Hi kcharley,
Yes there is a clear ranking in my mind of methods of getting the "C" nutrient to the plants:
1) Best: pressurized CO2, monitored and kept as stable as possible.
2) A fair ways down from best (lol): DIY CO2 (DoItYourself fermentation in plastic soda bottles) (lots of work)
3) Third best: Liquid Carbon (as we've discussed) (expense ongoing and probably not as good by definition)
All are quite different approaches and therefor have some dramatically different pluses and minuses I believe. Pressurized, if you don't build it yourself has a pretty large upfront cost but after its adjusted is easiest to maintain and most consistent and has by far best reputation for plants. DIY, very cheap up front but work getting it built and then ongoing work keeping it maintained and things can go wrong but maintaining is pretty cheap. Liquid-C is obviously expensive ongoing and is not CO2, so is a different animal with respect to the plants.
Yes, Liquid-C is frequently discussed and used as an algaecide. There was at least one big thread where that was discussed in great detail and it is worth reading but I don't have the link within TFF. And yes, one of my takes from that thread is that liquid-C products can be tricky with respect to safety to certain plant species and fish, both in some cases.. not generally but depending on how you use it.
Per your comment about your CO2 reactor also serving as a biofilter.. yes, technically there is no reason beneficial bacteria would not populate the surfaces of say, bioballs, if they were used, just like any other surface with flowing water. But usually a CO2 reactor would be so small that it would not serve as a significant biofiltration addition I would think.
Skinny "soaker hose diffuser" idea: Hey! Cool product idea for someone.. I could see that being a dream CO2 distributor if it worked as one could picture it stretching out across a large tank. Until someone figured out a material and had it actually work though, it would have to remain a daydream though I guess!
~~waterdrop~~
Hi WD,
I am going the pressurized CO2 route. I have the regulator and should receive the tank and regulator this week. I hope to have it running in a couple of weeks.
Right now I'm using liquid carbon and ferts as I needed to do something fast. (I unintentionally overlit the tank without CO2 and had to fight back the resulting algae.) That will change when I get the CO2 going and get the dry ferts. Like any newb, I'm making a few mistakes and trying to learn from them.
On the positive side, these tanks are the best I've ever had, and I actually had a mated pair of angelfish years ago. (Wish I had known how to measure basic water quality then. It was really cool to watch them lay eggs. Would have been cooler if I had known what I was doing and could have gotten the eggs to hatch and raise the fry.)
On the biofilter issue, my hob doesn't seem to have a large area for bio filtering. Thus, I'm interested when I see a chance to get some more. I also like the idea of having some redundancy. Hopefully, I will never need it.
On the soaker hose diffuser idea, if I can find the time I will poke around the gardening/hydroponics sites some and see what I can find, but I should probably get the basic CO2 going first before I experiment with untried delivery techniques.
Later,
Greg
