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Liquid carbon

lurcher

Member
Joined
6 Apr 2018
Messages
147
Location
Lincolnshire
Hello,help please,I have a 255 litres tank,l39xh26xw16. Heavily planted with java fern and hygrophila,lighting 2x 45w t 5s lighting 6hours per day. Dosing 5ml tnc complete daily. Plus 5ml easy carbo daily. Everything is doing good ,healthy plants. I want to stop the easy carbo, I don’t want liquid co2,if possible in my tank ,or any form of added co2. If I stop using will my fish, plants suffer? And my tank be plagued with algae .any advise greatly received by those who have more understanding than I do.thank you.
 
And my tank be plagued with algae
With 2 x 45W T5 and non CO2 and no EI dosing and non monster filter, uncontrollable algae is 100% guaranteed. That is a lot of light. Plants are suffering due to too much light for your insufficient CO2 and fertiliser levels, dying off and leaching organics into the water that feeds the algae.

You haven't told us what your filter and flow rate is, not that it is that important for non CO2 tank.

First thing to do, if you are not going to use CO2 or liquid carbon is reduce lighting intensity and lighting duration to "slow the tank" down.

Try running with just one tube, if not put foil rings around the tubes to block say 1/2 -> 2/3rd the light and reduce lighting period, to start with to say 4 hours a day.

Remove as much algae as possible on hardscape, wood, trim and algae infested plants to get as much algae out as possible. Liquid carbon is an excellent algae killer, squirt it onto plants, hardscape in the tank to kill any unsightly algae. Careful excessing liquid CO2 can melt plants.
 
Thanks Ian,but I think I didn’t explain very well,I dont have algae,the tank is lovely,what I was asking was, if I stop the 5ml easy carbo daily will I start to get algae.its a deep tank,255litres and I didn’t think that 2x45w t5s on six hours a day was excessive for a tank this size.i do 25%water changes weekly.i just don’t like the idea of the chemicals used in liquid carbon.
 
If everything looks good now, I'd taper off the liquid carbon over a couple of weeks and monitor things. If you start to see any problems you can try reducing the lights a bit to counter balance.
 
If you stop adding liquid carbon you may or may not get algae, I don't know enough about your tank, but I would hedge a bet in yes you will more than likely get algae, though could be temporary.
  • As you are no longer providing carbon to the plants they will die off as no longer being fed what they are used to, thus leaching organics into the water, feeding algae.
  • Liquid carbon generally act as slight algaecide and does prevent algae getting a foothold in you tank.
  • Personally I think your light levels are high.
If you are reducing/not using liquid carbon, where will the plants get their carbon source from ?

CO2 from air and rotting fish poo is quite low level and slow carbon source and will certainly need less light than 2 x 45W.

My mate ran a single 35W over 120litres and even that produced algae, until he blocked some of the light off.

Use this graph to approximate the light levels in your tank. As you see two T5HO tubes on a typically 20" deep tank is approx 120 par which is well and truly a high light tank.
parforvariousbulbs-jpg.jpg

If you wish to not use liquid carbon or CO2 or extra ferts then you really need to be in the low light region.
 
Ive done this many times and only had success when I still dose liquid carbon with a water change. My belief is that this is a period of heavy change in co2 levels in the tank and the algecide properties of liquid carbon are crucial at this stage to inhibit algae taking advantage of this and getting a foot hold.

Also you may find this link interesting which was sent to me recently by Juris in a discussion over liquid carbon use...
https://www.jbl.de/?lang=en&mod=blog&func=detail&id=123
 
Fish load can also contribute significantly to aquarium CO2 - what livestock do you have in tank?

I suspect you can slowly remove the Liquid Carbon, then just use intermittently if you observe visible algae

Algae crew?
- shrimp, Otocinclus, snails etc can help keep algae under control

I’d not change lighting significantly unless you observe issues
My experience with lighting on taller tanks has made me somewhat sceptical of that lighting diagram - it also makes no mention of the effect of tank width, eg, 2 x T5 (note that not all T5 are HO) on a 30cm wide tank is not the same as those 2 x T5 on a 45cm wide tank
 
only had success when I still dose liquid carbon with a water change. My belief is that this is a period of heavy change in co2 levels in the tank and the algecide properties of liquid carbon are crucial at this stage to inhibit algae taking advantage of this and getting a foot hold.

Have found doing water changes at the very end of the photoperiod can help, or even after lights out. This supposes that tap water is being used that contains a lot of dissolved Co2, but outside the photoperiod the fluctuation in Co2 becomes negligible.
 
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