# 95g bottle on 120L tank?



## meejo (7 Aug 2012)

How long would a 95g co2 bottle last on a 120l tank with a coulple of mosses, high lighting, hair grass and java fern last?

I'm a bit of newb to planted aquariums so have spent the last week or so reading the wealth of info on the forum, I'm dosing liquid carbon but need pressurised and fast, money is tight in the short term so I'm looking for a cheap temporary solution until i can afford the one off costs of a bigger system.

Any advice would be just awesome


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## RoughIt (7 Aug 2012)

meejo said:
			
		

> How long would a 95g co2 bottle last on a 120l tank with a couple of mosses, high lighting, hair grass and java fern last?..........money is tight in the short term so I'm looking for a cheap temporary solution until i can afford the one off costs of a bigger system.



If you use the data from this link http://www.plantswap.se/diverse/co2/sum.php the average CO2 usage for their tanks is 11.8 grams per 100 litres per day.
Which for a 120l tank comes to 14.16 g/day.
At that rate a 95g bottle would only last for : 95/14.16= 6.7 days.
This is only an average though so it could last longer ,or shorter, than this.

It might help to say how much you are able to spend and also anything you already have because you'd be amazed how cheaply some people on here have set up their CO2 systems for.

Hopefully somebody will post up some alternative, cost effective options to match your budget or ,if you're lucky , some offers of parts.  

Doug.


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## meejo (7 Aug 2012)

Thank you for the response, I know this type of question must get asked a lot and be tedious for the veterans 

For the next 4 weeks I literally have nothing in my budget, supporting my parents with mortgage payment as well as paying my own rent  

I've got a few things for sale that are being collected over the next week that'd free up around £100, I could spare £50 of that for equipment.


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## RoughIt (7 Aug 2012)

meejo said:
			
		

> I know this type of question must get asked a lot...


Credit must go to Polyester for recently posting that link   
This sort of real world data helps us start moving away from the 'length of string' replies, although it can still only be used as a rough guide.



			
				meejo said:
			
		

> I'm dosing liquid carbon but need pressurised and fast


Are you having any issues that you feel are CO2 related or is it the cost of liquid carbon that is making you look at  pressurised ?

Quite a few people on here are having great success with low/lower tech tanks which could be a short or long term consideration but normally requires a reduction in light. Mosses and ferns are suited for low tech but I'm unsure about hair grass. Maybe somebody with experience can inform us.

I'm still trying to get the light/co2/ferts balance right and just when I think I understand what's required Ceg will post up one of his technical  explanations and I soon realise that I still know nothing.  

Doug.


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## Aqua sobriquet (7 Aug 2012)

Good link Doug, looks like a 800g disposable could last 6 months on my 35L Nano!


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## meejo (7 Aug 2012)

I'm having algae problems, my flow is excellent, I think it's due to my high light, I have a 4x 54w T5 system, I only use 2 tubes but that's still 108w over a 48x12x15 (inch) tank. I used to have it on for about 10 hours a day (i know! amateur) but have just cut it right back to just 4 hours whilst I resolve the root cause of the algae. I dose 1 capful of Flourish Excel and 1 capful of TNC Complete daily, water changes have only been weekly but I'm going to up that to twice weekly 50% changes. I'm concerned that if I dose more liquid carbon it'll affect my moss.


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## meejo (7 Aug 2012)

The tank itself is a good year old, but the plants were only introduced a week ago. I know knew set ups can suffer from algae. The algae is on my DHG, started on my micro swords and spread from there.


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## RoughIt (7 Aug 2012)

Aqua sobriquet said:
			
		

> Good link Doug...


Credit goes to Polyester for sharing the link on another thread.


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## RoughIt (7 Aug 2012)

meejo said:
			
		

> I'm concerned that if I dose more liquid carbon it'll affect my moss.


I've never used liquid CO2 so I'm not able to advise.

I wonder though, if moss isn't tolerant, whether it would be possible to stop all flow in the tank and then spot treat the hairgrass with Excel at a higher dose, utilising its anti algae properties, followed shortly by a very large (80% ?) water change.

Anybody have experience of this ?



			
				meejo said:
			
		

> I think it's due to my high light,I only use 2 tubes but that's still 108w over a 48x12x15 (inch) tank


That does seem a lot of light still, but you don't appear to have any algae that is traditionally associated with CO2 issues ie. hair, bba, staghorn  so at the moment that might not be the problem. (I welcome correction from everybody if I'm wrong in my logic though   )

I have just looked at the photos on your journal and the algae looks the same as I battled for 3 months with no success using normal methods ie. light/co2/ferts/plec/ottos/shrimp/manual removal/water changes.(I could never find a name for it and all searches came back as diatoms, which it wasn't).
I finally resorted to spot treatment of affected plants with H2O2 (which I believe isn't moss friendly).
After two treatments it all died and melted away in a few days and has never appeared again.

Doug.


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## meejo (9 Aug 2012)

I reduced my light to 4 hours a day, that combined with otto/shrimp has eradicated 95% of my algae!

I think I've secured a co2 system, just got to collect tomorrow


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## wazuck (9 Aug 2012)

Ok 2xt5HO at 4inches above the top of the tank is really high light. Take it down to one tube for medium/high. I run 88g on a 28l and it lasts 1-2weeks. the refills cost me £12 for two. That's £12 a month on co2. Due to that I've stopped using it. Easycarbo is more cost effective for me. Until I fill my 567g bottle.


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## RoughIt (10 Aug 2012)

meejo said:
			
		

> I reduced my light to 4 hours a day, that combined with otto/shrimp has eradicated 95% of my algae!
> 
> I think I've secured a co2 system, just got to collect tomorrow


Glad to hear it's on the way to being sorted.
The balancing act between light/Co2/ferts seems to be the hardest part, which I always struggling with, but with trial and error you'll get there.


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## meejo (10 Aug 2012)

Managed to pick this up for £50  

567g TMC Co2 bottle dual gauge solenoid regulator, glass non return valve, bubble counter and diffuser is it? The bottle still has quite a bit of co2 in. Gonna set it up with the lights on a timer tomorrow.


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## RoughIt (11 Aug 2012)

Instant CO2 setup. Good find


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