CO2 - Tips and Tricks (Liquid, low tech, high tech)

[nabokovfan87]

Hey hey everyone,

I am going through a bit of an exercise on my tank and getting back into CO2 with my plants.  I wanted to ask for some tips and tricks that would be helpful for beginner, intermediate, or experienced hobbyists.  We have a ton of smart people on this forum and it would be extremely helpful to have a place to look through for some cool ideas.

First, I'll share one of mine!  One of my biggest concerns with CO2 and how I tend to run my tanks is that I focus on very high oxygenation and cooler temps.  It isn't easy, but it's something I focus on more than others.  I always would position airstones away from CO2 or move plants that need more CO2 a bit closer to where it is added to the tank.  With a bit of time and consideration, more research, I've come to the setup I have now. 

An hour before the lights go on, I have the Air pump hooked up to a kasa timer and it turns off. The CO2 turns on at that point.
An hour before the lights go off, CO2 turns off.
After lights go off, the air pump comes back on.

Another one, liquid carbon, I just want to mention that some species (shrimp also) can be sensitive if you're dosing this a lot.  It's typically safe with my amanos every once in a while when I have a slight issue, but daily or bi-weekly dosing, they did show some signs of stress after a few weeks.  Just something to keep in mind whenever you use those products.  It can be one of those things that builds up over time in your tank and causes some irritation for some types of fish and invertebrates.

I have also tried to run a planted tank by taking the available air and just adding a ton of airstones, but for high demand plants it's wasn't a great method in my experience.  Even in a room where there is a lot of CO2 in the air compared to "fresh air" it wasn't enough for high demand plants.  It would be cool to see some oxygenation tests with a few methods! (Cory was doing some, but I don't remember the results 😞 )

What tips and tricks do you have? What are some things you've done over the years to make using CO2 easier?

Edited July 28, 2022 by nabokovfan87
typo

[Jack.of.all.aquariums]

With larger tanks (40 gal+) C02 reactors become more and more useful. Cerges reactors are my preferred. I struggled for a long time to get co2 levels up in my 125 gallon. I was running multiple diffusers and wasn't get anywhere close to the levels I wanted. Built a cerges reactor and got to turn my co2 way down and while also getting higher co2 levels since no co2 was able to escape.

[BuzzDaddy21]

On 7/28/2022 at 3:48 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

position airstones away from CO2 or move plants that need more CO2 a bit closer

Here is a silly question but I would think a high lumen light or lights could work??  I`m not into lots of different plants (I might have 3) but I would try high lighting because I think that would work.

[Brandon p]

I like to have some water movement so the CO2 is mixed through the tank I have the power head in the 20 gal and wave maker lower to the bottom and it does the same thing I don’t think liquid carbon does much as far available CO2 for the plants. It will fix iron well and the iron often makes people think it’s the Carbon. It’s really that the iron greens most plants up. The formulation of the carbon makes a difference. The seachem is different that easy carbon for the coop is recommended for algae control. The 2 are made different. I have never had issues with easy carbon and shrimp but seachem and another brand I did. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/30/2022 at 5:35 AM, BuzzDaddy21 said:

Here is a silly question but I would think a high lumen light or lights could work??  I`m not into lots of different plants (I might have 3) but I would try high lighting because I think that would work.

I switched on my tank from a 24" light on 80-90% to a higher power version of the light that is 36" long.  Ultimately it's 33% more LEDs and covers the tank a lot better.  The plants did respond better, but so did the algae 😞 .  I have it right now down to about 45-55% and I am still trying to outcompete the algae.  I had to add some salt, plants died off, but needless to say the higher light demand plants had everything they needed and still weren't really growing all that well.  It's a fickle mess.  If you want to check it out, we can look / discuss it in my journal with all the photos and stuff.

[nabokovfan87]

One tip to mention also, especially for new CO2 setups....

Always check your CO2 daily, for the first few days. It's going to equalize and pressures will slightly shift. Your bubble counter might change and you might miss that your bubble rate changed ever so slightly.  This could lead to you using too much CO2 or too little CO2 and either case is a waste!