I agree with the statement that it depends on the tank. You certainly can have a nice, healthy setup w/o it.
CO2 for planted tank..Do I Need?
- Thread starter ddlbrooks
- Start date
Thanks for the info... I think I'll just try adding the flourish and see what happens, I have two T5 bulbs that are suppose to be for plants.
As stated it all depends on what you want.
CO2 speeds up the growth of the plants. It also can speed up the development of algae problems if you don't have the nutrients in balance.
The first things I'd look at are the lighting and you nutrient dosing schedule. By tweaking the lighting amount, photoperiod, and fertilizer amounts you can make dramatic improvements with plant growth.
If the tank is under 20 gallons you can setup a DIY CO2 with yeast and sugar water. It is highly variable but will give you an indication of what benefit a pressurized CO2 system will give you.
What size of tank do you have? What is your lighting and fertilizing schedule?
CO2 speeds up the growth of the plants. It also can speed up the development of algae problems if you don't have the nutrients in balance.
The first things I'd look at are the lighting and you nutrient dosing schedule. By tweaking the lighting amount, photoperiod, and fertilizer amounts you can make dramatic improvements with plant growth.
If the tank is under 20 gallons you can setup a DIY CO2 with yeast and sugar water. It is highly variable but will give you an indication of what benefit a pressurized CO2 system will give you.
What size of tank do you have? What is your lighting and fertilizing schedule?
tank is 130 and fertilizing has not been regular. I got the flourish excel today and will start using as directed. I have two T5 bulbs @ 54 watt and 6500k. Do you think this is enough light? Should I do more fertilizing other than the flourish?
thanks
thanks
The lighting that you have is suitable for low light only plants. Stuff like Java fern, Java moss, or elodea. If you want to grow better plants the first thing to do is to upgrade the lighting. Two more T5 bulbs like what you have should get you to a good light level on a tank that size. You could even go as high as 4 more bulbs like the ones that you have but that might overdo it.
Personally would add in another pair of T5's above the tank. This will give you 216W of light over a 130 gallon tank. You should be able to grow most plants well in this amount of light.
Adding in CO2/excel with low light is not going to give you any benefit. Your limiting factor is light not CO2 in the tank.
Next you should start dosing a N P K and Trace elements on a schedule. The 50 fish that you have probably do not produce enough food for the plants (unless you have very few plants). Generally buying dry ferts online is cheaper. For $30 you can get more than a years supply.
So upgrade your lighting, start regular fertilizing and then see how your plants respond. If it still isn't good enough for you then look into setting up the whole CO2 thingy.
Personally would add in another pair of T5's above the tank. This will give you 216W of light over a 130 gallon tank. You should be able to grow most plants well in this amount of light.
Adding in CO2/excel with low light is not going to give you any benefit. Your limiting factor is light not CO2 in the tank.
Next you should start dosing a N P K and Trace elements on a schedule. The 50 fish that you have probably do not produce enough food for the plants (unless you have very few plants). Generally buying dry ferts online is cheaper. For $30 you can get more than a years supply.
So upgrade your lighting, start regular fertilizing and then see how your plants respond. If it still isn't good enough for you then look into setting up the whole CO2 thingy.
This is incorrect and there's specific aquatic plant research that support that it is incorrect, see Tropica for more there.
Low light + CO2 allows the plants to maximize the low light availability, basically being able to use what little light there is more efficiently.
This is due to allocation of limiting resources, in this case light.
If the plants does not have to spend more resources trying to sequester what tiny amounts of limiting CO2 is there, then it can use those resources to gather 100% of the light. No resources are side tracked to try and get limiting CO2 and limiting light.
Plants can focus on one thing.
Same is true for nutrients.
If there is no nutrient stress/limitation, plants can be better use CO2/light.
If you have low light, then adding CO2 will be easier because there is lower CO2 demand than say a high light tank, nutrient dosing is also much easier, and of course, there's MUCH less algae because light is about the only thing limiting he rates of algae growth other than poor plant health.
The other nice thing is that you can grow most any species together and lushly. You do not chose species that are weedy, you chose lower light and good CO2/nutrients so the rates of growth are controlled by light, not CO2 etc.
This way by adjusting the light, you can manage and grow the plants nicely, but at mosr any rate you chose.
Light is far more stable/controllable than CO2/nutrients also.
Light is also the largest source of wasted $$ in electric if it's excessive for a given goal.
Here's some examples of low light + CO2:
This is a 180 Gal 36" away from the lights, using PC lights at a tad under 2 w/gal or 40 micromols.
I think the issue for this persona's goal is really a good spread of light, I agree, 4x 54 W t5 would be best, but if they wanted just a central area with plants, they could do it fairly easily with 2 x 54, but it would not look as good I think.
Get CO2 first, then consider more light.
Not add more light, then add CO2, this leads to poorer growth, algae, whereas adding CO2 will help maximize growth and be easier to get more out of less light/different plant species etc.
Check out Tropica's article if you do not understand the allocation issue.
Light and CO2:
Look under the Biology of Water plants, there's 4 parts to the article:
http://www.tropica.com/go.asp?article=835
CO2 in planted aquariums.
http://www.tropica.com/go.asp?article=835
Regards,
Tom Barr
Not to suggest non CO2 is a bad idea, but there are certain limitations and more patience is required, here's an example that's a non CO2 low light tank also, but it does not get any water changes, just top offs and the species are more limited:
Still, a nice looking tank.
Regards,
tom Barr
Still, a nice looking tank.
Regards,
tom Barr
Wow...your tanks are beautiful!! I started adding the flourish excel already...as of yesterday. I'm going to order the fert..n p k as mentioned earlier and I've started checking on the 4 t5's. Now what I'm understanding you to say is start with the co2 and fertilizers and then add the lights...is that correct? Did I understand you to say it would not be wise to start using the 4 t5's right away? I will go to these web sites and read to get a better understanding. I really appreciate you sharing all this info with me. Thanks
