Do I Need Co2

[scotty]

i have a juwel rio 125,with t5 lighting with reflectors and is quite heavily planted,do i need to put co2 in the tank,i made a diy kit and that only gave me black hair algae problems,lights ar on about 6 hours a day and i currently dose with flourish excel.any advice would be appreciated.

cheers

scott

 

[lljdma06]

Do you know the wattage on the T5s?

llj

 

[scotty]

think there 28 watt

 

[lljdma06]

think there 28 watt

You could go either way, IMO. How often do you change the water and how long has the tank been setup?

 

[scotty]

been set up for 6 months,50% waterchange weekly

 

[lljdma06]

Hmmm. If you reduce the frequency and amount of the waterchanges, you can possibly get away with no CO2. What you would be doing is allowing the CO2 to accumulate in the water over time, which would be sufficient for the plants. This is what I do with my low-light tank and it becomes very low-maintenance.

But, that may not be your best option. If things are fine now with the excel and your current regimen, I am not one to rock the boat. Are you dosing?

llj

 

[scotty]

currently dosing 5ml of excel per day,my ambulia sessinflora dosen't seem to be doing good with it

 

[lljdma06]

Are you dosing a fert? Excel is simply liquid carbon, it is not a fertiliser.

 

[scotty]

i'm dosing dennerle v30 complete once a week,2 squirts once a week

i also have these under the substrate dennerle Deponit Nutriballs

 

[RadaR]

Liquid carbon dosing should be dosed daily. If the instructions are for weekly, just divide the dosage by 7.

 

[scotty]

currently dosing 5ml of excel per day,my ambulia sessinflora dosen't seem to be doing good with it

dosing 5ml daily,

 

[RadaR]

Sorry. Got myself confused with this

i'm dosing dennerle v30 complete once a week,2 squirts once a week

Now understood it to be regarding gas injection.

 

[scotty]

cheers,my plants looked better with the diy co2,but got a horrible black hair alga problem with it

 

[RadaR]

cheers,my plants looked better with the diy co2,but got a horrible black hair alga problem with it

That's the problem with DIY CO2. It's unstable and the rate thus the concentrations fluctuate which causes BBA

 

[scotty]

so i really just need someone to advise me to get a co2 kit or not,and what one would people recommend

cheers

scott