Need help new and the Plant World

[Jwt]

I have a 55 gallon aquarium with an array adjust standard fish and I bought two nice Bunches of Amazon swords I have a marine might on one side and I'm going to buy another light for the other side and I just bought a CO2 setup how long do you run the CO2 do you run it all day long while the light is on will that harm my fish because I did that today and they all kind of acted sluggish so I cut it off I didn't have my AirStone running but I had both of my hang on the back filter is going am I doing something wrong

[Struggle]

Hi Jwt, I don’t run CO2 on any of my aquariums so I’m no help there. Most of my plants are crypts and swords with some buce and moss thrown in. I’d suggest putting two or threes root tabs in the substrate around each of your heavy root feeders which the swords are.

[Lizzie Block]

^ A great idea especially if adding CO2.

The idea is to run the CO2 during the day when lights are on since that's when the plants will be photosynthesizing and using the CO2 to grow. That said, it creates a big change in water chemistry and that might have been a bit shocking to your fish. The CO2 dissolving in the water forms carbonic acid, making the water more acidic. In addition to simply adding more CO2 gas which even to people can be dangerous in large amounts. If I were introducing CO2 to an established aquarium, I would probably do it over the course of a week or couple weeks. Like increase the time the CO2 is running each day little by little until the fish are used to it running for a full 8 hours every day. Even if that wasn't what was making your fish sluggish, that's still how I would do it haha. 

Running the air stone over night wouldn't be a  bad idea either. 

[KBOzzie59]

Here's how I setup CO2 on a tank (YMMV).

I  do not use bubble counters so I'm no help there.  

I get a very small amount (very few) of bubbles coming out of the diffuser for day 1.  On day 2 a very slight increase in bubbles at the diffuser, halfway through your light cycle look for pearling, if none then check again just before lights off.  If no pearling at the end of day 2 then repeat the day 2 sequence consecutively until you see pearling.  Once you see pearling you can decide to increase or decrease (slightly).  I like to run mine with the plants showing very minimal pearling.

Since this is your first setup it might be a good idea to check your CO2 levels.  This is not my page but a good read.  https://www.tankarium.com/co2-in-aquarium/

Tomorrow I will grab a little video of the bubbles coming out of my diffuser.  

The tiny bubbles in this video is pearling.  The larger bubbles on the left are from an air stone under a large bag ceramic bio-rings.  This was the last 3 hours of my light cycle.

 

Edited September 25, 2020 by KBOzzie59
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