Wet Dry & CO2

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A

ar0wan

Epistemologist
MFK Member
May 4, 2007
1,288
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Austin, Tx
I have pulled my retired 40gal salt out of the garage and set it up as a planted tank. The system has been running for about 5months on an overflow under tank Wet Dry trickle filter with the intent being to speed up nitrate production. I have been using a DIY CO2 system for the past few months and based on my water tests, have been completely unsucessful at increasing CO2 levels. Soo my question is, with a wet dry filter am I wasting my time trying to inject CO2?

:confused:
 
yes. i also love wet/dry filters and made the same mistake, your co2 levels will never come up and it wastes money and time
 
;_;

I've been in denial for some time now, guess I can move the injector to my main display tank.
 
I just went through the same thing. I've never bothered injecting CO2 before but have had success with lo tech setups with plants like java fern and anubias and didn't really have algae problems. My most recent tank had a big DIY W/D filter and I haven't managed to grow anything except algae. I finally bit the bullet and swapped out the W/D for another canister. It's only been a few days but it already looks like the BBA has stopped growing. I'm going to be placing a plant order today so we'll see how it goes.

Incidentally, if you decide to change the W/D filter remember to run your new filters on the tank for a while first to get them established. I just removed the W/D and added a third canister, figuring the old canisters would have enough bacteria to keep things going while the new one got established, but I was wrong and had a huge ammonia spike. I didn't think about how much of my biomedia was in the W/D - stupid, I know. :(
 
I'm currently running a 20w plant bulb and a 50/50 that was already in there from the marine system. I would like to double the output but am not ready to change out my fixtures, do you have any recommendations on 24" T12? i assume I can find 40w locally but what spectrum would be ideal? (2 fixtures)
 
if you get a cover for the w/d then tape the hell outa it with duck tap you should be able to get an ok seal and save more co2 as when it builds up and becomes more concentrated in the air space in the w/d it will defuse back into the system
 
I've heard of the covered method. I can see it working on some commercial W/D filters but with my DIY setup it would have been impossible to seal since the tower extended a couple of feet about the sump tank.

I would suggest switching out the 50/50 bulb for something around the 6700K spectrum. I don't have first hand experience but have heard that actinics can promote algae growth in freshwater setups.
 
W/D filters are counter productive for plants in two ways:

1) They are designed to oxygenate the water, and unfortunately that process removes most of the CO2.

2) Plants actually prefer to use ammonium over nitrates (they actually use energy to convert nitrates back into ammonium), and W/D filters convert ammonium faster than the plants can absorb it.
 
Yeah.. Sealing up the W/D is not really an option but I get the idea. Guess it will be coming off. :(
 
not a bad time to upgrade one of your 120FW cans.
 
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