# Liquid Carbon Overdose Signs?



## Jimbo1981 (3 May 2017)

Hi

I'm pretty new to the aquascape scene and just wondering if anyone has any advice on how to know whether or not i'm overdosing the tank using Liquid Carbon. The CO2 Gas type looked a bit "Pro" for my needs, but after much reading i may end up going down that route anyway.

For now, i have been using Flourish Excel, which is supposed to be really good stuff and has seemed to work. I have been using it for about a year in my old 65L tank, but all i grew was Java Moss, Christmas Moss and some hair grass.

My new tank is a 140L and had minimal plants to start with and i followed the directions on the bottle. However, it doesn't state anything about the quantity of plants in the tank. Therefore, i have concerns of overdosing the tank; if there are only a few plants should i still dose the same? Does it evaporate, etc? Or if there were no plants, would it continue to build to toxic levels?

The tank has quite a few plants in it now and i paused dosing just encase. However, it would be nice to know if there was a way to check carbon levels? As far as i am aware a drop checker will not work as Carbon is different from CO2.

Thanks

James


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## ian_m (4 May 2017)

You have to massively overdose liquid carbon before you can get issues.

https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/pump-timer-issue-and-liquid-carbon-overdose.36942/

However following on from above.
- Some fish did die.
- Some plants (the big green leafed plant mentioned in the above link) just melted away.
- No algae what so ever was seen for a couple of months 

Anyway if you overdose slightly, as you are worried above, it is not an issue as most liquid carbons break down within 24hours due to reactions and being degraded by light.


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## Zeus. (4 May 2017)

ian_m said:


> most liquid carbons break down within 24hours due to reactions and being degraded by light.



So dosing LCO2 after the photo period makes sense so it has a longer active period before the light breaks it down


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## Jimbo1981 (4 May 2017)

Zeus. said:


> So dosing LCO2 after the photo period makes sense so it has a longer active period before the light breaks it down



I see most CO2 advice saying to start about one hour before lights go on, would this be the same for Liquid Carbon?


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## ian_m (4 May 2017)

Jimbo1981 said:


> I see most CO2 advice saying to start about one hour before lights go on, would this be the same for Liquid Carbon?


Actually normally 2 hours. This is to give time for the CO2 levels in the water to rise to the optimal 30ppm, by the time the lights come on.

Gaseous CO2 and liquid carbon are completely different things, hopefully trying to achieve a carbon supply to the plants.

I would just dose in the morning, when dosing ferts if that is convenient for you.

If dosing using a pump and timer or PLC then might as well dose sometime before lights come on.
https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/how-to-use-a-plc-to-control-your-fish-tank.42993/

I have a 1.8ml per minute dosing pump to dose my tank.


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## Jimbo1981 (4 May 2017)

Thanks Ian, and for the PLC info... That is super cool and gone straight on the "to do" list!

Just a quick one regarding fertalisers, in my old tank i just berried some of those capsules in the substrate and relied on the Seachem substrate. I'm not using anything other than the Seachem substrate in the new larger tank. What liquid ones would you recommend? Would the standard Flourish Trace Elements be enough?


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## Zeus. (4 May 2017)

Jimbo1981 said:


> I see most CO2 advice saying to start about one hour before lights go on, would this be the same for Liquid Carbon?



Yes, read the same myself. But after Ian post


ian_m said:


> degraded by ligh



It made me think (I had read it before about LCO2 being broken down by light, but the penny didnt drop) so have changed mine to dose at Midnight then should have a longer active period as has longer without light. makes sense to me


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## Kezzab (4 May 2017)

Does that make any sense? Dosing carbon when its not required by the plants seems odd, or am I missing something?


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## Zeus. (5 May 2017)

Well I am dosing LCO2 for its anti aglea properties mainly. Do a 1pH drop with [CO2] before photo period. Hence the reasoning in when I dosed the LCO2

Sent from Mountolympus via neural interface


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## AverageWhiteBloke (5 May 2017)

I have always mixed my own Glute and never has any problems with it regarding plant species that are supposed to react badly to it but a couple of months ago I bought some Excel Flourish and it totally destroyed my crypt balansae. Stopped using it for a month and they all recovered nicely. Tried using excel just for some spot dosing on WC change day and again the balansae leaves dissolved about half way up the leaf until the end broke off. Don't know how different they are chemically but there's definitely something in the excel that the plants didn't like and that was at normal dose as a supplement to my co2.
Maybe going to look at how to spot dose with hydrogen peroxide as an alternative.


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## papa_c (5 May 2017)

Zeus. said:


> LCO2 for its anti aglea properties mainly



interesting as I'm doing the same to try and combat BBA on christmas moss, i have no other algea issues. What ml/l level are you dosing, I'm on 15ml in a 180l tank which seems to have no effect. Along with high CO2, drop checker is constantly light green to yellow.


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## Zeus. (5 May 2017)

Well on very low dose ATM acclimatising my plants to the stuff, only recently added some trident so back on 1ml per 500l so not very much at all

Sent from Mountolympus via neural interface


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