Want Plants, Need Co2

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pauly

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Hi all,

I want to add plants to my tank for the first time and after reading all the stickies and various other threads, I still have some noob-like questions.

Tank
  • Juwel Vision 180 (180l around 47g)
  • 2 x 35w T5s with reflectors
  • Sand substrate (around 2 inches deep)
  • Tetratec EX700 external filter

Noob-like Questions



  1. I understand that for light output of 2wpg or over, CO2 injection is needed. My 2 x 35w T5s will give me around 1.6wpg, but then I also understand that you can't use this rule of thumb for T5s. Considering I also have reflectors, what sort of wpg will I be getting?
  2. If I use a nutriliser such as TetraPlant Complete Substrate on the bottom, then cap it with my sand, will the plants be ok as long as the roots are planted into the nutriliser? Will the sand be harful at all?
  3. I guess I can't get away with a yeast-based CO2 injection kit, or even 2. So am I looking at a pressurised kit such as the £95 Hydor CO2 pro System which requires a replacement £14 bottle every 6 weeks or so?
Any guidance / advice gratefully received.
Thanks in advance.

Paul.
 
I understand that for light output of 2wpg or over, CO2 injection is needed. My 2 x 35w T5s will give me around 1.6wpg, but then I also understand that you can't use this rule of thumb for T5s. Considering I also have reflectors, what sort of wpg will I be getting?

you will be getting around 2.5wpg.
# If I use a nutriliser such as TetraPlant Complete Substrate on the bottom, then cap it with my sand, will the plants be ok as long as the roots are planted into the nutriliser? Will the sand be harful at all?

Even if the roots are not in conntact with the tetraplant, they will eventually grow through and find it - sand is not harmful.

I guess I can't get away with a yeast-based CO2 injection kit, or even 2. So am I looking at a pressurised kit such as the £95 Hydor CO2 pro System which requires a replacement £14 bottle every 6 weeks or so?

pressurized is necassary, the bottle wont last 6 weeks. 15 BPM/ 1 bubble every 4 seconds will be now where near enough. With a 75% substrate coverage, a 2kg will last you around 3months. I reccomend you find another kit, that has a 2kg bottle on, or go the fire extinghuisher route (see 2 guides in my sig)

Other things to include are a drop checker, filtration/ turnover rate, and fertiliser - do you need any help on these?
 
Thanks for the advice, I'll look into it. However, I have sigs turned off, can you post the links please?

Other things to include are a drop checker, filtration/ turnover rate, and fertiliser - do you need any help on these?

Yes please :good:
 
However, I have sigs turned off, can you post the links please?
Fire Extinghuisher CO2
Equipment Needed For setting up an FE

Ok, so you need a drop checker as a permanent CO2 test, available from HERE
You also need some 4dkh Solution to use along side the drop checker (DC)
1) turn DC upside down, add 3 drops of bromothyl blue (supplied with DC)
2) get a pippette and add the 4dkh solution, filling approx half of the ball,
3) turn over add position indose tank,
4) with a ph of 6.6 and a kh of 4, you will have approx 30ppm of CO2.
It takes about 2hrs to change colour so be patient and dont get worried and turn it up gassing your fish!
blue - low
green - ok
yellow - high

Aim for a limeade colour.

In planted tank, aim for 10-20x turnover. This can be provided through filtration or a powerheads, this is so nutrients & CO2 are deliverd to all parts of the tank to all plants, and so that it minimizes algae by minimizing dead spots & moving organic matter.

For fertilisers, the 'best' option for your tank would be either Estimative Index (EI) as it is cheap, or Tropica Plant Nutrition+ (TPN+) as it contains all nutrients need for plants. Dose at a rate of 1ml per 20l daily or every other day. This can be adjusted to suit your plants needs, it is just a starting point.
 
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Cheers Aaron, really useful advice.

However, the fire extinguisher route isn't for me, the whole thing just seems a bit dangerous to me. That leaves me with buying a £100 set up, plus another £100 for a 2kg CO2 bottle and a cost of £30 every couple of months to refill it. Bit too expensive for me at the moment.

Thanks again,

Pauly.
 
If you still dont want to do it though, then i would stick with 40w T5, or 70w T8. This means you wont have to go into CO2

So you think that if I took one of my 35w T5s out, I wouldn't need CO2? Are there any risks in doing that?
 
Only using 1 x 35w tube will give you 0.7wpg, but double that and you are looking at around 1.4wpg.
There are no risks, it just means you wont be able to grow any more of the demanding plants, and growth will be slower. If you look at Andy's tanks, they have 0.6wpg and 0.9wpg of T5, and look at them:

0.9WPG T5
0.6WPG
 
the co2 bottle looks like something you could use in a BB gun
 
While the rest of the world has been increasing lighting, I have been reducing. Never one to follow the crowd. Does show however how misunderstood the lighting issue is because of this darned useless WPG rule ;)

People should just go with what they've got, learn how to get plants growing, learn about nutrients and CO2 only when they've got it right with stock lighting make the choice of increasing and by how much.

This is the failing of many. Someone says you need 3WPG so they buy it. In effect they have 6WPG by the dodgy WPG rule because its so outdated and then they come onto forums and ask why. lol

Research in anything is always best done first. This saves money, frustration and increases the sense of achievement because the end result can be achieved with much less hassle and much quicker etc.

When Aaron and I started (Not too long ago) the hobby in the UK was still in it's infancy and littered with the 'old school' beliefs of excess nutrients cause algae etc. So we all spiralled through the problems researching afterwards.

As a guess I have probs spent £2k over the last 2 years on getting my 125ltr right!!!!. Without the mistakes and trying to scrimp etc I could buy this setup and have it running perfectly for £600ish.

Research guys before you spend your money. Means less mistakes down the line and will save you lots of money!!!

:good:

Ac
 

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