Should I even bother with CO2 injection?

[DaveB]

I recently upgraded from a 55g to a 110 for my planted tank. When it was a 55 I ran 10 hours a day of 130w light and also had some actinics that came on for a couple hours. I had swords, anubias, and java fern and it grew OK and over time I obviously got some algae on the plants (none on the glass though). I dosed the EI amount but only occasionally. 2x a week maybe.

I sold the lights with the tank, bought a bunch of super tall swords (the 110 is 28" tall), and switched to sand as substrate. Now the new tank has a bunch more swords and the java fern and anubias too. It's mostly clumped together in the center of the tank near the overflow, leaving lots of open swimming space and exposed sand. This is deliberate, as I have eartheaters.

A photo of the setup is below. So far I have had it for about 6 weeks and haven't seen any algae. Haven't seen any noticeable plant growth either, though. Some leaves of the swords are getting a bit brown though so I'm going to resume giving ferts (I haven't since switching). Most of the time I have been running 2x20w flourescents (12hr a day, just sort of a morning and evening ambient light that barely lights anything) and then a 65w 10000k directly over the plants in the center for about 10 hours. Just this week I received two 55w 9325k bulbs (I like these for the way they bring out red and orange) and so they're on the 10 hour timer instead. I have the option of running the 65k 10000k as well, but haven't yet. Anyway, things look pretty good in there and I haven't done a thing in 6 weeks.

A while back I spent a good 300 bucks on a 20lb CO2 tank, reactor, and nice regulator and everything, with the intention of setting it all up for the plants.... but if all I'm keeping is a big clump of the basics, should I even bother with it? I don't intend to add any different plants or many more (though I would like to get some kind of coverage along the back just to cover the bright blue background more), though maybe next year I might be able to do a tank near this one where the plants are the main focus. Though the plants are just decoration for this tank, I still want to keep them in great shape and I wouldn't mind some slow to medium growth. I'm liking that I don't have algae spots on any of the leaves (yet) though... in the 55 I had to trim the swords whenever they got to be as tall as the tank because they ended up full of algae.

I guess I just fear for the fish. No matter how much reading and research I do I'm never 100% confident I fully understand the CO2, and since I'll also be dealing with a wet/dry that will require more CO2, I'm really worried one day I'll wake up and have overdosed and screwed up the water chemistry. Plus, if I'm not getting any algae issues now, maybe I don't need it.

So what do you think? Set it up? Or sell it?

Thanks for the input.

 

[jcardona1]

Well if you dont plan on going all out and adding lots more plants, my opinion is that you dont need pressurized co2. you can always start using Excel a few times a week to see how that goes.

Some plants will just not survive w/o pressurized co2. but since you say the plants you have are doing fine, i think Excel could give you that extra little growth youre looking for. also, once you start messing with pressurized co2 its a whole different ball game. its a lot harder to keep everything balanced. as soon as something is out of whack, BAM algae galore!

i also have a low tech 10g with about 2.7wpg of light and no co2. on this tank, i dose Excel every other day and dose ferts lightly once a week. i have not seen one spot of algae, but then again, the plants arent growing like crazy. and i like it this way. very easy to maintain and doesnt cause me any headaches like my all-out 55g.

as for co2 affecting the fish, its actually pretty safe i think. ph swings caused by injecting co2 do not affect the TDS (total dissolved solids) in the water so it doesnt harm fish like many people think. therefore, changes in your ph because of co2 are completely harmless to fish. the problem is when you literally poison them with too much co2 or inject so much that it suffocates the fish by lowering the o2 levels. this is easily resolved with a drop checker and having your lights/co2 solenoid on timers.

my drop checker is a lime green color most of the time which would indicate levels greater than the ideal 30ppm of co2. and the fish couldnt be happier.

anywho, ill just stop before i start rambling on and on!! lol! let me know if you have any specific questions

 

[DaveB]

Whoops, I forgot all about this thread.

Thanks for your input. I think I'll post this over at P-T too just to get more opinions but I think I'm mostly convinced already.

It has been about 2 months now and I've had to pull a bunch of sword leaves out due to turning brown/dying, but at first that was due to the low water level (they got overheated - I taped off the overflow intake and now the water level is fine) and then I made the mistake of splitting a giant clump into three smaller clumps, which basically ruined the roots of one of them and killed off a bunch of the biggest leaves. That sucked, but there are plenty of new ones growing and doing well and the other stalks I split out from it are fine.

After 2+ months I am just now noticing a tiny amount of brown algae on the java fern, but nothing on the swords or anubias. Last water change was the first time I had to wipe the interior of the acrylic for algae. The anubias, which spends a lot of its time floating around randomly since the fish keep uprooting it, has had a ton of new small leaves grow... more than I ever had in my 55g with the SMS substrate and the same amount of light. So that's weird.

One of the bigger anubias did start to yellow a bit though so since the time of this posting I started dosing a couple times a week. Same amount as I did with the 55g, even though the tank is a 110.

I guess my main worry is that at some point algae is going to take over the plants, as that is what happened in the 55. But with the same light, same dosing, and twice the water, things are doing OK so far. They could be better, but it's definitely better than in the 55.

So you think I should just get a bunch of Excel and dose that a few times a week instead? I definitely wouldn't mind a bit faster growth - the tank is so tall that it will take the smaller swords forever to reach the top - but it may not be worth the effort and risk of going full blown CO2.