Can liquid carbon help with a light/c02 imbalance?

[Irksome]

Hello everyone. My new 10 gallon divided low tech tank has been running about a week now. As the light was so poor on the hood I’ve put a tabletop led grow light shining into the sides. My plants look great, my weeping moss divider is filling out amazingly well with the directional grow lamps, it’s even pearling. The explosion in hair algae however is awful, it’s coating everything and it only appeared a couple of days ago. Is liquid carbon likely to help? Gas c02 isn’t an option at the moment. I’m going to try and adjust the lamp a bit to reduce the intensity, it’s running two 25w led bulbs. I hadn’t realised just how over lit it would be. Is there anything else that might help? My snails don’t like hair algae.

 

[Byron]

To answer in a word...no. Aside from the fact that so-called "liquid carbon" is a toxic substance that has the ability to kill plants, fish and bacteria, there is no need for supplemented CO2 in a natural or low-tech system. Once you add diffused CO2 (and this is now accepted to have problems for fish as well) you raise the balance to high-tech.

There is not much in the way of live critters--be they fish, snails, shrimp, whatever--that will eat "problem" algae.

It would help if you could ascertain the actual intensity of the light. Watts is not a measure of light intensity, but just the amount of energy the light uses to produce whatever intensity it does, and the type of light (incandescent, fluorescent, LED) makes comparisons basically impossible. It is only when the bulb/tube/diode is exactly the same in say 12 watts and 25 watts that the latter can be assumed to be more intense.

If plants are indeed pearling, then the CO2 must now be sufficient or you would never see this. Of course, at some point this natural CO2 will be insufficient to balance, and then tyhe algae takes advantage. Duration may be your easiest solution here, if things are in balance for "x" hours.

 

[Irksome]

Thankyou for your reply. There is very little information about the lamp I have available. It is not by a significant manufacturer and as it was inexpensive I did not expect it to be particularly powerful. The light intensity is high as it is designed not for fishtanks but for greenhouses and indoor plants and the distance the lights are from the plants is very small. So far I have had it on for 8 continuous hours and this is the first think i will change.

 

[seangee]

Reducing the duration is an option. Another is to add floating plants. These have 2 benefits. They grow fast and take nutrients out of the water, which leaves less for the algae. They also filter the light reaching the tank thereby reducing the intensity. If you need a 3rd advantage maintenence is easy because you just scoop out any excess at water change time.

 

[Irksome]

Reducing the duration is an option. Another is to add floating plants. These have 2 benefits. They grow fast and take nutrients out of the water, which leaves less for the algae. They also filter the light reaching the tank thereby reducing the intensity. If you need a 3rd advantage maintenence is easy because you just scoop out any excess at water change time.

I’ll chuck some frogbit in and see if it helps, i think the stag horn hitchhiked in on my water sprite originally, As the most intense light is actually coming in from the side I thought I’d shield it with my new stem plants, these are now where the algae is thickest and hardest to remove as its tangled around the stems.

 

[Byron]

Thankyou for your reply. There is very little information about the lamp I have available. It is not by a significant manufacturer and as it was inexpensive I did not expect it to be particularly powerful. The light intensity is high as it is designed not for fishtanks but for greenhouses and indoor plants and the distance the lights are from the plants is very small. So far I have had it on for 8 continuous hours and this is the first think i will change.

The spectrum of this light might be a factor too. So-called "plant" lights are generally high in the red and blue wavelengths, which depending upon the manufacture can produce a light that is purplish. This can encourage algae. Aquatic plants need red and blue to drive photosynthesis, but they also do much better with green in the mix. A "daylight" tube/bulb/diodes wityh high red, blue and green will have a Kelvin rating in the 5000K to 7000K range, usually around 6500K. This is without queston the best plant light as far as spectrum is concerned.

Reducing the duration an hour or two, and having floating plants, might work.

 

[seangee]

You could also move the table lamp a bit further away from the tank. Light intensity falls off quite rapidly as you increase the distance.

 

[Irksome]

The spectrum of this light might be a factor too. So-called "plant" lights are generally high in the red and blue wavelengths, which depending upon the manufacture can produce a light that is purplish. This can encourage algae. Aquatic plants need red and blue to drive photosynthesis, but they also do much better with green in the mix. A "daylight" tube/bulb/diodes wityh high red, blue and green will have a Kelvin rating in the 5000K to 7000K range, usually around 6500K. This is without queston the best plant light as far as spectrum is concerned.

Reducing the duration an hour or two, and having floating plants, might work.

The t8 is a 6500k daylight bulb, it produces a very harsh dim white light, the plant light is a yellow colour, it gives a lovely sunrise/sunset effect shining in from the side. The bulbs are on goosenecks so I’ve now moved them as far as possible from the tank. Having the tank divided means I can treat each side slightly differently and see while one resolves first.