I have 2wpg do I HAVE to have co2

tazcat70

tazcat70

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Jun 17, 2009
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Ok, I am new to planted tanks. I have had fish tanks off and on since I was a child...lets say about 25 years. Sometimes I have a few plants, other times none. This time since I had a big tank (55gal) I wanted to do it "right" and so I researched to find they types of fish I wanted, and I knew I wanted lots of plants.

Well I didn't research enough I guess because I put sand in for the majority of my substrate. I then covered the sand with pea sized gravel. I was going for a river bed look. At this point I was still using the basic 15w strip lighting per side. I got a couple of crypts from my other tank some dwarf sag. Then I found the internet and kinda went crazy with buying this and that. I then panicked. Nothing was dying, but I still panicked. So I found an article on how to add CFL to the hoods, so now I have 104w, I used the 6500k bulbs. I have been told that I am "asking" for an algae breakout.

Now for a few more details:

I dose with excel 1-2x per week
flourish comprehensive once a week
flourish Potassium once a week
water change @30% a week

I have 4 briggs, 13 pristella tetras, 10 red cherry shrimp, some pond snails, some MTS.

I think that is it.

Thanks for your help!

Tonya
 
I don't think you're asking for algae. 2wpg isn't a lot of light. If this set up is working well for you don't change it. If you start to see algae or want better plant growth look into CO2 but you could end up not needing it at all. With so many inverts in the tank they'll probably be fighting over any available algae. In my 2wpg tank I only see algae when I leave the lights on too long.

Welcome to the forum!
 
No, you won't have too many algae issues, at least not the bad kind. You'll have the 'normal' green algae on the tank windows, but not too much. Unless your tank is weird or you do something terribly wrong, you'll be fine.

Check this out, the person doses ferts, but has over 2 wpg in all but one of those tanks. No co2.

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=247023
 
Awesome!!! Thanks! I have seen some new growth on lots of plants, and so I was getting lots of different answers.
 
Plus since you're dosing Excel you're giving the plants a source of Carbon. Just be easy on the Excel with your shrimps, they don't mix well sometimes.

Kent
 
schaadrak said:
Plus since you're dosing Excel you're giving the plants a source of Carbon. Just be easy on the Excel with your shrimps, they don't mix well sometimes.

Kent
Click to expand...

I agree with Kent. Be careful when dosing Flourish Excel with shrimps.
 
Not if the shrimp are doing okay. Some people (myself included sometimes) tend too add a little bit more of something over time thinking more is better.
 
I would definitely underdose if you have shrimps. Crystal reds seem to be especially touchy with ferts. Having said that I have not kept CRS (I have cherries, amanos, bamboos and Dark Greens) but do frequent forums specific to shrimpkeeping. I have two shrimp only tanks and I do not dose with any ferts. I have one community tank with RCS and bamboos and do dose ferts on the low side and have not noticed any problems with respect to the shrimps.
 
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