Quote:
Originally Posted by Wö£fëñxXx
DIY C02 on a tank that size will likely cause you grief unless you lower the light intensity a bit more, the WPG rule is iffy on large tanks, so some specific specs may help a little more.
I doubt you will get diffusers to work well if at all with DIY C02.
You're intended dosing is a bit excess based on the tank specs listed.
You will need some Trace minerals, Plantex, Flourish Comprehensive or Tropica plant nutrition, I recommend the Plantex, it is cheap and just as effective as the others, save up for a pressurized C02 system.
Do you have any fauna?
Do you have a lot of plants?
Filtration? (very important)
Substrate?
Exactly what kind of light? bulbs? wattage? do you have.
Based on you're listed information I would recommend lowering light intensity a bit and use the DIY C02 and see how things go with a dose of 1Tsp K2S04 and 15ml trace once a week for starters.,
If you start to notice BBA forming (pay attention, it is hard to get rid of), stop DIY C02 and do a heavy water change and leave the light off for a couple days.
Need more info.
Go Pressurized or buy stock in Tylenol.  |
Thanks for your reply Wö£fëñxXx.
In regards to some of the information I missed in my first post:
Fauna: 7 adult Angelfish, 4 German Blue Rams, 12 black phantom tetras, 11 otos, 6 corydoras, 4 SAEs.
Plants: The current plants we have in the tank are Java Fern, Anubias nana, Cryptocoryne petchii, 2 medium and 1 large (the leaves of the large reach to within 3" of the top of the tank) Echinodorus "Rubin", and 1 VERY large (diameter of leaves approximately 3", with total length reaching to the very top of the 24" deep tank) Echinodorus 'Rose'. I have been noticing some of the leaves of the Echinodorus "Rubin" turning transparent, which I will assume is from lack of iron. I have been dosing liquid ferts in the past, but as I have just recently added a large number of crypts and will soon be adding even more plants, nutrients will definitely be lacking.
Filtration: Fluval FX5
Substrate: Unfortunately when I first started the tank, I did not plan on having as many plants as I do now, so the substrate consists of only regular plain gravel covered with an inch or so of white silica sand. I am currently using fertilizer tabs for my rooted plants. The only fertilizer other than the tabs I have been using is Flourish Excel.
Lights: 4x54w 48" T5s. They are drilled into my canopy (which is quite tall), and as a result are about 10" above the water line. I am only getting 1.6w/gal (probably less in reality, as I do not as yet have a reflector, and the lights hang a bit higher than usual).
Pressurized is too much for my current budget, so I wil be sticking with DIY for the immediate future
Thanks for your help!