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So here it is again, perhaps it is just a coincidence the AR mini is also reaching in the same direction as the natural light too lol If the natural/ambient light on a tank is strong enough to cause plants to reach for it I think it impossible to not factor it in as a light source and adjust...

This is early this morning, it's quite overcast today so let's see how it changes....

Why do you run co2 24/7? What do you think the benefits are and would happen if you didn't?

Good indicators for the affect of natural/ambient light then

For the last few days I have timed my co2 to the ambient/natural light, in my mind if the plants are receiving enough light for photosynthesis then I should have the co2 timed to match it. No proven mechanics behind it just my own theory which happens to be totally different to the given...

Not sure how viable the difference is but I'll post another in the morning to show the affect of natural/ambient lighting. This is only a 3" cutting though.

Awesome you have made sense of my theory lol

Lets work with an example of my theory based on summer time, So lets say a room gets enough ambient light to "wake up the tank" from say 6am until say 10pm, 16hrs total Then the tank light is run from say 4pm until 10pm, 6hrs Co2 run from 2pm to 9pm, 7hrs If the tank is awake and plants...

How long was your lighting period? Great tank

Anyone that has their lights and co2 synced to say 5pm for example is potentially neglecting the need for co2 from when the tank wakes up, in my case 8am ish but will differ from room to room of course.

The only benefit I can see of running 24/7 is having that added co2 when the tank wakes up which is where I feel the standard 2hrs before lights on ignored, there is no benefit of co2 over night so it can only be that the potentially ignored time is then covered.

I did a brief ph profile and checked it against the ph/co2 chart which came back as off the scale lol Through trial and error I have the co2 as high as I can without the fish gasping at the surface so know I'm at my max level for it, distribution is in my mind great and diffusion is inline...

Literally, I have been as sure as I can be that I'm doing everything as I should in the tank with co2 etc etc but nothing was getting any better with algae, yet the plants all grow like mad even buces were sprouting shoots all over the place.

I'm not great at explaining my trail of thought in ways others may understand lol But yes, no house is pitch black all day so the tank will get some form of ambient lighting be it natural or artificial. It was looking into blacking out the tank that started this trail of thought and got me to...

I planted this cutting of Rotala rotundifolia 'Orange Juice' last night, it's been reaching for the natural light all day. By 5pm ish it will be upright again as my light comes on at 3pn, on my previous schedule the co2 would have come on at 1pm but as of yesterday it's 7am.

But when "lights on" is accounted for it's purely aquarium lights.... I work from home a lot and have been able to spend hours looking at the tank with "lights off" and see just how everything reacts to natural light/ambient room lighting. Unfortunately it's taken weeks for something to click...

The 2hr rule to get to optimum levels still applies as good practice just not linked to the tank light but the external source in my mind.

From Rotala to AR mini they all reached for the natural light, if the daylight was the sole lighting say 9hrs ish now and no co2 was used then algae would be a nightmare so it makes sense that my 5hrs without co2 would cause algae too.

It could well have been your post I saw about basing it on the plants, I thought it was one of Clives. Which ever it was it definitely filled in the missing piece to my thoughts.

I don't think that light is an issue at all if the co2 is run correctly to match it as is said by those far more experienced, the fact that some super high light tanks are pretty spotless shows that. In my case I am sure my algae issues were down to a lack of co2 for the lighting which is the...

I think these days with the majority of homes being "light and airy" the general rules don't apply anymore, especially with so many homes now using led bulbs etc. I have the lights and co2 on timers but directed all of my trouble shooting at the tank, the distribution and circulation when...

So this is my tank in natural light, yeah it is a lot but for one reason or another having the co2 on before the 2hrs before my lights come on just went straight over my head. The plants would all reach over to the light and purely based on the 2hr rule it didn't even cross my mind that I...

What I'm saying is that to perhaps most people there is a misconception that 2hrs before lights on is purely the tank light, not factoring in natural or room lighting. Unless you live in a cave the tank will get some form of natural or ambient room light, would it not be better to base the co2...

Example, Q. When should I run my co2 from? A. 2hrs before lights come on. That is pretty much all that is seen everywhere and I'm sure the reason a lot of people like myself have been running into algae issues that are simply caused by following that 2hr rule blindly.

I'm meaning in more simple terms of the standard "2hrs before lights on", if the lights come on at 6pm then by the 2hr rule the co2 would be at 4pm blindly. As I say I'm totally new to co2 and just took the 2hr rule for what it is rather than factoring in anything else including natural light...

Anytime someone asks when the co2 should come on either on forums or facebook etc the answer is pretty much generic at 2hrs before lights on, everything you read about it in Google also says the same. Being totally new I followed that blindly as I'm sure everyone does, the thought of the...

I'm running approx 3bps on 60L, tried approx 4 and it gassed the fish so brought it back down.

From what I've read a higher kh leads to a more stable ph, would it be worth going to 50/50 RO and tap to reduce it to potentially 5 or does the risk of an unstable ph negate that?

Yeah I know test kits are not exactly reliable but thought I would see how the results measured up, I've tweaked the co2 to the point of gassing the fish and reduced it to a point they are happy enough at so know I'm at the tank limit for it.

Going off my API kh test results of 10 and ph of 6.4 with the Co2 table I'm getting a result of 119.4ppm co2... How can that be right with Tetras and shrimp living happily in the tank.....

Thanks Ceg you have certainly cleared everything up for me and hopefully I'll be able to put everything into practice now.

Your post linked there gives an excellent explanation! One more light question.... if you have 20/30ppm co2 with excellent distribution are there really any actual "high" light plants? HC Cuba for example, am I now right in thinking that because generally carpeting plants go hand in hand with...

Going back to what Ceg said about the reaching, it does totally make sense now. Looking at this stem I can see a difference of growth pattern within a couple of days from an increase in co2 and decrease in light intensity. Less light but more co2 and the shoots are forming much closer together.

I get the impression never letting them break surface would be best, a bit like us coming up for a gulp of air then being forced to live under water knowing how much better it is above. If by some way the plant can distinguish which it would rather live in then it would choose emersed and drop...

Based on this would it then be better to judge co2 efficiency by how dense stems grow and totally forget the theory they are leggy due to lack of light? I always assumed it was high lighting that kept them dense, could the same conclusion also be applied to carpeting plants?

I was just thinking that as they are likely to die off anyway....

Thanks for the lengthy reply, I haven't got a proper ph profile yet. I will be ordering a ph pen in a few days to be able to do it as I now see it's pretty essential. Good to know the water changes make no difference, I was a bit confused on that one. Being fairly confident of the co2...

So as I can't dim the aquasky as standard I've taped over some of the led's, it's made quite a difference to the intensity!

It has crossed my mind that the light is too intense, ADA aquasky 601 and I'm looking into dimming it. When increasing the co2 today I do think I may have been a bit short of 2bps but am now confident I'm at about 4bps after numerous timed counts lol It's not new as such, I initially flooded...

This algae has developed over the last 9 days since planting, as you can see in the video the flow and distribution of the co2 seems to be fine from my opinion ( perhaps I'm wrong? ) "IF" the co2 is fine could it just be down to light intensity and amount (7hrs)? I've left this algae there...

Hey guys, I've been doing a fair bit of reading about co2 and algae recently but have started to get slightly confused.... From what I understand algae in a co2 tank is mostly due to lighting, circulation or fluctuating co2 levels. I also understand that big frequent water changes are...

Lots of great info in this thread, very good to read.

It did as you say empty the water on testing before I secured it upright

I ordered one of the linked FE and so far so good, reading 50 bar internal and flowing fine.

Great thanks, I just wanted to check before I connected it all. Ready to roll

Hello guys, I've noticed the placement of the inline diffuser varies, I have also learned that the longer contact time the co2 has the better. Is there any reason not to connect it on the in feed to the filter? I have read about build up in the filter, is that a problem? Any risks aside from...

Bubble counter and diffuser, I'll be using an internal diffuser for the first couple of weeks as I want the visual indicator of changes when getting the supply right etc before going to an inline.

Hey guys, Bit of a simple one here, what hose do you use to connect your glassware? I know obviously co2 hose but which.... I've got some high pressure hose and it just doesn't seem right, it's stiff as old boots..... Am I right that the high pressure hose is used from FE to bubble counter...

Ordered one of these, Absoloute bargain

I ordered everything for my first co2 set up yesterday and decided on this dual regulator on the assumption it will fit a FE based on the din477 fitting. Looks a good one for the price I think, with something potentially dangerous like co2 and a FE I wouldn't really look at cutting corners on...

Interesting thread this one, some great and very useful knowledge.

Going for such a low tech carpet I figured to go all out with a gas system would be overkill and dosing liquid carbon and ferts would just be easier. The only thing is I don't know much about either so don't know just how much of a difference in affect there could be between them.

With say 75l of water how much difference will there be between using gas or liquid co2? The main plant will be marsilea hirsuta so not a desperate need for co2.

Is it good or bad that the micro bubbles are causing a film on the surface of the tank?I guess it is down to lack of surface agitation but is it a problem?

Cheers, got to get myself a drop checker now in the next couple of days to find out how it is going.

Ahha cheers mate, that will be used in the other tank now as only have the one spare power head that I am now using instead, the bubbles where getting better with time and guess by tomorrow it would of been doing it properly :thumbup:

I have decided to try this instead of the ladder and see how it goes instead, I have an old rena power head that I have the air line under so the co2 bubbles up directly into it and the PH then destroys the bubbles creating millions of tiny bubbles and spits them around the tank. Is that any...

Hmm interesting thanks, may give that a go when I need to change bottles.

Yeah all seems clear, at the moment the bubbles are popping out of the pipe and just sitting under the bottom rung building up until enough has built up then just one big bubble that has built up goes up. First time with diy co2 so not a clue if this is normal or not lol Just know the bubbles...

Made the mix up with 2 cups of sugar and 1tsp of yeast and filled a 2L coke bottle with warm water up to where the bottle neck forms. Is has been about an hour I guess and it is just building a big bubble in the bottom of the ladder and not sending up the small bubbles as it should/will. How...

Right got everything and the time to set it up to give it a go, anyone want to tell me how much of what they use for 50L ish? :thumbup:

Sold on ebay item number:260794496171 Looks great to me just wondering what the quality and longevity of it is like?

Thought it would be easier to just ask for a recipe that someone uses on a 50L with good results than trying to get it right and not lol so anyone with diy on a 50L ish tank getting good results please share your recipe if you don't mind :thumbup: Will be using a 2L coke bottle :thumbup:

:thumbup: Thanks guys

Ok cheers, was not sure if I would need a double regulator or not or could just split the tubing with a T and just stick a needle valve on each.

Has anyone does this and how would you recommend the amount be regulated for each tank as different sizes and amounts needed? Really thinking about getting into Co2 now and if I do it will be at least a 2kg FE set up so could run it on both tanks and possibly the third I have in mind :thumbup:

Cheers, think I will stick to a FE if I decide to use Co2 on the main tank.

How does using this stuff compare with DIY Co2 and FE Co2?

LOL, I am new to planted tanks...... I thought you where talking about melted dry ice or something like that. That thread is interesting but do not think I fancy melting my lungs for a few plants lol

Do you actually mean liquid Co2? Will it not just turn to dry ice as soon as it hits the air?

Ebay item number 180358932765 You will need a needle valve also 250786299838 Also a couple of NRV 251038392048 I have a complete shopping list for a 2kg FE DIY Co2 that comes in just under £100 if you want it, all items recommended to me and on Ebay. And for running two tanks that are the...