Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => Fish Tank Plant Advice => Topic started by: Mervyn on April 17, 2013, 12:53:05 PM
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Hi,
Please find attached a rough guide to my tank and pumps/flow.
Tank has about 160 Litres in it.
I must be doing something wrong. I am injecting 4 bubbles per second.
I was starting my CO2 2hrs before lights on. When the lights go on the drop checker is showing blue..not a dark blue, but blue all the same, after the 2 hours of CO2.
Now, I thought that when the lights come on, the water would be fully loaded with CO2, but no. Then 2 hours after the lights come, on the drop checker reaches green, and then by about 2 hrs before lights off the drop checker reaches a lime green.
Today I thought I would try something different. I had the CO2 come on 2 3/4 hours before lights on and.......... the drop checker was still blue. :o I have just checked my drop checker ( 3/4hr after lights on) and it is turning green so there is an improvement but I am still unsure what is happening.
Having the CO2 switched on for 3 1/2hrs until I see a change seems a bit excessive. It means I have 9 3/4 hrs of CO2 for 8 hrs of light.
As far as I can see I have very good flow everywhere with all plants showing movement. I don't see pearling either.
I also have algae returning. When I do a bit of research I just keep getting differing opinions and answers.
One of my main niggles is that I keep reading that lack of or fluctuating CO2 is the main cause of algae problems.
I cannot increase the CO2 any more as the fish will hang near the surface. I have an Eheim Pro 3 at 950 lph, one small submersible at 200 lph and a New Wave circulation pump running at 1600 lph and I have a good flow using these. So am now at a loss as to what to do.
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Hi Mervyn,
I am leaving this forum for at least the nearest future, so a couple of things (especially so that nobody else had anything to say). So, the last post: not getting into the details of your water flow, please, remember, that pearling of plants is not an AIM but a nice ADDITION. Some plants pearl more readily, some hardly ever do this. Pearling is not the aim of the CO2 injection. With your rainbows you cannot go too low with the PH (as you discovered). The rainbows are sooo magnificent fish that not seeing your plants pearling is a very little sacrifice, to my opinion. Also, keeping the drop checker a certain colour should not be your absolute and ultimate aim. You aim is – healthy plants, not much of algae (a little bit of algae is expected and is natural for the balance of the tank) and healthy and happy fish – that’s it. Stop bothering yourself by achieving “goals” like pearling. “If it ant’t broke, don’t fix it”.
All the best.