CO2 for BBA

[the_deeb]

My 100g has been plagued by really bad BBA for a while now. I think it's probably due the DIY W/D filter. I'm guessing the filter is degassing all the CO2 from the water which is encouraging the growth of the BBA. It might also explain why I can't seem to get any plants to grow in this setup. Thoughts?

To solve this, I'm thinking of adding CO2 to the tank. I don't want to invest in a compressed gas system so I though of just going the DIY yeast route. Given that this is a reasonably large tank, do you think a setup with a couple of 2L soda bottles or apple juice containers would provide enough CO2 to make any difference?

Keep in mind that I'm not trying to go for lush growth here, just offset the CO2 being lost in the filter and maybe help simple plants grow better (java fern and anubias). The tank only has 110W of CF lighting.

 

[WyldFya]

If you want to add co2, then get rid of the w/d. If you don't add the co2, then keep the wet/dry. If you want to keep the w/d, and have co2, then you have to go the pressurized route.

 

[the_deeb]

not what I was hoping to hear. So adding non pressurized CO2 wouldn't do anything to offset the amount being lost in the w/d?

Does a product like Flourish Excel compensate for low dissolved CO2?

 

[WyldFya]

The co2 levels in the water and the co2 levels in the atmospheric air in the room will equalize with surface agitation. In order to compensate for that, you would need extremely high amounts of co2 being dissolved into the water, at a very high rate. This is not the safest in small enclosed rooms. Excel won't gas off like co2 gas, but it doesn't work nearly as well, and some plants are sensitive to excel, and will die off.