Dosing With Carbon - How? When?

[Rogue4Fish]

I'd been dosing with Co2, but wasn't sure i'd been doing it properly, or to the correct dosage (Using EasyCarbo)

I'd stopped dosing it for a while and didn't notice anything except a monumentus amount of algea which I can't get rid of. I am however, struggling with some plants. Some have holes in, my vallis doesn't look that great. My swords are going yellow. My flow around the tank is decent (I mean I can see the plants waving) as I havea u4 in the tank as well as an external. Although I'm not sure if it's enough.

I got myself a drop checker and assuming i've done it properly, it's saying I don't have enough co2 in the tank. (It's stayed blue).

How and when do I dose my earsycarbo? My lights are on at the moment for 6 hours a day trying to hold back the algae. I'm not around when the lights go on to dose just before the lights go on. I did read that for co2 to work, you need light in the tank.

If i was to dose when I get home - 4/5/6 pm, is anything as low as 3.5 hours of lighting with carbo enough? Or just pointless?

My tank is 323ltr and I would say it's moderatly planted. I dose with API at the moment, every other day. Although I think I will go back to daily dosing with AE flouish as I had good results with that.

I can up pictures if it would help...advice appreciated.

 

[ian]

I got myself a drop checker and assuming i've done it properly, it's saying I don't have enough co2 in the tank.

If you're just dosing Easycarbo, you're not going to see the dropchecker change colour, as Easycarbo isn't actual carbon.

How and when do I dose my earsycarbo?

Easycarbo needs to be dosed daily and you're going to be looking at 1ml per 50 ltrs of easycarbo. Always start with the amount shown on the label. Personally i would start with 7mls in your tank.

f i was to dose when I get home - 4/5/6 pm, is anything as low as 3.5 hours of lighting with carbo enough?

I would be inclined to dose in the morning before the lights come on, Carbo has a half life of 12-24 hours.

 

[PDSimon]

Ian what do you think about the lighting, 3.5 hours won't be helping his plants much will it? maybe 6 hours would be more appropriate. If your algae is really bad then maybe a black out, although I don't know how bad it is.

What do the API ferts contain? That and/or your circulation might be causing the algae.

 

[ian]

sorry, i presumed the 3.5 was the amount of hours you'd have left when dosing?

 

[Rogue4Fish]

I can't dose easycarbo with 6 hours of light unless i have the tank lights on till about 1am??

In this case, would i be best to go with a co2 system that's set to work around the lights? (Btw - I'm running 4 x t5 38w) The lights are only on for 6 hours at the moment as i'm trying to find the balance of descreasing algae whilst still having healthy-ish plants.

API product doesn't really say what it contains except Iron and potassium.

confooooozed.

 

[ian]

time to get yourself some timers...

You can dose Carbo with any amount of timescale, but your plants will need light to complete photosynthesis. Normally you will see an average 8 hours of light on a planted tank.

PS thats quite a lot of light over your tank, you may find the pressurised C02 would be better. It would work out more cost effective in the long run.

 

[PDSimon]

It sounds like API doses micro nutrients e.g. iron, potassium, copper, and what not. Probably more effective if you dosed nitrates and phosphates (macro nutrients) in a big tank like that. maybe a pic of the tank would help.

 

[Rogue4Fish]

time to get yourself some timers...

You can dose Carbo with any amount of timescale, but your plants will need light to complete photosynthesis. Normally you will see an average 8 hours of light on a planted tank.

PS thats quite a lot of light over your tank, you may find the pressurised C02 would be better. It would work out more cost effective in the long run.

I got timers, but that's what I needed to know.

If i dose the carbo in the morning, when the lights are off is it ok until the lights come on @ 2 or just plain pointless??

Tank wise, this is what I have:

 

[PDSimon]

Yeah, you can dose in the morning.

Tank looks good

 

[Rogue4Fish]

It's a long distance shot, the plants look shocking up close

That's an example, you can see the rest here

 

[PDSimon]

Nutrient defciency I think, maybe macro nutrients... hopefully someone can elaborate.

 

[Tizer]

My Crypto Wendtii are looking exactly the same and like yours i have new shoots with leaves growing from the base, which is odd.

 

[Rogue4Fish]

I thought it was roots?

 

[ian]

looks like those plants could do with some nitrogen and phosphate. You could either look into EI method or buy some TPN+, they will both give you the option of adding some N and P.

 

[PDSimon]

Cheers for the confirmation Ian!

If you get yourself the right nutrients, I would pull the crypts out, cut off any dead leaves, then break up the stems into smaller plantlets and plant them with a bit of space inbetween. If you look at the roots of the plants, you can see its chunky where the smaller plantlets make up the bigger ones. Just gently tug them apart and it won't harm them.

The nutrients should be introduced before or at the same time as replanting the crypts for best results.