Setting Up My Tank For Plant Growth

[dredgy]

Hi all,
 
I have a well stocked tank with a fair few plants and even more to come. At the moment I just use the default tank light (and because of the hood, it's not really viable to change, though I will probably add another). I've also got an African Butterflyfish, which spooks with lights, so the space for the second light bar I have might see a blue light installed to help ease the transition for him. The light broke on the tank a few weeks ago and has only just been replaced, but the plants seem to be alright - they get natural sunlight. Though there is lots of brown on my amazon sword.
 
 
I also dose with seachem flourish every other week.
 
 
I'd like to know about CO₂ injection - what's the best way to set it up, how much do I dose?
 
Any other fertilizers or plant food I should be dosing?

My current plants are:
Mayaca (By far the healthiest plant in the tank, looks great)
Corkscrew Val (Lots of it, bits of brown on the edge but huge growth)
Amazon Sword (Lots brown, been in my tank about 4 months though and is still alive, just not as green as I'd link)
Telanthera (Didn't last long, some is still alive at the bottom but is full of holes and lots of brown, the rest broke off and is floating at the top - good flotsam for the butterflyfish)
Chain Sword (New, seems to be doing alright)
Java Fern (Hasn't attached itself to the rock very well, but leaves appear to be fine)
Anubias (great health)
 
Plants I have on order:
Ambulia Bunch (Limnophila Heterophylla) x1
Giant Ambulia Bunch (Limnophila Heterophylla) x2
Contortionist Val Bunch x2
Java Moss
 
 
I'd also like to have a floating plant if there are any recommendations, just for the butterflyfish. He's been so skittish since the lights have come back on - he used to swim up to me everytime I walked past and eat out of my hand at feeding time. I am thinking of relocating him, but he's like a cat or dog.
 
 
So yea, advice on plants. Ask me questions, and get me prepped

 

[Zikofski]

okay with co2 you have two option's Liquid co2, which i guess i would recommend Seachems Florish Excel, or you have injected and the best way to get injected is to built it your self using a Fire Extinguisher you can get them cheap for around £25 brand new or try a refurbished on online at ebay pretty easy to do, i am doing both injected and liquid at the moment to quell some algae problems.
 
with the FE method, you will need to get;

• CO2 Fire Extinguisher (£15 - £35Ebay or google them)
• Regulator with Solenoid (£35 - £85ebay or i recommend Aqua Essentials one its almost 2 or 3x the price of ebay ones but its worth it in my eyes)
• CO2 grade pipe (£1 - £2 per metre of Aqua Essentials or Ebay)
• Check Valve (£2 - £5 from Ebay)
• Bubble Counter (£2 - £10 from ebay)
• Diffuser (£10 - £35 from Ebay)
• Drop Checker (£2 - £15 from Ebay)
• 4dKh Solution with Bromel Blue (£10 - £20 Aqua Essentials)

as you can see a lot of kit don't worry it is VERY easy to set up and maintain what you are looking for is 30ppm Co2 in the tank that will look like lime green on the Drop checker i shall go through it now for you

 

1. connect the regulator to the CO2 canister of your choice
2. Connect some tubing to the output
3. Now at this point you can test for leaks on the regulator all i did was spray some water mixed with washing up liquid over the connections and look for bubbles make sure when you take the pin out of the FE and close it up make sure the regulator is closed and if you buy a solenoid plug it in to some power so it is open, and to note the FE will not go pop or bang all you will here is a quite hiss and then nothing and your regulator pressure gauges should have risen
4. what i then did was filled my sink with water and put the co2 tube under it and opened up the needle valve on the regulator and check bubbles come out means regulator is working
5. attach the check valve to stop water from syphoning back into the regulator and FE (this would be very bad)
6. attach more pipe
7. attach the bubble counter with some water in it so you can easily monitor the co2 going into the tank in the form of bubbles
8. attach more co2 pipe
9. attach the regulator now i have external canister filter so use UP inline Diffuser's i recommend the older more triangular model so much worth it and dose the trick far better than normal internal glass diffusers
10. and that is it as far for the co2 concern you are ready to go but how do we monitor the co2 inside the tank
11. the drop checker you put in some 4dkh and bromel blue solution i recommend you buy pre mixed stuff from Aqua Essentials and this will turn Lime green when you have good (30ppm) levels of co2 Yellow means to high and Blue to low, this stuff takes 2 hours to change colour, so be careful start of slow change the co2 every 3 to 4 hours to be sure

that is it, more the drop checker around the tank over the next few days to make sure that the co2 is getting to all corners of the tank

 
with injected co2 you will need more ferts, you will need macro and micro ferts, and i believe your sachem flourish is just one of them not sure which tho sorry i would recommend EI method as it is the cheapest and easiest to understand
 
hope this all helps enjoy

 
EDIT: you can build the FE kit from as little as around £80 some say or you can splash out a bit, mine cost me around £50 for everything minus the regulator solenoid as i paid around £90 for that, a lot cheaper than say the JBL kit that is what £300 to £500

 

[dredgy]

Sorry I forgot I made this thread.
 
I'm happy to fork out money for this, so long as it works and is discrete. I saw some carbon sets at the LFS that looked alright.
 
What's the difference (other than cost) of liqueid vs injected C02, and any pros/cons?

 

[SLIM]

okay with co2 you have two option's Liquid co2, which i guess i would recommend Seachems Florish Excel, or you have injected and the best way to get injected is to built it your self using a Fire Extinguisher you can get them cheap for around £25 brand new or try a refurbished on online at ebay pretty easy to do, i am doing both injected and liquid at the moment to quell some algae problems.
 
with the FE method, you will need to get;

• CO2 Fire Extinguisher (£15 - £35Ebay or google them)
• Regulator with Solenoid (£35 - £85ebay or i recommend Aqua Essentials one its almost 2 or 3x the price of ebay ones but its worth it in my eyes)
• CO2 grade pipe (£1 - £2 per metre of Aqua Essentials or Ebay)
• Check Valve (£2 - £5 from Ebay)
• Bubble Counter (£2 - £10 from ebay)
• Diffuser (£10 - £35 from Ebay)
• Drop Checker (£2 - £15 from Ebay)
• 4dKh Solution with Bromel Blue (£10 - £20 Aqua Essentials)

as you can see a lot of kit don't worry it is VERY easy to set up and maintain what you are looking for is 30ppm Co2 in the tank that will look like lime green on the Drop checker i shall go through it now for you
 

• connect the regulator to the CO2 canister of your choice
• Connect some tubing to the output
• Now at this point you can test for leaks on the regulator all i did was spray some water mixed with washing up liquid over the connections and look for bubbles make sure when you take the pin out of the FE and close it up make sure the regulator is closed and if you buy a solenoid plug it in to some power so it is open, and to note the FE will not go pop or bang all you will here is a quite hiss and then nothing and your regulator pressure gauges should have risen
• what i then did was filled my sink with water and put the co2 tube under it and opened up the needle valve on the regulator and check bubbles come out means regulator is working
• attach the check valve to stop water from syphoning back into the regulator and FE (this would be very bad)
• attach more pipe
• attach the bubble counter with some water in it so you can easily monitor the co2 going into the tank in the form of bubbles
• attach more co2 pipe
• attach the regulator now i have external canister filter so use UP inline Diffuser's i recommend the older more triangular model so much worth it and dose the trick far better than normal internal glass diffusers
• and that is it as far for the co2 concern you are ready to go but how do we monitor the co2 inside the tank
• the drop checker you put in some 4dkh and bromel blue solution i recommend you buy pre mixed stuff from Aqua Essentials and this will turn Lime green when you have good (30ppm) levels of co2 Yellow means to high and Blue to low, this stuff takes 2 hours to change colour, so be careful start of slow change the co2 every 3 to 4 hours to be sure

that is it, more the drop checker around the tank over the next few days to make sure that the co2 is getting to all corners of the tank
 
with injected co2 you will need more ferts, you will need macro and micro ferts, and i believe your sachem flourish is just one of them not sure which tho sorry i would recommend EI method as it is the cheapest and easiest to understand
 
hope this all helps enjoy

 
EDIT: you can build the FE kit from as little as around £80 some say or you can splash out a bit, mine cost me around £50 for everything minus the regulator solenoid as i paid around £90 for that, a lot cheaper than say the JBL kit that is what £300 to £500

+1 spot on check out my link in my sig. PRESSURIZED CO2 EQUIPMENT FLOW AND FERTS

Sorry I forgot I made this thread.
 
I'm happy to fork out money for this, so long as it works and is discrete. I saw some carbon sets at the LFS that looked alright.
 
What's the difference (other than cost) of liqueid vs injected C02, and any pros/cons?

liquid carbon will increase growth and keep algae at bay but can be expensive on large tanks in the long run. Some plants can also be sensitive to carbon. You will also still be limited to what plants you can grow with carbon.

Plants will respond and grow a lot quicker and healthier with pressurized co2. You will also have a wider choice of plants to grow. You can have high light and pressurized co2 is alot cheaper and stable in the long run.

However i always think its a good idea to try carbon before going pressurized as it gets you used to the extra work involved such as dosing macros micros and performing larger 50% water changes.