• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

Am I gassing my fish with CO2?

Cheers Tom,

That's such a nice tank, also Hydrocotyle tripartita seems nearly the same as Glosso which is odd, well according to Google images.

I think I understand your low tech approach much better now and I've read some of your journal again, I also have already read post #10 but like mentioned I didn't know how to tell what deficiencies are what as the terrestrial deficiency diagrams are irrelevant which I learnt from Clive so would have no idea how to figure which is which but you answered when you mentioned the all-in-one fert.

I'm not to sure if low tech is what I want or not as I only have one tank and this is kind of my only hobby, so I enjoy getting my hands in scrubbing, pruning, tampering around... obviously yours is very low tech indeed and this is what your goal was, I'm not sure how someone can speed up the growth on a low tech tank other than adding liquid carbon / co2 / light etc. Also did you ever find out the answer to CO2 and surface agitation? is it better to have hardly no ripple and use the CO2 content inside the tank? or in the end did you go with full surface movement? I see Darrel mentions he uses a venturi for gas exchange so I presume the latter is the best option to provide CO2 to the tank?

For now I think I will stick to my 50% water change's, Keep CO2 off, but I will use my liquid carbon, as I would like to see how things go with that approach and see how my fish / plants respond, At least I would have tried that approach, I will keep doing some research on how much to dose ferts wise, and how much water changes I should do with liquid carbon and EI, as obviously that's my concern right now as I don't want raising nutrients, or any other issues.

If I don't see much or any improvement in a month, then maybe I will take a leaf out your book and just go pure low tech, and kind of copy your approach, with out the soil etc. I presume I would still do the 10% water changes as well and let leafs rot etc? and then just dose via the duckweed index, also do you use duckweed personally? or you just wait for a plant to show yellowing etc then you dose your all in one?

I presume your approach will be safe to do even with many fish in my tank? I see you have some fish, and odd inverts, so I guess your not heavily stocked etc. I would just be concerned about the rotting organic waste? and only the 10% water change a week when with clown loaches etc its recommend to do 50% a week just with them.

Thanks for everyone's help, I might sound stressed out or come across like I am confused as I am most the time, but I do want to learn!, and I enjoy it once I understand it, I've learnt a lot here in the last couple of weeks so I don't mind the CO2 route, I would rather have a headache than just chuck in the towel. Pressurised CO2 has worked for me in the past, just when things go wrong they seem to go wrong, and this time my tank has not recovered, especially after the diatom outbreak, so I'm now at the beginning of a new road, and I'm sure I will get there in the end, hopefully with out losing any more fish or dying plants.
 
Last edited:
Hi jafooli
Heres my 35l liquid carbon tank
EC82D425-4FB4-47BB-B6BB-655E0ABC6752_zpssboc6yez.jpg

Tank gets 2ml liquid carbon daily and 3.5ml of TNC complete once a week
Its not much of a scape but the plants are healthy and the fish and shrimp seem ok. I wouldn't dose more than 1.5x liquid carbon if you have breeding or sensitive shrimp in the tank though
 
Hey Andy cheers for posting your tank I really appreciate it. Your tank looks very healthy :D

Isn't 2ml more than double the dose on your tank? I thought it was 1ml per 50 litres? Do different brands have different dosing guidelines?

I was going to keep mine in the guidelines, and not even double dose, not until I get more experience.

I presume TNC complete is an all in one, is there any reason you only dose once a week and not 2-3x a week.. also what water changes do you do as I'm curious.

Not sure if you know the answer or not but do you think my tank would be fine if I kept my current EI dosing and 50% water changes along with 4ml liquid carbon?
 
Its about 3x dose and i built up to it slowly and watched the fauna. At about 3.5x dose the fish sat on the bottom and the shrimp tried to climb out, this lasted for about 2-3 hours after dosing
Complete is an all in one fert from the sponsors i use their liquid carbon too, its easy on the wallet
I dose complete after a 50% weekly water change which is about 1/3 ei dose, it seems to work and easy to remember.
The tanks been running for about a year the first few months were it was plagued with every kind of algae but bit by bit we got there with a bit of help from ukaps
I cant answer the question about your tanks regime but 1x liquid carbon dose wasn't enough for the amount of light in my tank thats why it gets a 3x dose.
 
Cheers I'm not sure how I will figure out if my dose is not enough or not, I guess I will give it few weeks then increase and watch fish / plants etc.

How do you store your liquid carbon? I purchased mine from aqua essentials and just waiting for a response as I have no idea, when it arrived it seemed like it had been refrigerated.
Also mine is in a transparent bottle, I read liquid carbon (mostly seachem excel) is sensitive to light and then it wont work as effectively, so am worried as mine is in a 500ml transparent container.
 
Just an update, my clown loaches are actually about and swimming, they all seem fine. Its the first time I've seen them for weeks. All other fish seem much more happy, all back to exploring and looking for food. Strange how not injecting CO2 has made a difference as it would of only been on for 3 hours, but might be to early to tell, but positive signs so far.

I've just done my second dose of liquid carbon, I try to keep the stuff away from me as I read its not good for health or some other reason, I didn't pay much attention but cant be that bad.

I also noticed my nymphaea lotus bulb leafs have opened up today, this plant looks stunning, I am exited to see how big it does actually grow. My only concern now is every plant I buy from here on out I'm need to do research encase liquid carbon causes it to melt? as I see that's one issue about liquid carbon, some plants melt.

I don't suppose someone has put a list together of plants that don't do great with liquid carbon? is there any plants that are more susceptible to melting? I mostly have crypts, hygrophilas, echinodorus, java ferns etc and some glosso with stauro repens. I might also go to my LFS today and buy some more plants, but obviously concerned what will melt and wont.

I've also chose to do 1/3 of my EI dosing, so Sunday Macro and Monday Micro then job done for the week, hopefully that will be enough and then I can always increase if I notice problems.

Thanks again for everyone's time and help, I felt like a headless chicken yesterday as everything I've learnt so far was all revolved around pressurized CO2. But I'm just take it as it comes and hopefully if stuff goes wrong people here will then put me on the right path again.

Cheers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top