Cheapest Place To Purchase A Hagen Nutrafin Co2 Generator

[fishleg]

Just wondering if anyone knows any reliable sources of these I tried a few local pet shops but they havnt even heard of these =/. Was hoping to pay something like £15 with postage for one and then do some home brewage .

So anyone know any websites that sell these in the UK ?

Thanks for any help.

 

[lowee]

Check out Ebay, theres one going for 12.75 plus 4.95 postage!

 

[mlawson]

May not be the cheapest, but I got mine from Wharf aquatics, a reliable source and good service, for me it arrived in two days.

 

[fishleg]

Yeah cheapest seems to be around £18 which I guess its quite expensive for what it is but I guess you only ever buy the one.

My tank is about 35 by 19 inch tank with about 8 - 10 well rooted plants but most seem to be at a stand off really with no growth at all while others like this onion type plant has took over the whole tank and is still growing. Ill get the proper names of em later got the labels some where but from that description what causes some plants to grow extremely well while the others dont grow at all or very slowly ?

Its a well filtered tank with regular water changes etc and I add fertilizer every water change to help the plants out a little.

Im pritty new to this game so maybe you guys could help clear few of these up please,

1. The tank is well lit but I was wondering can the condensation mat type thing that sits between the water top and the light dampen growth as I guess most of the useful stuff in the light gets bounced away ?

2. Say that I get an Co2 generator like the Hagen one is it sensible to position the outtake near the intake of the filter so that the Co2 bubbles are sucked into the filter smashed around alot helping them to bind with the water ?

3. I have 2 very large Shubunkans, 2 large plecs, few snails and a couple of shrimp and I normally have a air stone on all day and night. With the Co2 is it best to turn off the air stone while the aquarium lights are on ?

4. My aquarium lights up for about 8 hours a day is this suitable enough to benefit from Co2 ? well 2 hours in the morning 6 hours in the evening with a gap in the afternoon for about 4 hours.


Thanks again for any help.
fishy

 

[SuperColey1]

I think I'll lay off the Nutrafin CO2 advice although I could give you plenty because you have 4 fish there in the shubs and plecs that are already too big for the tank they are in by the sounds of it.

Andy

 

[fishleg]

Well they not like squished into the tank or anything they have plenty of room but I definitely wouldn't add more fish at this stage would stress them out too much. I'd love to see the tank growing with plenty of natural cover for the plecs/shrimp so I can get rid of them horrible plastic ornaments, it has been growing to a point but I want more .

Picture from a few weeks ago but shows some of the plants that are in there at the moment. The problem I had with Shubs was that the large white one that has its butt in the air on that pic likes to totally savage plants on a bad day but I think I've fixed that with adding more plant foods to his diet peas, lettuce etc. The area to the right is the plecs corner really I've tried to shelter it with false plants so the others dont eat his cover ><.

I have slowly been increasing the amount of plants in the tank replacing the crappy plastic ones as I went along since then the half the tank to the left is now all live plants but they dont seem to grow much what I'd love to see them do is to colonize that whole side of the tank and then possibly carpet the gaps with java moss. As it stands at the moment the leafy sort of plants tend to grow but eventually never really repair from the general wear and tear from the fish so after a few months I end up buying more plants which is a real money burner.

But if you can help clarify the above with regards to co2 please do as I'm dieing to move into it but I wanna know as much as I can before I jump in.

Thanks again for any help,
fishy

 

[cheesy feet]

Sorry but atm i am worreyd about the 2 very large Shubunkans, 2 large plecs.Plecos need atleast a 55gallon (if not over 15',imo) i know most will disagree.Then i would add around 20 gallons for each pleco.20gallon for each shubumpkin and add around 10 gals for every extra one ,too.Just look around and see how big those fish get!Just noticed you have a anubias(what it looks like)in the sand.The rhyzome on these plants will rot if placed under the substrate.They need to be tyed to some wood/rock and they will then attack themselves to it with their roots!To the left it also looks like a java fern is buried in the substrate, same goes for these, they need to be attached to some bogwood/rocks or else they will rot

 

[SuperColey1]

No I'm with ya cheesy feet. 4 large fish will be already sucking most of the oxygen out and therefore it would be a bit foolish to put extra CO2 in especially as it already has an airstone rippling the surface

Andy

 

[fishleg]

Thanks for the advice with those 2 plants, I've strapped both now to rocks so see how they go.

So your telling me Co2 would give no benefit at all ? I thought the airstone would strip out all the Co2 made by the fish ?

In the tank at the moment bit different to the picture above but I have got growing,

2 x Microsorum "narrow"
2 x Crinum (1 Thaianum 1 Calamistratum)
1 x Ozelot
3 x Vallisneria spiralis "tiger" - which wont last long seems incredibly weak
1 x Java fern and the Anubis sharing a rock.
3 x Fish weed stuff that the fish should eat instead of the others but wont

Tank itself is about 80L, I just want to have the tank growing enuff that I can remove all the plastic crap that takes up so much room as at the moment its needed for cover for the plecs/shrimp.

I thought having the Co2 pumping during the day would help the plants to thrive then shut it off at night and put the air stone back on.

If you can please answer these,

1. The tank is well lit but I was wondering can the condensation mat type thing that sits between the water top and the light dampen growth as I guess most of the useful stuff in the light gets bounced away ?

2. Say that I get an Co2 generator like the Hagen one is it sensible to position the outtake near the intake of the filter so that the Co2 bubbles are sucked into the filter smashed around alot helping them to bind with the water ?

3. I have 2 very large Shubunkans, 2 large plecs, few snails and a couple of shrimp and I normally have a air stone on all day and night. With the Co2 is it best to turn off the air stone while the aquarium lights are on ?

4. My aquarium lights up for about 8 hours a day is this suitable enough to benefit from Co2 ? well 2 hours in the morning 6 hours in the evening with a gap in the afternoon for about 4 hours.

My aim is to eventually plant the whole aquarium and remove all the plastic stuff but obviously I dont wanna plant out the whole aquarium and slowly watch them wither away one by one.

 

[nry]

1) It will make a difference, but not too much. The big problem is probably the amount of moisture on the cover due to the airstone: if you want to add CO2 then you need to remove the airstone anyhow, all it will do is let CO2 dissipate as quickly as it is added making CO2 addition a waste of money.

2) Just use the ladder, it will be fine. Sucking them into the filter may end up with too much CO2 being added to the water (because you can't control it, the ladder gives you a degree of adjustment via moving the bubble entry point on the ladder to alter the length of time the bubble is in contact with the water hence altering the amount absorbed).

3) Adding CO2 does not affect oxygen levels, but yes, you could turn the CO2 off at night (manually if you use the Nutrafin kit) but you may not need to aerate at night unless you find the fish are suffering.

4) Yes, though you would be better with a smaller gap in between the lighting according to those who use a lighting period gap (I don't), it may be a good idea to go for a cheap manual timer for the lights, less than £5 from many DIY shops.

 

[fishleg]

Thanks all for all the advice have been extremely helpful. Just letting you know I've got the Co2 Gen setup but I'm gonna keep the airstone on at nights till I can make sure its stable enough not to suffocate the fish.

Fish I have are quite hardy and I keep the tank well maintained so have never really had to check PH or KH levels but this is what they are at the moment 4 KH 7 PH if you have any more advice on how I can get the best out of my setup please do as like I said this is all new territory for me.

Another thing I would like to know is how much light is too much ? I thought less is better which is why the lights are only ever on for 8 hours a day but since its well planted now do you think I should up that slightly and if you have 4 hours light in the morning and 4 in the evening does that have any effect on plant growth having such a large gap ?

I'm also using the full length of the ladder currently and just from watching the bubbles very few make it to the top before being consumed... I get around 30 bubbles a min.

Heres the tank at the moment,

Amazed by the fact that the gold fish weed I think its called has grown so well since it came not rooted.