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Tank rearrangement plans

GlassWalker

GlassWalker

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Joined
30 Jun 2014
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205
Location
Swindon
I've wanted to make some adjustments for some time, so just wanted to sanity check some ideas before I start on the weekend.

1: My 260L tank currently has low levels of CO2 injection. I never fitted the inline device to the filter, so currently relies on an in tank diffuser. I don't know what my CO2 levels are but a drop checker never really gets out of the blue zone, maybe turquoise at most. What I am fed up with is the massive growth rate in this tank, so I want to slow it down. I hope to do this two ways: 1, remove the CO2, and 2, presumably I need to reduce lighting, although I don't feel the tank is highly lit anyway (about 40W of LED on a tall-ish 4ft tank). Given the low CO2 injection levels anyway, I'm hoping it would not be much of a shock to the plants if I just pulled the plug on them?

2, My clado infected tank is stable, not clearing but not getting much worse as long as I pick out new clumps. That's nominal 125L capacity, more likely 100L after displacement, and currently I'm dosing 4 to 5 ml per day of EasyCarbo. I was dosing higher than that, but reduced it to this as I had just introduced some crystal black shrimps and I've had my 1st lot of babies recently. Anyone know if there is a safe upper limit to EasyCarbo dosing with shrimp? Would it help fight clado if I move the CO2 system from the other tank to this tank? That is in addition to the EasyCarbo dosing. I don't mind fast growth in this tank as it is smaller and much easier to work inside.

As a side thought, I'm thinking of moving more fish from closing down another tank in the near future. Currently I'm running a 25W LED bar open topped, but as the fish are jumpers I'd have to put the old 2x20W T8 lid back on if I were to do that. Subjectively I think the two T8s are lower light intensity overall. Is this likely to cause any problems?
 
Ah yes, that thread :) I think I've been through it before, but long enough ago I can't remember it. That'll be one to browse through in a moment once I fix up some food.

On the 2x liquid carbon dose, I never managed to get an answer if that is 2x nominal, or 2x the "heavily planted" level... I'm already using the latter, which is 2x nominal.
 
2x what the bottle says, i presume nominal. i used to use tnc carbon 2.5ml into a 35l tank. It worked out about 3.5x dose and only 1 shrimplet survived
In the first few pages of that glute thread there are a few shrimpers using it and most of them stopped using it to improve shrimplet survival rates.
Tbh i dont think the benefits are greater than the risks, reduce lighting or add floaters and not bother with it imo but it is good for spot dosing bba
 
The exact wording on the EasyCarbo bottle is "Dosage: 1ml per 50 litres per day, with a maximum of 2ml per 50 litres per day in aquariums with lots of plants. Higher dosage levels are highly inadvisable." Given my tank has an estimated 100L of actual water, 125L nominal maximum, my dosage in the region of 4 to 5ml daily is at that higher level.

In looking at that thread, which is about as heavy to digest as the leftovers dinner I just had, the suggestion is that shrimp sensitivity to it is about the same level as algae sensitivity. Unfortunately algae was the main reason I started dosing in the first place. It wasn't in the original plan for this tank, but I have a clado infection. I was dosing higher up to the point I added shrimp, when I dropped down to current levels. So the shrimp have almost always been in there with daily doses at the upper limit, apart from the odd few days away when I'm not around to dose. They have managed to breed regardless, although I can't say if it had any impact on success rates since I'm very new to the game and don't have historic data.

Anyway, I could try target dosing the same amount in the hopes that has more impact. Also as said I'm thinking of moving the CO2 over from the big tank, since I'd rather have a smaller tank of fast growing plants than a big tank of the same. Getting a bit tiered of pulling out a bucketful of excess growth every couple of weeks!
 
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