My Co2 Is Apparently Too High

[Gvilleguy]

This is my first time seeking advice from planted. I have a 40 gallon / 150 litre breeder tank (36 W x 18 D x 17 H). This tank has only live plants in it plus a couple pieces of Malaysian driftwood. It has been running for around 10 months. The plants are nothing fancy as I am just in learning mode this year to see what I can grow. So far I've done a great job growing various algae.
 
Here is a picture link:
 
 https/www.dropbox.com/s/hw3b81qyoyre2t4/Photo%20Aug%2029%2C%209%2027%2058%20PM.jpg?dl=0
 
Tanks stats:
1. Temp 80 F
2. ammonia = 0
3. nitrite = 0
4. nitrate = 10 - 20
5. KH = zero
6. pH = 6.0
 
Lighting:
1. 30" Finnex Ray 2 LED (Dual 7,000k LED): based on online PAR charts I found for the Ray 2, and the plants being anywhere from 10 to 15" depth - I think my PAR down the middle of the tank is around 50 to 60.
2. The lights are on for 5.5 hours per day
 
Problems:
1. Fighting a battle against Black Beard/Brush Algae (have lost some plants to it); earlier in the year I had a lot of long green hair algae, but have that mostly gone now. Lately I have been more aggressive trimming back the leaves that have the BBA sprouts, and manually pulling them off the fixtures. Plus I stepped up my maintenance cleaning to try and keep the BBA off the gravel.
2. I installed a drop checker several weeks ago, and have changed the fluid in it a few times: the color of the checker has been mostly yellow, even after several hours of the lights being on. According to the supplier's instructions, yellow indicates high CO2 levels, while green would be ideal levels. A few times the fluid got to light green, but not often.
 
Question: Does anyone have any suggestions or me to lower the level of CO2, which, hopefully, will also have the benefit of helping my plants and hurting the BBA?
 
I'm wondering if I should put an air pump on a timer and run an air stone at night to bubble off some of the CO2.
 
Thanks in advance for your opinions!
 

 

[Xzavier247]

Do you have a solenoid?
Bba is co2 fluctuations. An air stone won't be necessary. Adjust your bubble count and check levels regularly.turn on co2 2 hrs before light cycle and turn off at night.

 

[daizeUK]

If your drop checker is yellow this can indicate that your fish are in danger of suffocation.  Some very heavily planted tanks can get away with a yellow DC but judging by the picture yours is too lightly planted for these kind of levels.  Try to aim for a lime green colour.
 
What ferts are you adding to the tank?  You didn't mention ferts so I'm thinking the algae is either due to nutrient deficiency or high light.

 

[Gvilleguy]

To clarify...there is no CO2 being added to the tank. I neglected ferts most of this summer but got back to weekly liquid fert several weeks ago. API Leaf Zone. The fish do not show signs of breathing trouble but I want to dial in proper CO2 levels for both the plants and fish.

 

[daizeUK]

Whoa I'm confused. You're not injecting CO2 but have a yellow drop checker?

In the absence of injected CO2, dissolved CO2 levels will never exceed about 3ppm which is where they reach equilibrium with atmospheric CO2. A yellow drop checker would normally indicate CO2 levels in excess of 30ppm so that makes no sense.

When you asked about bubbling off some CO2 I assumed that you were adding CO2 to the tank. If you're not then you cannot bubble off CO2 - additional surface turbulence will simply help the CO2 levels to reach equilibrium with atmospheric CO2 faster.

 

[Gvilleguy]

Then it must be me not filling the drop checker properly. I will refill it today and give it a few hours to register. Perhaps I put too many or few drops of the solution last time.

 

[daizeUK]

If you're not injecting CO2, why are you using a drop checker?  Were you planning to start injecting CO2 soon?

 

[Byron]

To clarify...there is no CO2 being added to the tank. I neglected ferts most of this summer but got back to weekly liquid fert several weeks ago. API Leaf Zone. The fish do not show signs of breathing trouble but I want to dial in proper CO2 levels for both the plants and fish.

If you are not adding CO2, then you are relying on what is naturally produced in the aquarium.  I've never measured this, but I have sufficient in my tanks to support the plants most of the daylight (= tank light period of eight hours).
 
Your original question was on the brush algae.  This can occur from too much light, or too many nutrients.  I have had both, and resolved the issues by restoring the balance between light (intensity and duration) and nutrients.
 
API Leaf Zone is not a complete fertilizer, as it only contains iron and potassium.  Aquatic plants require 17 nutrients, so some may well be missing depending upon your tap water (the hard minerals) and fish food/stocking.  Brush algae is always eager to take advantage of imbalance.  Work out your light/fertilizer balance and then stick with it, and you will not see brush algae as a problem.
 
Byron.

 

[shoulders]

do you have a filter in the tank ? is there any flow / circulation ? bba is caused by poor flow and fluctuating co2

 

[SO19Firearms]

What Shoulders said.
 
Algae guide - James' planted tank

 

[Gvilleguy]

First - thank you all for the replies. I'm pretty good on tank cycling and keeping fish healthy, but on planted tank, very ignorant!
 
DROP CHECKER and low tech CO2: I did buy the drop checker in preparation for starting to add CO2 to the tank, but the yellow reading on it confused me. I changed the solution over the weekend and the color remained light green throughout the past few days. So I think I did not  have the checker properly set up. And I have not yet tried to add CO2 - but I bought the Fluval low tech ladder set up where you mix in the yeast. I just don't want to complicate things until I get a better picture of what is currently going on in the tank.
 
CIRCULATION: a large HOB filter is what I use. It puts a pretty good circulation throughout the tank.
 
FERTILIZER: It sounds to me like I need to dial in a better fertilizer to start with and start testing one change at a time. I'll start with feeding the plants better. Since it sounds like Leaf Zone is not the best, can anyone recommend a well-balanced plant fert that I can get in the US?
 
CO2/pH/KH CHARTS: When I look at the online charts for measuring CO2 levels based on pH and KH, my pH of 6.0 and KH of ZERO indicate at most a CO2 level of 15 ppm. Does that sound reasonable to you guys?

 

[Byron]

As you are not adding CO2, I would use a prepared liquid fertilizer.  I use Seachem's Flourish Comprehensive Supplement and Flourish Trace.  I also use Flourish Iron in only one (of seven) planted tank.  Once a week with each is sufficient in my situation.  There is another line of similar products made by Brightwell Aquatics; their FlorinMulti is the same basically as the Flourish Comprehensive.
 
Substrate tabs like Flourish Tabs help for the larger swords, Aponogeton and Tiger Lotus plants.  In addition to the liquid, which is the basic starting point as this gets to all the plants.
 
What is your tap water (source water) GH?  This is the prime source of the "hard" minerals, and these are minimal in prepared fertilizers simply because they assume most will have sufficient in the source water.  In my case I have zero GH and KH in my tap water so I also need to add the hard minerals in three tanks for certain plants.  If you give me the GH and your plant species, I can elaborate as necessary.
 
The charts measuring CO2 are not reliable, from what I have been advised by the planted tank guru's, so I wouldn't worry about that.  Most tanks will have sufficient natural CO2, and you just need to get the light and fertilizers balanced.
 
Byron.

 

[Gvilleguy]

I have similar tap water - KH and GH consistently measure at zero. I know I have the following plants, but am not sure of the species on 3 others. I will see if I can find the names.
 
Java fern (leaves around 5" long)
Java moss (grows like a weed just fine)
Amazon swords (leaves around 6" tall, just added this week)

 

[Byron]

I have similar tap water - KH and GH consistently measure at zero. I know I have the following plants, but am not sure of the species on 3 others. I will see if I can find the names.
 
Java fern (leaves around 5" long)
Java moss (grows like a weed just fine)
Amazon swords (leaves around 6" tall, just added this week)

 
OK, with zero GH you will probably need more hard minerals (calcium especially) for the swords than what are in the liquid preparations.  For this, in addition to the products I previously mentioned (which are dosed in all my tanks) I use Seachem's Equilibrium to raise the GH to around 5 dGH.  All sources I have read give 4 dGH as minimum for plants, and I have found this to be so in my tanks.  Equilibrium is a powder and it does temporarily cloud the water, so if this bothers you there is also a liquid in their AquaVitro line.  I have stayed with the powder simply because it is much less expensive long-term as I can buy the 4 kg pail online and this lasts me nearly two years.
 
One has to keep things balanced.  I experimented with twice weekly doses of Flourish Comprehensive to see if the calcium in it would be sufficient, but it wasn't; not only did the plants within two weeks show serious calcium deficiencies, but brush algae began to increase.  The photo below shows the 115g which has my larger swords, and as you can see they are nice and green and there is no algae in sight.  3 level tablespoons Equilibrium, 2 tsp Flourish Comp, and 5 tsp Flourish Trace are added once weekly right after the water change.
 
Byron.

 

[daizeUK]

As you are not adding CO2, I would use a prepared liquid fertilizer.

 
Just wanted to point out that he is planning on adding a yeast CO2 setup, in case that changes your advice.
 

I changed the solution over the weekend and the color remained light green throughout the past few days. So I think I did not  have the checker properly set up. And I have not yet tried to add CO2

 
It should be blue if you are not adding CO2 so it still can't be working properly.  It sounds like your solution is faulty or not being mixed properly or something.  Exactly what solution are you using?  Is it premixed or are you combining it with 4dKh water?