Is Liquid Carbon As Good As Co2 Injection?

[Curiosity101]

When I finally set up my new planted tank I need to decide whether to go for a co2 system such as Nutrafin, or if I can get away with just adding liquid carbon.
I really don't want to have to set up a co2 system, would adding liquid carbon give a stable enough source? Or would it end up causing an algae problem?

The tank will be a heavily planted 28l with 11W of light. Sand base with an underlay of fertiliser substrate.

Also, I was going to have a carpet of HC...would liquid carbon be suitable to keep this healthy and possibly even enable pearling?

Thanks

 

[Truck]

yep its just as good

 

[Curiosity101]

If it really is then that's a huge weight off my mind. Proper CO2 kit vs. AE's liquid carbon for £4.49 lol.

 

[Dave Spencer]

If liquid carbon was as good as pressurised CO2, do you think any of us would bother with pressurised?

Liquid carbon works well for slow growth tanks, but there comes a point where the light levels dictate that pressurised CO2 is the only method effective enough in supplying carbon to your plants.

Pressurised CO2 will outperform liquid carbon in every situation, but is an unnecessary complication at lower light and growth levels to many.

Dave.

 

[Truck]

If liquid carbon was as good as pressurised CO2, do you think any of us would bother with pressurised?

because it works out more expensive on bigger tanks, ive used it in tanks with fast growing plants at 2wpg with no problems.

 

[Dave Spencer]

WPG means practically nothing these days.

None of my tanks could run on liquid carbon. Pressurised is superior. The carbon is more easily accessible to plants in its gaseous and aqueous forms. More effort and expending of energy is required by plants to utilise Excel or easycarbo, resulting in slower growth. I have never been able to achieve the kind of growth and health with plants using Excel or easycarbo over pressurised.

In a 28l liquid carbon will probably do the job, but it is not as good as pressurised CO2. It is incorrect to say that liquid carbon is just as good as gaseous or aqueous CO2.

Dave.

EDIT: There are also a few plants that do not like liquid carbon, and will suffer or die.

 

[three-fingers]

I think liquid carbon just often has the affect of appearing as good because of it's algaecide effect...

I've used it before and it's great for some tanks, but I've had some bad experience with it too.

I'd only really use it if I wanted to get rid of algae fast temporarily, or one some small tanks that have plants resistant to it. I don't like the idea of adding this to a shrimp tank constantly: http/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glutaraldehyde.

It's not all bad, and I've seen some great tanks using it, but IME it's not as good on its own as a carbon source, plants seem to grow faster with proper CO2.

 

[Truck]

ive never considered it an algaecide, just a carbon supplement.

 

[Curiosity101]

So how about the Nutrafin Natural Plant System? Is this a good system to use? Are there any alternatives? And I take it I definitely need a drop checker?

 

[tom_os]

thats good but i dont think you will need a drop checker, i dont have one with mine

 

[Curiosity101]

All I was thinking was that in a tank as small as mine it might be a bit too much. Not for the plants ofc, but for the shrimp once they're in. Do you know what your levels actually are? Or are you going by the fact that fish etc are fine?

 

[tom_os]

all my fish seem fine. on the diffuser you can alter at what stage the bubbles come out at. the higher up the ladder they come out, the less time they have to diffuse, thus not injecting too much in a smaller tank

it tells you on the box where to position it

 

[Curiosity101]

Ahhhh. I was sat here thinking that surely there was a way to set the amount of diffusion. None of the websites I looked on seemed particularly useful on how to actually use it though.
Thanks!
I have added it to my birthday list...today I somehow convinced my boyfriend to buy me an Aqua40. I can't wait till Saturday!
All I need to do now is convince someone to buy me some CRS hehe.

 

[aaronnorth]

liquid carbon isnt as good, and probably never will be. We cant dose x amount so that it gives us 30ppm, we may dose to the instructions which might not limit the plants but at the same time we don know if produces optimum growth.

With that amount of ligthing you dont have to use CO2 although it will help. Most people use liquid carbon on smaller tanks because they dont feel the need to spend about £100 ona pressurized setup for such as small tank!

The nutrafin is a good kit, but take a look at the resource centre at the top of the page and it gives the mixture you need. Dont use the packets supplied as they are no good.

A cheaper, and just as good alternative is to make a DIY system which works in exactly the same way as the nutrafin kit:
[URL="http/www.fishforever.co.uk/carbondioxide.html"]http/www.fishforever.co.uk/carbondioxide.html[/URL]

 

[three-fingers]

Nutrafin kits are good and can work very well on some tanks, but I would personally forgo them especially on a tank that doesn't need CO2.

Keeping them refilled constantly is a pain IME and in some cases (but certainly now all IME) the fluctuation CO2 levels if you cant keep on to of frequent refills can help algae take hold.

If I didn't want to go pressurised, I would either just use less light or block some of it with floating plants.

In your case however, you don't even need CO2, so I would either go with nothing at all, or some liquid carbon - which will be beneficial overall anyway.