# Liquid co2 vs Gas



## Danny (20 Nov 2017)

With say 75l of water how much difference will there be between using gas or liquid co2? 

The main plant will be marsilea hirsuta so not a desperate need for co2.


----------



## ceg4048 (20 Nov 2017)

Danny said:


> With say 75l of water how much difference will there be between using gas or liquid co2?
> 
> The main plant will be marsilea hirsuta so not a desperate need for co2.




Hi,
    The number of liters does not really matter if you are dosing the liquid according to the bottle suggested amounts.
At the end of the day, Excel and other Gluteraldehyde products does not have anywhere near the effectiveness of gas.
Unfortunately, no one knows what the actual numbers in percentages are. It would be very difficult to give a number as there are so many variables in the tank as well as there being parameters that we cannot measure.

The best advice is to not use as much light intensity with Gluteraldehyde as you would with gas.

Cheers,


----------



## foxfish (20 Nov 2017)

I think C02 would offer faster growth & a mature looking tank in less time but, also require more attention.


----------



## Danny (20 Nov 2017)

ceg4048 said:


> Hi,
> The number of liters does not really matter if you are dosing the liquid according to the bottle suggested amounts.
> At the end of the day, Excel and other Gluteraldehyde products does not have anywhere near the effectiveness of gas.
> Unfortunately, no one knows what the actual numbers in percentages are. It would be very difficult to give a number as there are so many variables in the tank as well as there being parameters that we cannot measure.
> ...


Going for such a low tech carpet I figured to go all out with a gas system would be overkill and dosing liquid carbon and ferts would just be easier. 

The only thing is I don't know much about either so don't know just how much of a difference in affect there could be between them.


----------



## Zeus. (20 Nov 2017)

The other thing to bear in mind is the depth of the tank, deep tank require more light to grow carpet as the light intensity drops of fast though water, so in a deeper tank more chance of algae issues as upper parts of tank receiving more light to keep your carpet going


----------



## ceg4048 (20 Nov 2017)

Danny said:


> Going for such a low tech carpet I figured to go all out with a gas system would be overkill and dosing liquid carbon and ferts would just be easier.



Yes, the liquid is so much easier, but the cost can add up quickly. Remember it has to be added at least once daily. It also more than likely that you'll have to add multiple times the bottle recommendation.

For a 20USG tank it's probably not as much of an economic burden as it would be for larger tanks. Best to avoid the popular brands...

As I mentioned, it a BIG difference between the two.

Cheers,


----------



## Bolota (20 Nov 2017)

This is one of the obscure topics in planted aquariums. 
See what the JBL Science people say (see link). Is it true? 
https://www.jbl.de/en/blog/detail/133/the-story-of-liquid-co2-fertilisation-the-reliability


----------



## ceg4048 (20 Nov 2017)

Hi Bolota,
               Well, as we mentioned, the difference in performance between gas and liquid is huge, so that in order to achieve the equivalent performance for a specific CO2 concentration, one would require highly toxic concentration levels. But that is not the way we use the liquid. We do not attempt to match the effectiveness of CO2. We reduce the lighting knowing that the liquid isn't as effective. If we were to dose the amounts listed in the article, we would risk toxicity not only to the animals in the tank, but also to the plants themselves as this disinfectant has toxic thresholds for the plants.

So again, do not try to match the equivalent of 20ppm CO2 gas. Simply use multiples of the bottle suggested dosages such as 2X.
Adjust the lighting downwards, knowing that you are providing less effective CO2.

Cheers,


----------

