Danny
Member
- Joined
- 29 Jul 2012
- Messages
- 863
So before I start let me just say I am not an experienced user of co2 and am also new to a co2 enriched planted tank, my thoughts are based on my own understanding from hours of reading and a lot of trial and error and will probably confuse the hell out of you with my dodgy explanation lol.
This is a very poor description of my thoughts but hopefully it will make sense to some and even help some too.
Algae, everyones favourite thing.... Co2, the miracle cure.... Light, the evil of all tanks.....
My now limited understanding is that when co2 is used correctly to match the light being provided it should help reduce algae, co2 and light not matched correctly will cause algae yes.....well that is the way I look at it.
What happens when you are certain you are correctly diffusing and distributing the co2 to adequately match the lighting source yet algae strikes and hard.... a lot of confusion and searching for answers on how to fix it in my case.
My first step was to look into the circulation of the tank and co2 supply amount, the circulation I am positive was fine but I upped the co2. Then the lighting, that I decided was too intense and both shortened and reduced the intensity so I had my second answer to a lot of questions and was on my way to recovery right?..... nope
Time to look at the nutrients and dosing, using a nutrient rich substrate and dosing liquid ferts and lco2 I was sure I was providing enough of everything to supply the demand of the plants for them to be healthy enough to fight off algae but just incase I increased the ferts and lco2. That should do the trick.....nope
Going round and round in circles and not getting anywhere is not great, no matter what I tried I could not get on top of any algae. But why? I was doing everything by the book? The co2 comes on 2hrs before the lights and is as high as it can be without gassing the fish so whats the problem? why is everything going so wrong?
Time to reduce the dosing, perhaps that is the problem.... well from everything I understand you simply can't have to much ferts but its worth a try.... did it work... nope.
So I have got the lighting sorted, co2 sorted, ferts well they don't matter if they are too high so forget them as no difference to anything at recommended or 4x the dose.
What is left to try and put right? I have done it all?
PH profile needed perhaps? Well I know the co2 is at the limit for the tank without killing the fish so no matter what I can't increase it and you can't have too much for plants anyway so no point as the only thing I could do is decrease it.
Circulation and diffusion have to be fine, everything is growing great in all corners of the tank and its like a mini whirl pool in there.
Then comes the point when everything has failed just give up trying and see what happens, well everything just kept getting worse. If it is getting worse without me doing anything then it can't be something I am actually doing.....It has to be something I haven't considered. But what.....
For weeks I sat looking at the tank before the lights came on at 3pm and always observed the plants "reaching" for natural light, stupidly and blindly I did not pay any attention or thought to it and just looked on like a blind goldfish.
The tank is in a very bright room and does at one point in the morning get natural light directly on a small part of it, as you can see in the natural light the tank is not dark in the slightest on a bright day but the lights are off as is the co2.
For what ever reason I totally neglected the thought of the natural light and need for co2, the tank is awake clearly but it is still hours until the tank light and co2 come on.
So lets go back to the co2+light coupling, if they are matched correctly and the co2 is correctly diffused and circulated there should not be any real algae problems......
The most common question for people starting out with co2, "when do I turn my co2 on" one of my own questions too.
The answer "2hrs before the tank lights come on", the answer I followed.
Lets take a look at the tank again, the lights are off but the tank is awake...... the co2 is not due on for hours..... why? because of the 2hr rule.
Going back to the algae issues now, if co2 is correctly matched to lighting things like hair algae should not be a problem based on lighting and co2..... Anyone had a lightbulb moment yet? I did.
I live in a busy family home, have kids that go to school and so on. The house "wakes up" at 6:30am, lights on etc etc, on nice bright mornings the curtains are opened and even on not so bright as I am sure is the same for the majority of people.
Between the ambient light and natural light the tank also "wakes up" at anywhere from 8am ish, the fish and shrimp come out and the plants start to open.
The tank lights are on a timer as is the co2, lights at 3pm and co2 at 1pm, they run until 10pm and 9pm respectively.
With the tank "waking up" at lets say 8am and co2 not coming on until 1pm there is that precious gap in co2 of 5hrs in my case, in that 5hrs the damage to algae I assume is huge and the root cause of my problems.
If I had taken on bored what I had seen of the plants reaching towards natural light weeks ago I highly doubt I would have had the problems with algae I have, to sum up my rambling.
I am now matching my co2 to the house/natural light, it comes on at 7am and not the previous 1pm and not matching it to the tank light.
It is still early days to say if it will make any difference but in my mind I am certain it will, with a tank in a room bright enough for the plants to start photosynthesis without the tank light on then when the light comes on it is just like a direct hit from the sun basically.
This is a very poor description of my thoughts but hopefully it will make sense to some and even help some too.
Algae, everyones favourite thing.... Co2, the miracle cure.... Light, the evil of all tanks.....
My now limited understanding is that when co2 is used correctly to match the light being provided it should help reduce algae, co2 and light not matched correctly will cause algae yes.....well that is the way I look at it.
What happens when you are certain you are correctly diffusing and distributing the co2 to adequately match the lighting source yet algae strikes and hard.... a lot of confusion and searching for answers on how to fix it in my case.
My first step was to look into the circulation of the tank and co2 supply amount, the circulation I am positive was fine but I upped the co2. Then the lighting, that I decided was too intense and both shortened and reduced the intensity so I had my second answer to a lot of questions and was on my way to recovery right?..... nope
Time to look at the nutrients and dosing, using a nutrient rich substrate and dosing liquid ferts and lco2 I was sure I was providing enough of everything to supply the demand of the plants for them to be healthy enough to fight off algae but just incase I increased the ferts and lco2. That should do the trick.....nope
Going round and round in circles and not getting anywhere is not great, no matter what I tried I could not get on top of any algae. But why? I was doing everything by the book? The co2 comes on 2hrs before the lights and is as high as it can be without gassing the fish so whats the problem? why is everything going so wrong?
Time to reduce the dosing, perhaps that is the problem.... well from everything I understand you simply can't have to much ferts but its worth a try.... did it work... nope.
So I have got the lighting sorted, co2 sorted, ferts well they don't matter if they are too high so forget them as no difference to anything at recommended or 4x the dose.
What is left to try and put right? I have done it all?
PH profile needed perhaps? Well I know the co2 is at the limit for the tank without killing the fish so no matter what I can't increase it and you can't have too much for plants anyway so no point as the only thing I could do is decrease it.
Circulation and diffusion have to be fine, everything is growing great in all corners of the tank and its like a mini whirl pool in there.
Then comes the point when everything has failed just give up trying and see what happens, well everything just kept getting worse. If it is getting worse without me doing anything then it can't be something I am actually doing.....It has to be something I haven't considered. But what.....
For weeks I sat looking at the tank before the lights came on at 3pm and always observed the plants "reaching" for natural light, stupidly and blindly I did not pay any attention or thought to it and just looked on like a blind goldfish.
The tank is in a very bright room and does at one point in the morning get natural light directly on a small part of it, as you can see in the natural light the tank is not dark in the slightest on a bright day but the lights are off as is the co2.
For what ever reason I totally neglected the thought of the natural light and need for co2, the tank is awake clearly but it is still hours until the tank light and co2 come on.
So lets go back to the co2+light coupling, if they are matched correctly and the co2 is correctly diffused and circulated there should not be any real algae problems......
The most common question for people starting out with co2, "when do I turn my co2 on" one of my own questions too.
The answer "2hrs before the tank lights come on", the answer I followed.
Lets take a look at the tank again, the lights are off but the tank is awake...... the co2 is not due on for hours..... why? because of the 2hr rule.
Going back to the algae issues now, if co2 is correctly matched to lighting things like hair algae should not be a problem based on lighting and co2..... Anyone had a lightbulb moment yet? I did.
I live in a busy family home, have kids that go to school and so on. The house "wakes up" at 6:30am, lights on etc etc, on nice bright mornings the curtains are opened and even on not so bright as I am sure is the same for the majority of people.
Between the ambient light and natural light the tank also "wakes up" at anywhere from 8am ish, the fish and shrimp come out and the plants start to open.
The tank lights are on a timer as is the co2, lights at 3pm and co2 at 1pm, they run until 10pm and 9pm respectively.
With the tank "waking up" at lets say 8am and co2 not coming on until 1pm there is that precious gap in co2 of 5hrs in my case, in that 5hrs the damage to algae I assume is huge and the root cause of my problems.
If I had taken on bored what I had seen of the plants reaching towards natural light weeks ago I highly doubt I would have had the problems with algae I have, to sum up my rambling.
I am now matching my co2 to the house/natural light, it comes on at 7am and not the previous 1pm and not matching it to the tank light.
It is still early days to say if it will make any difference but in my mind I am certain it will, with a tank in a room bright enough for the plants to start photosynthesis without the tank light on then when the light comes on it is just like a direct hit from the sun basically.
