# Tank Addicted to Easy Carbo



## AverageWhiteBloke (15 May 2010)

After all the warnings about the stuff I have tried weaning my tank off EasyCarbo aswell as upping my Co2 and circulation using an internal filter but usually after a week of not dosing it my BBA starts growing back and I again reach for the EC. Am I making things worse by doing this?
Just wondering if its all or nothing with this stuff, do you have to reach a certain level of the chemical in the water before it does its job? I have been just adding the reco dosage on water change day to make up for any short fall and spot dosing anything that has a BBA build up mid week as a sort of compromise but if that's a waste of time I need to either up my co2 game or add EC to my list of consumables and daily dose.

Interested in what you have to say.


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## ceg4048 (15 May 2010)

BBA usually is telling you that your CO2 injection has instability issues as opposed to being low in concentration (although it may also be low as well). The liquid carbon kills the algae while at the same time attenuates the instability, thereby completely masking root cause. Are you one of those ph controller junkies? If not, then timing of the gas ON/OFF cycle should be looked at first. Is your dropchecker at the target colour when lights come on, or does it take a few hours to arrive at that colour?

Cheers,


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## AverageWhiteBloke (16 May 2010)

> Are you one of those ph controller junkies


I don't think so but it's possible   I just keep the DC lime green which is usually right before lights come on.


> BBA usually is telling you that your CO2 injection has instability issues as opposed to being low in concentration (although it may also be low as well)


Cheers, sometimes I need to read posts back to make me realise what was staring me in the face. Over the last few weeks I have been experimenting with DC fluids and best way to diffuse co2 and that is probably the root cause of the BBA and like you have said I am just masking the problem I'm creating by using the easycarbo.

Hopefully I have now sorted out what works best for me, I have set up a small internal filter that pushes water along the curved front glass to the plants where BBA was worst and between my DIY co2 and pressurised combination I can regulate the co2 levels. 
So you know m8, I have a systemised aquarium which I fear may also be causing fluctuation problems with the CO2 by driving it off in trickle filters that can't be sealed. Most of the messing I have been doing is to make sure that every other factor has been made right before I may have to inevitably get an external canister filter but by doing this I would need to destroy the hood where the trickle filter is. I'm also on a budget


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## ceg4048 (16 May 2010)

Hi,
    Well I don't think the trickle filter would necessarily cause an instability because the CO2 loss through venting/agitation would be more or less constant, so this would cause lower CO2 levels possibly, which would then be reflected in the need to increase the injection rate. To verify that your new method works you need to get rid of the BBA that is there now because it won't just go away even if you now have a good working system. Resume the liquid dosing and then slowly withdraw again to test your new technique.

Cheers,


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## AverageWhiteBloke (16 May 2010)

Thats good news on the filter being constant I can get a green DC fairly constant. The amount I inject would probably have the fish gasping in an enclosed canister filtered system so using DIY keeps costs down. Maintaining these levels with just my 600gram pressure set up would probably be more cost effective biting the bullet and getting a canister which would then be able to be connected to an inline diffuser. Unfortunately this system is not very co2 friendly but it was set up 4 fish only there are no pipes simply sucked up with a power head, sprayed on media in lid and gravity fed back down into the tank.
Thats why cutting holes for external pipes would destroy it as they would need to be cut through the media chamber so I'm pretty much stuck with a bit of de- dassing compounded by having to use not the most effective method of diffusion.

Hopefully  I can overcome this by having a tank not so dependant on co2 so its not such an issue by keeping lighting low and using species of plant that favour these conditions, after all Im aiming for a long term planted tank with the plants being a nice natural back drop for the fish rather than an aquascaping high tech. 

Sound advice about using the EC to rid the BBA, I would have been getting frustrated at it not going when everything else was ok and will do just that.     

Cheers again you have opened my eyes to a lot of wrong assumptions the last couple of days, much appreciated


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