought my KNO3 and KSO4 from him in powder form. He also sells a micro mix called CSM+B.
 

confusion

AC Members
Jun 3, 2006
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Thanks for the replys. I'll take a look at buying the dry ferts from gregwatson.com. I believe the instructions on using them are in the EI thread, correct?

The reason I went with the flourish tabs is that they allegedly contained the micro and macro nutrients and would release them over time. Is that incorrect?

I'm definitely going to get a 2L bottle going to additional CO2.

My phosphates are quite high - on the top end of the test I have - 5ppm maybe? I know that the root tabs have phosphate in them, so I'm assuming that along with the fish are the source of all that phosphate.
 

djlen

Fish?.......What Fish?
Aug 19, 2002
3,515
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Somerdale, New Jersey USA
A good way to find out is to test your tap water for N, P, ph, gH and kH. The best way to do that is to take sample out and let it sit on the counter for a couple of hours.
Then test the above and write down the numbers because with all the testing it is easy to forget tap from tank and so on.:) Keep them handy for future reference. That way you'll always know whether there is something in the tank (food, fish etc.) that is causing certain numbers to rise.

I would make the changes that we've suggested above and then test again for ppm before adding another bottle of DIY/CO2 because the air stone and the HOB can gas off an awful lot of CO2. If you then find that the ppm is too low you can add another bottle. It should be in the 25 ppm range at lights out. No higher because it will go up over night when the plants don't use it and could potentially harm the fish. Be careful with CO2 until you know what you're getting.
Once again, my opinion is that the tabs are not going to give you all the nutrients that you need/want for the higher lighting you are supplying. Balancing a tank (fish load, plant mass, nutrients, and light intensity) becomes more critical at higher lighting. For that reason dry ferts. are more accurately dosed and the better option.

Here is a link for a really nice EI calculator that takes the guess work out of dosing with EI: http://aquafacts.net/showthread.php?t=1924
If you click on Quenton's link it will download his calculator for you.

Len
 

epicfish

AC Members
Sep 4, 2006
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Ever think of pressurized? Trying to hit levels above 20ppm with a) DIY CO2 and b) a Bio-Wheel is practically impossible.

You can switch to another type of HOB and combine it with pressurized to get optimal levels of CO2, but not with a Bio-Wheel. DIY CO2 with an AquaClear HOB might be a bit tricky too...

For the amount of time, effort, and money spent dosing Excel and chaging out your water/sugar/yeast solutions, you could piece together a used CO2 system for cheap...plus, it'd get you to optimal levels...almost guaranteed.
 
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