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Adding gas to low tech tank?

Interested to know why.
Main reason is low light with co2 is a really poor balance! I've been there and done that and got very bad BBA and other forms of algae. You have to have the right balance.

So with low light you would be injecting co2 which in turn would leave excess co2 as the plants wouldn't gain the best photosynthesis in the light period! Having high light helps with that! I would never recommend having low light with co2

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Hi kezzab

Put a pic up of your tank so i can get an idea of what you have pls.
Adding co2 wont cause too many issues tbh if you have subtrate and plenty of plants. If you are only adding a bit then keep to the basics. Light period 6-8hrs max, dose a few ferts every week. What co2 system are you planning on setting up?



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This is it. It's going quite well, so there's a bit of if it ain't broke don't fix it
WP_20170923_23_02_16_Pro.jpg
 
I cant see much wrong in there but your water looks a bit off colour unless its the pic. What subtrate do you have in there? Looks like tropica capped with sand maybe. If it is, were the sagitaria is on the left it looks a little thin so could be subtrate leeching. Tropica plant sub does that when its not capped enough. So if you had a cory digging...as they do, he could have released a load of sub. Signs are- a cloud from were its disturbed, milky off coloured water, all the above followed by algae blooms. Tropica is packed with nutrients etc, clay based but has to be capped with at least an inch of sand or fine gravel or it leeches out.

Looks good though kezzab

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Main reason is low light with co2 is a really poor balance! I've been there and done that and got very bad BBA and other forms of algae. You have to have the right balance.

So with low light you would be injecting co2 which in turn would leave excess co2 as the plants wouldn't gain the best photosynthesis in the light period! Having high light helps with that! I would never recommend having low light with co2
Sorry, but this isn't even remotely true. In fact it is so far from the truth it might even be considered absurd.
it's exactly because of this kind of thinking that we are in so much trouble.

High light with low CO2 is problematic, but high CO2 with low light is never a problem.

Most tanks would be in much better shape if indeed they were using low light with high CO2.

Cheers,
 
I guess, about now, you must feel like Alice, tumbling down a rabbit hole?
Take the red pill and I'll show you how deep the rabbit hole goes...

Researchers at Tropica discovered that the more CO2 a plant receives, the less light it needs because it's light usage efficiency increases.
Adding CO2 actually enables us to use less light than in a non-CO2 low tech tank.
Typically, a submerged plant needs to dedicate a lot of energy and much of it's resources gathering and processing CO2. RuBiSCO, the CO2 gathering protein, is horrendously expensive, so when there is low CO2 the plant has to manufacture more of this Protein in order to raise it's CO2 gathering ability.
When CO2 is in abundance those resources can be released and diverted instead to light gathering mechanisms.


Cheers,
 
Thanks for the responses. The water colour is a combination of camera phone and the light which casts a slightly odd hue, its crystal clear to the eye.

The substrate is straight soil, capped with locally collected lake gravel.

I may give it a try. some of my plants are doing well - tenellus, moss, anubias, ferns. Bolbitis is doing ok too. But my crypts are poor, weak and limited growth, and a.crispus also very small tatty growth. I have an echinodorus green leopard that hasnt grown past 20cm in 6 months.
 
I've got a bit bored. Thinking about adding gas to my low tech tank - I have a spare set up.

Not going to change the lighting, and not chasing 30ppm - just adding a 'a bit'.

Aim, as always is to improve growth.

What's going to go wrong?


I started injecting co2 to my low tech a few weeks ago about 20ppm I think.. plants have defiantly improved but i also increased the light a tad and flow. I have a bit more algae but hoping this will go as i gain more plant mass. Plants are now pearling for the first time, my dwarf sag is finally now sending out runners. some of my stems were on their last legs with only a few stunted leave but now have new growth. Hopefully now I will have more success growing stems.
 
Yes it happen, but the science doesn't fit your claims, there must of been something else causing the algea.
Experience is good backed up with science is excellent.
But experience backed up with it happen therefore I believe the reasons is ... Well it's just 'Bad Science' which leads to urban myths.


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View attachment 110565
Main reason is low light with co2 is a really poor balance! I've been there and done that and got very bad BBA and other forms of algae. You have to have the right balance.

So with low light you would be injecting co2 which in turn would leave excess co2 as the plants wouldn't gain the best photosynthesis in the light period! Having high light helps with that! I would never recommend having low light with co2

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Well it is always interesting to read other peoples advice, experiences & conclusions.
I don't doubt you gave what you consider an honest & helpful reply, but, I have run low light, high C02 tanks for nearly 40 years!
I have tried high light as well but for the first 20 years I used 2 x T8 now I use 2 x T5 but always high C02.
Of course my tanks are nothing amazing & I am not really a fish keeper, in fact I have not kept fish in my main tank for the last year.
I recently spent almost 3 months in New Zealand, I left my tank running 'home alone' with one T5 & two low watt LED household bulbs on for 7 hours a day.
I left the C02 running as usual & hoped my 5k cylinder would last. No water changes & no ferts for 11 weeks (the tank has a sump & auto top up) The tank looked a little pale & hungry but it was a jungle of untrimmed growth!
So yes low light, high C02 will work & it is even seems possible not to add ferts or do water changes for months at a time!
Not everything is in black & white & it is obvious that there are different approaches to planted tanks that deviate from scientifically proven methods.
 
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