Lighting upgrade or Co2 Kit?

[monkeymagic]

Hi all, thoughts/wisdom/experience welcome!

I've bought a Juwel Lido 200 secondhand which comes with the standard Multilux light.

My main aim (other than general plant health etc.) is to get a decent Monte Carlo carpet. The Lido is around 60cm tall.

To that end I was planning to buy my first Co2 kit (Pro-SE or similar), but the man in my LFS suggested upgrading the lighting should be priority instead. Agree/disagree?

Ideally I'd love to get both Co2 and upgrade the lights of course, but my budget is around £200 max which seems to only cover one or the other (I don't want to risk cheap Co2 kit).

The Juwel Helialux light is £190, and I do need to use the Juwel lid. Not sure if something like this is a suitable cheaper equivalent? https://www.iquaticsonline.co.uk/pr...light-juwel-compatible-lido-200delta-100-300/

I believe the Co2 kit would cost around £160?

Another possible option is to buy one of these now and save up to buy the other in 6-12 months time.

I'd love to know where/how you would spend the budget in my situation. Thanks!

 

[Wills]

This sounds good Monte Carlo can actually carpet without Co2 so its not a total given that you need it, give it some good lights, fertilisers and a nutrient rich substrate like Wio Eionion and I think you would get it going pretty well. Just make sure you have some fast growing stems somewhere in the tank as carpet plants dont always soak up enough nutrients in the early stages of a tank and the added height of the stems helps the fish as well.

I'm not too sure how good the Juwel lights are but the general aquascaping ones will come in on budget for you like a Twinstar S or there are a couple of Chihiros that would work like their WRGB fitting.

Wills

 

[monkeymagic]

Thanks!

I forgot to say I need to keep a lid on my aquarium - I'm not sure if those lights you mention would work with the Juwel lid?
I will have Aqua Soil capped with sand and will plant pretty heavily from the start with some fast growing stems etc.

 

[threecharacters]

Honestly, I would prefer CO2 over lighting. The benefit of CO2 for plants is significant.

I bet the guy at the store suggested you upgrade lighting because insufficient lighting will cause carpeting plants to "reach" for more light which can ruin the look of a carpet. However, running strong lights without sufficient nutrients (liquid fertilizer and CO2) will result in algae problems.

In the end you probably want both strong lights and CO2. However, if that's not an option I would recommend just CO2. My experience with strong lights on tanks without CO2 has been overwhelmingly negative.

On the other hand, I grew quite a dense carpet of Monte Carlo in a small indirect sunlit bowl with no CO2 and no artificial lighting. I think Monte Carlo is a very forgiving carpeting plant. You might even be able to get it to carpet without upgrading anything about your aquarium.

 

[seangee]

CO2, lighting and nutrients need to be in balance. More CO2 needs more light (and nutrients).
Doing one without the other may well lead to algae problems.
Are your lights fluorescent or LED? If fluorescent the tubes will need replacing anyway, and LED tubes are an option - check on Amazon.