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Co2 checker blue and Drarf hair grass turning brown

TropicalSteve

TropicalSteve

Seedling
Joined
1 Dec 2015
Messages
17
Location
Luton
I bought a co2 inline diffuser, bubble counter and a co2 checker a couple of weeks back. All is setup and I have about a 1-2 dps co2 running an hour before lights go on, and off an hour before lights out. The co2 checker is still blue and I checked my ph and its about 7.4. Can you advise on why its not turning green? Also have dwarf hair grass that's not going so well and starting to go brown. I've checked for leaks but can't find any?

My setup is a 4 foot tank 180 litres. I have 2 x 54w t5's. I use easy life fertilizer about 10ml a day and 20% water change a week. Substrate sand and ADA.

Any advice would be much appreciated?
 
You will very likely need a lot more gas to change the colour to green.
The best way to check if your C02 is making any difference will be to check your PH before the gas comes on & then when it is on.
You should be looking for a one point drop during the lighting period.
Do you have fish in your tank? If so go easy and up the bubble count gradually over a few days.
Water changes should be at least 50% a week but more if the tank is recently set up....
Of course that is a very basic answer because we will need far more info to give anything other...
 
Thanks foxfish. I have fish in the tank. It'll check the ph levels over the next couple of days. Thought it would be easier to see the co2 bubble but the inline diffuser seem to be doing a good job. Is the fertiliser okay or would you use another type?
 
Also that light is very very high, especially initially when starting. You will melt/brown your plants until they adapt and you get your CO2 spot on. You need to find ways to reduce the light level, one tube, foil rings around the tubes etc.

I have 70W over 180litre and use about 15gr CO2 a day, getting green/yellow drop checker and JBL drop bubble counter about 1-2 bps.

Your ferts sound OK, 10ml per day sounds OK, though I suspect you will need more, maybe 20ml.

You haven't told us your filter and its flow rate, you will need at least 1800litre/hour rate if you are to stand a decent chance of cracking CO2 flow and distribution.
 
Hi Ian, thanks for the advice.

I have a rena filstar xp3 which has a flow rate of 1350 l/h and I also have a wave maker with flow rate of 1500l/h to reduce any dead spots in the tank.

With the light do you not need a high wattage per litre for more advanced plants. So with 108 watts in 180 litre works out over 2 watts per litre?
 
Okay thanks. I'm going to disconnect one of the lights. How long should I do this for? Is one t5 54w enough? I've also increased the bubble count to 3-4 bps to see if I can get the pH to turn green and increased the fertiset to 20mls per day. Is the easylife profit the best to use? Should I add fertiliser balls?
 
Your light is very high, 180litres is 47US gallons giving 108W/47 -> 2 Watts per gallon .

This will give you an idea of what level of difficulty your tank will be in....
parreading_zps8b784252-jpg.1892.jpg
 
TropicalSteve said:
Okay thanks. I'm going to disconnect one of the lights. How long should I do this for? Is one t5 54w enough? I've also increased the bubble count to 3-4 bps to see if I can get the pH to turn green and increased the fertiset to 20mls per day. Is the easylife profit the best to use? Should I add fertiliser balls?
Click to expand...
I'm sure 1 T5 is enough running for 7 to 8 hours, you can always run the lights longer if you don't see algae and your still not happy with the growth.
If you have ADA amazonia soil, you don't need to add any balls. You can use any ferts you like, a cheaper and easy option is EI though.
 
Great thanks just ordered the El starter kit. Should i also be adding the easylife fertiliser or will the El kit be enough.

I'm running my light for 10 hours a day and I've got lots of shrimp and Otto's catfish to sort the algae out.

Ian, I don't really understand stand the graph to be honest. What does the y axis stand for? And does the distance from light mean from the substrate to the light?

Cheers,

Sephen
 
TropicalSteve said:
Ian, I don't really understand stand the graph to be honest. What does the y axis stand for? And does the distance from light mean from the substrate to the light?
Click to expand...
The graph is to enable you to roughly work out what light level your tank is.

If low light, then CO2 is not necessary, very light fertilisation (or none if relying on fish food and fish poo) is required and possibly no extra carbon source required. Nice and slow.

If high light then spot on CO2, high levels of fertilisers and frequent water changes will be required.

If medium light then some form of tank fiddling between low and high.

The Y axis the it the PAR (photosynthetically active radiation) level. It is the amount of light the plants can actually use. Plants obviously can't use green light (in great quantities) as that is clearly reflected back to your eyes.

So for my tank with T5 HO tubes in the hood, the distance to the substrate is 20" thus PAR is 55PAR. However I have two tubes, so double it and reflectors so double again to give 220PAR, well and truly in high light region.
 
i'm using my phone as a lux meter to measure light intensity. my light intensity at substrate is 4000 lux which is very high and now i have around 5 types of algae in my tank. although lux meter measure intensity of light of all wavelength, i think it serve as a good reference given that u have good quality light.

来自我的 MX4 上的 Tapatalk
 
What app are you using Joe?

Thanks Ian for the advice going to measure depth tonight. You mention you have 220PAR. How are you plants growing at that intensity and would advise it?
 
So I've turned off one of my lights and my other plants that are growing like mad are starting look a bit withered. Co2 at 4 bps and checker is still blue.Any other ideas? Waiting for El fertiliser to come so hope that will help. Should I also use the easy life fertiliser at the same time as the El or is this overkill?
 
Yes its 4dkh and still no change.
 

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Here's the hair grass after 3 weeks. Have very few runners and still going brown. Should I trim the tops to promote better growth?
 

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Steve, there must be a reason why you are not getting a colour change!
It could be a C02 leak, poor flow in the tank or simply not enough gas being injected but you need to sort this out.
Checking the PH is a very good method & shows instant results.
What size filter are you using, do you have good flow, what pressure are you running the anatomiser?
 
I have good flow at 1350 l/h and I also have a wave maker with flow rate of 1500l/h. I've checked the pH level when lights are off and its at 7.6 with co2 on its at 7.4.

I've attached a photo of the regulato readings, do they look okay?
 

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