[Wallywonka]

OK so I posted a question about algae and the lovely forum members helped me realize that if I am growing algae.. i am not effectively growing plants to the best of ability... so I am going to post my tank management so far and I am sure i am doing alot wrong .. here we goooooo!!

CO2- pressurized: running about 1 bubble a second..

Lighting ( i am going to get trashed for the light bulb i am currently using): I have a coralite dual lighting setup. two 96W PC bulbs --- the are 10K
Lighing runs from 8am to 4pm
Since I bought the fixture used.. i have not legs for the fixture. so it sits directly on the sides of the tank.. so depending on the water level in the tank.. the fixture is pretty close to the water..

Substrate - Flourite

Water changes - weekly 25 %

____________________________________________

what do i need to change to get rid of algae .. make sure my current plants are growing .. and will be able to grow future plants

 

[jaidexl]

Tank size?

Plant mass and species?

Fauna?

Fertilizer?

Nobody can help you without that much at least.

 

[jaidexl]

And method of co2 diffusion. Are you using a drop checker to verify your bubble rate? I highly doubt 1bps is enough for all that light.

 

[Wallywonka]

60 gallon tank.... the bubble counter had a drop checker built into it.. i think...

as for diffusion..after much research i went ahead and went with the route of inserting the co2 tube dirently into the intake feed of my canister filter.

 

[willknowitall]

the bubble counter would have a check valve, a drop checker is for measuring co2
find a better way to diffuse co2 like a reactor or a inline diffuser like a up co2 difuser
if you dont have a drop checker or at least test kh and ph you in the dark about how much co2 you are diffusing

 

[Wallywonka]

What is wrong with my current method diffusion? I heard it a good option with the need to buy extra equippment

 

[jaidexl]

Ok good, I had exactly that amount of pc over a 65. It's intense so you most certainly should have a drop checker for measurement. 30+ ppm co2 is required. Constant dosing of macros and micros should be required as well, look into Estimative Index or PPS Pro dosing. Plant mass should be heavy quantities of fast growers like stem plants and rosettes. No matter how you diffuse, the drop checker will tell you where your bubble rate should be, your method of diffusion can work well or not so well, just different factors in some situations. Reactors and ceramic duffusers are efficient and generally more popular.

 

[jaidexl]

Alternatively you could cut one bulb off and you may see an improvement with the algae problems. Depends on if you want a low/med tech tank or high tech. To run all your light it will pretty much require high tech husbandry to be successful.

 

[Wallywonka]

Ok translate some of this into newbie language ....30 ppm is how many bubbles per second?

And what exactly am I dosing? Macros? Micros? Helppppppppp

 

[willknowitall]

if its working for you then thats great
lots of people myself include have found that
it can be noisy (canister impeller nocking)
and burping (co2 bubble that just escape to surface)out of the outflow
if thats not happening then great
perhaps if you up-ed you bubble count then the problems with that method would become more noticeable

 

[jaidexl]

What is wrong with my current method diffusion? I heard it a good option with the need to buy extra equippment

It can work, it can also fail and even cause problems with equipment. A drop checker will tell you if its working, if you need more than 3 or 4 bps to get past 30ppm then there is a better way.

Edited typo

 

[jaidexl]

Ok translate some of this into newbie language ....30 ppm is how many bubbles per second?

And what exactly am I dosing? Macros? Micros? Helppppppppp

PPM is measured visually with a drop checker, a bubble counter is merely a visual reference for needle valve adjustment that tells you nothing about ppm, you don't even need to know bps. For micros and macros read the fertilizer forum.

 

[willknowitall]

Ok translate some of this into newbie language ....30 ppm is how many bubbles per second?

And what exactly am I dosing? Macros? Micros? Helppppppppp

30 ppm parts per million
macros nitrogen , phosphate potassium
micros boron zinc, etc tiny amounts of trace element that are needed by plants , usually available in a powder or solution

 

[jaidexl]

The best thing a bubble counter can do for you is tell you if you're wasting co2. If you have to keep cranking it up and up to get the drop checker to turn green then you know you have a diffusion issue. Since our needle valves usually have unmarked knobs, we use a bubble counter to tell us how far open the needle valve is, or how much gas is entering the diffuser, whichever way you want to look at it. A bubble counter is to needle valve as numbers are to volume knob on stereo.

 

[jaidexl]

I don't know why we don't change the name of the drop checker. It makes no sense, and desiphering it from a bubble counter seems to be a common hurdle for newcomers reading forums. Especially when you get into the acronyms... DC / BC

 

[willknowitall]

I don't know why we don't change the name of the drop checker. It makes no sense, and desiphering it from a bubble counter seems to be a common hurdle for newcomers reading forums. Especially when you get into the acronyms... DC / BC

because we drop the bubble in the the tank to check it
and we check the counter for bubbles

 

[Sharkfood]

1 bps sounds really low for a 60 gallon tank.

I agree that a drop checker is probably the best way to comfortably adjust your CO2 levels when starting out. Put the drop checker somewhere in the tank (not right next to the CO2 outlet) and increase until the checker turns green. Afterwards you can slowly increase CO2 watching the fish to make sure they are ok (adjust over several days or weeks).

I don't know of any way to test CO2 in the water very accurately. The drop checker is probably the best option for most of us. I'm sure there are ultra-expensive, lab grade devices out there, but they are not something I am familiar with.

 

[jaidexl]

Rofl... it should be color checker, and the BC should be volume knob. :tongue:

because we drop the bubble in the the tank to check it
and we check the counter for bubbles