How to increase co2?

[krazypara3165]

in recent days, i have noticed the lower leaves on some of my plants are struggling. Im hoping to rule flow out as i can see all plants gently swaying and my drop checker is constant lime green and i also have a full length spray bar.

So that leaves it down to either ferts (dosing E.I everyday) or co2. I would imagine it would be co2. The problem is i was running my dennerle valve at near enough full anyway. i have just opened it up fully and as i guessed it has not made much difference. is there any way of increasing it further?

 

[O'Neil]

LIGHT
I have read that the lower leaves on stem plants can struggle if the light is not quite strong enough, I'm not sure if there's more to it than that tho and I would expect results to vary between low and higher light plants.

FERTS
If your ferts were insufficient would you not be able to see deficiancies?

CO2
If CO2 was low I would expect to see algae, holey leaves or plants struggling in general.

Maybe uploading a picture will help one of our experts (the ceg for example) to diagnose the problem.

 

[krazypara3165]

Just thought....... my aquarium is being prepped for stocking discus. thus, the temp is at 28 degrees. i bought a large variety of plants so i could thin out the ones that couldnt cope, maybe this is the problem and i need to weed them out?

rotala araguaia

i am nearly 90% sure this is lack of co2

hygrophila polysperma tiger

nearly 100% sure lack of co2

rotala mexicana goias

this is a lot darker than the picture shows, its only the tips that are a vibrant green. this has never properly grown i would put it down to the high temp. i have over 20+ species in the tank and everything seems to be growing great!

 

[O'Neil]

That mite actually be a big part of the problem.

You could use this as a guide for plants to use with Discus

http://www.thegreenmachineonline.com/search-products/results/taxonomy:381

You could also move your drop checker around the tank to see if you get the same lime green colour in different areas.

 

[krazypara3165]

yeah i had seen them, i wanted to keep everything south american so i bought a large variety of plants knowing some of them would not cope anyway. the vast majority have so its all good. ill probably keep the first two as they are growing really well, the rotala mexicana goias i will increase co2 and keep for a few more weeks then bin if they dont pull through.

 

[O'Neil]

cool let me know how it goes......I'm intrigued : )

 

[Nathaniel Whiteside]

The hotter the temp, the harder job it has holding on to gases. Therefore any lack of co2 at 22 degrees will be magnified at 28.

An option would be to lower your lighting till the tank matures somewhat.
What's your regulator look like?

 

[krazypara3165]

This is the reg

im running 2 of my 4 bar t5. i can take one of the tubes out but i wonder if it will affect some of my higher light demanding plants?

 

[Nathaniel Whiteside]

Plants are not 'high light demanding'.

Given the Option between HIGH co2 and LOW lighting, or HIGH light and LOW co2, the plants would do better in the prior. One tube will be ample for a new setup, when plants are at their most fragile.

Surely you can't be running your reg and bottle fully open? Co2 would be flying out of there.

 

[krazypara3165]

lights are off on that pic so the co2 is off. all day today the reg has been opened all the way so has the bottle. atlho it is only a 500g bottle i would assume its designed for a smaller tank than my 300l.

 

[krazypara3165]

Sorted! i found out that if i remove the airline there is a tiny flat head valve, just threw a screwdriver in and cranked it up. so now its just a case of increasing co2 until i get the right levels.

 

[O'Neil]

Nice one, glad you got it sorted mate.